7 of the Most Dangerous Cyberatta...

When it comes to cybersecurity, there are several critical hazards that can devastate your network. It doesn’t matter if you own a small startup company or run a corporate empire, you need to take proactive measures to protect your company from these threats. In this blog, we’re going to discuss what makes these risks so dangerous and how you can prevent them from infecting your system.

Cybersecurity’s Most Dangerous Threats

Disaster is inevitable, especially with the rising importance of internet use. While the internet is a valuable network of information, it can quickly transform into a dangerous battlefield. Cyber disasters can strike from nearly any angle at any point in time. If you find yourself in a cross-fire of cyber dangers, then you may be at risk of losing some of your most valuable assets including passwords, business plans, financial information, and any other form of sensitive data.

In order to keep your network unscathed, it’s important to educate yourself on these critical cyber hazards:

Denial-of-Service (DOS)

Did you know that your website has certain capacity limits? While it’s important to generate a lot of traffic to your site, there is such a thing as too much traffic. If there are too many visitors entering the same webpage simultaneously, the site can get overwhelmed and be forced to shut down abruptly. Most of the time, these issues will stem from denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. 

DoS attacks are when a hacker sends several requests to a target server. The influx of illegitimate requests forces the server to process and try to authenticate the requestor, overwhelming the system. As a result, this blocks users from making service requests online.

Another version of this kind of attack is the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. While the goal is the same, the attack is done slightly differently. Instead of the hacker sending fraudulent requests from their system, they instead get the help of multiple malware-infected devices to spam requests.

Phishing

What would you do if you got a random email from the CEO of your company? Chances are that you’d probably open it with a sense of panic, confusion, and urgency. That’s the intent of phishing scams. In this type of social engineering attack, hackers pose as high-authority figures or trustworthy businesses in order to reel in vulnerable users. 

If you get a suspicious email from your boss, a financial institution, or some other entity, be careful when opening it. The scam may contain some type of manipulative call to action (CTA) asking you to click on a link or download a file. More than likely, these are just malware traps aimed at infecting your network. Up to 75% of organizations around the world experienced a phishing attack in 2020.

The best way to avoid phishing is to set up filters for your inbox that can automatically flag suspicious email. In some cases, these messages can make it past your filter, requiring you to do the hard work yourself. If you think a message is suspicious, ask your IT help desk to investigate. You can also look out for telltale signs like spelling mistakes in the address and text or CTAs to follow a link or download a file.

Man-in-the-Middle (MitM)

Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks occur when communication between two users is intercepted by an unauthorized third-party. When this type of cryptography takes place, attackers gain the ability to access information shared in what appears to be a private conversation. What makes matters worse is users are led to believe that the attacker is actually a trusted agent who is supposed to relay information to the right source. 

Instead, the “man-in-the-middle” is really just eavesdropping and collecting sensitive data that they deem valuable for their own personal gain. Once the hacker confiscates this information, chances are that it won’t ever reach the person on the other end of your conversation.

The unfortunate truth about MitM attacks is they’re difficult to detect. Unless you’re actively looking into your communications to see if anything was intercepted, a MitM attack can remain unnoticed until it’s too late. Setting up tamper protection software can help deter this type of attack.

Malware

Malware is an umbrella term that refers to all types of malicious software meant to hurt or exploit a computer system. Depending on the type of malware and what’s infected, a hacker can gain full control of your network. This means they have the power to take possession of your most confidential assets.

Here’s a list of some types of malware:

  • Ransomware
  • Trojan horse programs
  • Computer viruses
  • Spyware
  • Rootkits
  • Logic bombs
  • Worms
  • Droppers

Birthday Messages

This isn’t your annual “happy birthday” message from your grandparents. This is something dangerous with some of the most severe consequences. These manipulative algorithms are all over the web and appear as a result of a message digest (MD)—a defective hash function. Birthday message attacks appear in the form of questionnaires that are conducted by hackers. Victims are tricked into submitting important sets of data to the hacker, which gives them what they need to take control of your network.

Drive-By Attacks

Have you ever thought of how malware gets planted onto a website? It’s not the same way as a traditional malware attack. If your website is crawling with viruses, then chances are, you were hit by a drive-by attack. 

During drive-by attacks, hackers insert malicious scripts into the HTTP code on certain webpages. These scripts are malware traps that are instantly activated when visitors arrive on that particular page. Drive-by attacks can be triggered by practically any web-based activity, so in order to prevent them, you need to keep the number of plug-ins on your computer at a minimum.

