Living in the era of advanced technology brings the downside of facing new threats in the shape of the growing cyber risks that affect everyone.
From simple scams that try to steal the user’s personal information right up to ransomware attacks that hack systems, these threats are evolving and growing more common.
The increasing complexity of cybercrimes as a result of evolving attacker strategies means that being both educated and protected is mandated. Preventive measures and organizational strategy are fundamental to the protection of individuals’ information and business activities.
Awareness of these threats is the first and most significant step on the path to protection against such risks. In this article, we will discuss the seven most prevalent cyber threats and give practical advice on how to protect yourself against them.
1. Phishing Attacks
Phishing scams are fake e-mails, messages, or websites with the intention of deceiving users to give their personal details, such as passwords and credit card details. These attacks mostly seem to originate from familiar sources such as banks or any large company.
Examples
- Phishing involves the use of fake login pages that resemble genuine sites.
- Messages that claim to make refunds or payments or provide gifts that need details.
Mitigation Strategies
- User Awareness: Teach employees and people how to identify such scams. Search for options such as typos, letter characters instead of numbers, no personalized greeting, and file attachments.
- E-mail Security Tools: Employ sophisticated e-mail filters to stop phishing communications, such as those suggested by C3PAO (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Third-Party Assessment Organizations).
- Two-factor Authentication (2FA): Despite such issues of credentials being more vulnerable to unauthorized access, 2FA steps up the security guard.
2. Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of virus that holds a user’s files hostage and requests a fee to unlock them —usually in the form of cryptocurrency.
Examples
- WannaCry (2017): The incidence involved more than 200,000 systems worldwide.
- LockBit: A relatively recent strain for organizations.
Mitigation Strategies
- Regular Backups: Keep offline copies of sensitive data to be able to restore your files without having to come through the criminals.
- Endpoint Security: Utilize strong antivirus and endpoint protection sensors to recognize ransomware before it launches.
- Network Segmentation: Reduce ransomware propagation with secured network partition and restricted shared network access.
3. Social Engineering
Social engineering takes advantage of people’s behavior to confuse, trick or pressure them into revealing secrets or undertaking an act that is unsuitable.
Examples
- Pretexting: Speaking under the pretense of power or authority in order to demand personal information.
- Tailgating: Achieving physical proximity by following the authorized persons.
Mitigation Strategies
- Training and Education: Continuously remind people of social engineering tricks.
- Access Controls: Physical and digital values should be carefully protected to have access to the corresponding areas and information.
- Verification Protocols: It’s essential to ensure the actual identity of personnel who seek to access private data.
4. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks
In DDoS attacks, the attacker floods a target, be it a server, the network, or the website, with traffic making it unavailable.
Examples
- Mirai Botnet: Previously employed in global cyberspace to target large websites and services using IoT gadgets.
- SYN Floods: One of the ways used to flood the connection requests is to impend the services being offered.
Mitigation Strategies
- DDoS Protection Services: Direct application to the cloud-based DDoS protection solutions in order to shelter from the traffic generated by cyber criminals.
- Traffic Monitoring: Use traffic monitoring tools in order to detect and prevent unusual elevations.
- Scalable Infrastructure: Design patterns that will help in avoiding congestion and becoming vulnerable to traffic jams.
5. Insider Threats
Insider threat means the threat is posed by people within an organization who exploit their positions to cause harm to the organization either by negligence or design.
Examples
- Employees who steal the data of their company.
- Leakage of information that is not intended by some random act or omission.
Mitigation Strategies
- Access Management: Use the principle of ‘least privilege, meaning the firm should allow only limited access privileges to employees in each job position.
- Monitoring and Logging: Users’ actions must be observed constantly, and all events must be recorded comprehensively.
- Exit Procedures: End user access upon dismissal or a change in an employee’s position.
- Zero-day Exploits
Zero days are attacks for software vulnerabilities that are not known to the vendor, and the system remains open for attack until a proper patch is developed.
Examples
- Taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of popular applications such as Windows or Adobe.
- Attacking the IoT devices that have yet to be corrected for available vulnerabilities.
Mitigation Strategies
- Patch Management: Continuing to update software and applying patches prevents exploitation most of the time.
- Threat Intelligence: It is recommended that threat intelligence services be obtained to learn about new potential risks more often.
- Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS): Dedicate IDS is used to employ network traffic to detect and prevent anomalies.
- Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)
APTs are focused, protracted cyberattacks in which adversaries enter a network and stay hidden to steal information or interfere with normal business activities.
Examples
- Campaigns of cyber espionage directed at multinational companies.
Mitigation Strategies
- Network Segmentation: To restrict an attacker’s mobility within the network, isolate critical systems.
- Multi-layer Security: Use endpoint security solutions, firewalls, and intrusion prevention systems.
- Plans for Incident Response: Create and test incident response plans often to promptly handle security breaches.
Bottomline
The panorama of cyber threats is ever-changing, necessitating proactive and flexible steps to safeguard systems and critical data.
People and organizations may significantly lower their chance of falling victim to cyberattacks by being aware of the most common risks and using the above-mentioned tactics.
It is impossible to overestimate the need for awareness and alertness, even when technology is essential for protecting digital assets.
Being one step ahead of cybercriminals is the key to maintaining safety in the digital world, and cybersecurity is a shared duty.
