Three Different Cyber-security Threats
As technology advances and becomes more sophisticated so do the threats and attacks. We will give, from a very high-level view, three areas where attacks can come from. The goal is to better prepare your business from the damaging effects of cyber-security attacks that can have massive cost implications, loss of critical data and delay or in some cases a complete shutdown of business function.
1. People: You and your staff are the number one threat to cyber-security. More often than not a ransomware or malware attack comes from an internal employee responding or clicking on a link that they shouldn’t be. Hackers and spammers are becoming more sophisticated and can mimic business relationships and fool the best in security filters. Your people are the first and last line of defence to help protect your network. It all comes down to training. Effective training will help educate your staff and protect your network.
2. Equipment: Theft of data can be as simple as a USB device being plugged into a workstation. If your back up strategy only consists of local hard drives that are not secured you are at risk of losing your company's data. Theft doesn’t just happen from disgruntled or untrustworthy employees. Social engineering from individuals outside the company can put your network at risk. A strong policy and a secure perimeter are necessary to prevent cyber-security threats to your environment. At AbleIT our data and infrastructure are backed up on the cloud, decreasing our cyber-security threat from theft, damage or crypto-lockouts.
3. Software: People locking you out of your network and holding your data ransom typically come from ransomware or malware delivered through a spam email known as a phishing attack or spear-phishing attack. As quickly as the industry changes so do the type and kinds of ransomware and malware. Spam filters need to be updated; email security needs to be calibrated regularly and of course, corporate-grade programs should be used and need to be current. A good spam filter will be cloud-based, holding a spam email on a cloud environment vs. your local machine. A cloud-based filter will greatly reduce your risk of a ransomware or malware attack by holding it away from your corporate data.