Brute-Force Attacks

Passwords can be easily stolen with brute-force attacks, which refers to when hackers try guessing your password as many times as possible to take possession of it. This can be accomplished if your passwords are encrypted. In order to prevent outsiders from cracking into your network, it’s important that you use strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and an account lockout system.

Call CTMS To Mitigate the Risk of Emerging Threats

When it comes to cybersecurity, there’s no one better to have in your corner than Computer Technology Management Services. We’re here to ensure that your network is left unharmed from any and all cyberthreats. Schedule a free security evaluation with the CTMS team today.

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How To Tie Cybersecurity Into You...

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When creating a compound strategy for your business, cybersecurity and disaster recovery form the ultimate tag team.

Millions of cyber threats surround today’s digital landscape, and some are strong enough to keep your entire business out of commission for a long time. And what it comes to network security, you can never be too careful. Just because you have a firewall system and some antivirus software installed doesn’t mean that you will be safe. As technology evolves, cyber attacks intensify, which increases the likelihood of your network being invaded by a hacker. When this occurs, you could be endangered to lose any of your hard-earned valuables.

This won’t happen when you incorporate cybersecurity into your disaster recovery (DR) strategy, because when these two elements complement each other, you can expect:

  • An unscathed business
  • Technology that operates in peak form
  • A firm grasp on your most valuable data

This blog will show you how these two elements work together to create the perfect risk management solution.

Where Does Cybersecurity Fit In With My DR Plan?

Disaster recovery and cybersecurity form the best combination since peanut butter and jelly, especially when they are under the same service bundle. Simply put, cybersecurity streamlines all DR initiatives, making the road to business recovery so much easier. When this program is incorporated into your DR plan, you’ll have fewer data to restore, which enables you to rehabilitate your business back to a stable operating form.

In order to align both of these elements together, you’ll need to follow these three steps:

Define the Most Important Priorities

Data is the backbone for practically any business, regardless of its size or industry. With that said, it’s important to note that not all business data is created equal. This is why you need to shield each data set with a different level of protection. The key action during this phase of cybersecurity planning is prioritization. Identify which files are most sensitive and carry a higher overall value. In order to keep sensitive information out of harm’s reach, make sure that you are planning for the worst case scenario, keeping your passwords encrypted, and backing up critical files in offsite data centers.

Always meet with your managed service provider (MSP) before you put your cybersecurity strategy and DR plan into effect. This gives you the opportunity to construct the perfect protection program for your most important assets.

Plan Against Select Threats

While there are millions of hazards circulating around the web, it’s important to know that not every cyber threat bears the same amount of danger. Many cybersecurity risks carry various levels of strength. Even one data breach can hold enough power to take your entire business out of operation. Educate yourself on different types of cyber threats and develop specific defense strategies to help fend off as many cyber hazards as possible.

On the other side of things, make sure that your backup and recovery plan applies to each individual threat. You’ll want to especially plan for threats that carry ransomware and malware viruses.

Pave the Road to Recovery

It takes a lot of work to get your business back up and running following the impact of a disaster, whether it’s physical or virtual. To get your operation performing at normal speed, your disaster recovery plan needs to revolve around three critical activities:

  • Disaster containment
  • Threat eradication
  • Data restoration

The digital landscape is crawling with a variety of unique threats so you’re recovery strategy needs to be adaptable to each individual scenario. Make sure that your network is constantly monitored by an experienced cybersecurity specialist. This will help you identify existing vulnerabilities in your IT system so that you know what needs the most protection. From there, establish DR blueprint that is applicable to all of those specific discoveries.

When cybersecurity is incorporated into your DR plan, you’ll be able to identify and neutralize incoming attacks. This helps speed up business continuity and will allow you to focus on what’s most important—serving your customers and growing your business.

Disaster Recovery Planning Done Right With CTMS

When it comes to cybersecurity, there is no one better to have in your corner than the CTMS team. We have the skills, resources, and know-how to keep your computer systems at its most optimal level. We build custom solutions that will help you protect sensitive data from any type of potential threat. With our team by your side, you’ll have the peace of mind knowing that your sharpest cybersecurity professionals safeguarding your most coveted data.

Give us a call and plan your free security evaluation with our team today.

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