COVID-19 has drastically changed the way we used to live our lives and carry routine activities. A nationwide lockdown has been imposed, causing many sectors to find their resort in the digital medium to operate and stay connected.
The increasing trend of getting online possesses the risk of cyber threats. To avoid potential hackers from getting into your system, a strong need for cybersecurity services is felt.
There are ‘n’ number of possibilities that the trespasser finds a way into your established network and dismantle its usual functioning. Cybersecurity service company like BR Softech Pvt. Ltd. can provide effective solutions that cater to your online business’s safety needs.
Read this article to know about the impact of the COVID-19 on online business and importance of cybersecurity services when the entire world is hit by the pandemic of coronavirus.
High Risk Of Cyber Attacks
The businesses are rapidly adopting online solutions to run their operations while keeping the risk of contamination at bay. The rapid inclination towards digital platforms possesses an increased threat of cyber attacks.
The cybercriminals are seeking this phase as a great opportunity to abstract critical information from the newly established networks. Hence ensuring cybersecurity is a major challenge during this time.
Cyber risk is not region bound, instead the global population situated across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and rest of the world are worried of their data security and focusing on building solid bunkers to keep the cybercriminals on the other side.
Various departments, public and private, capture sensitive information that is bound to be protected. Sectors such as aerospace, defense, banking, finance and insurance, retail, healthcare, IT and telecom and many others are susceptible to interference by the foreign agents.
Increase in online shopping
The retail stores are shut down due to the terror of COVID-19. The chaotic situation has provided an opportunity for online stores to boost up their sales.
Also, the attractive offers and the limited availability of resources from the online medium has hiked up the traffic on these online stores, eventually providing scope to the hackers and spammers to take advantage of the situation.
Themed attack
The reports are circulating that the hackers are using the COVID-19 as a bait to lure customers into falling into the trap. Spoof agencies are delivering messages and emails asking for the relief fund or asking for sensitive information under the banner of the social cause.
Issues with remote working
Most of the business capable of operating from a distance has adopted the concept of work from home. However, there comes a different set of challenges associated with it. Employees operating their personal system often lack security. The lack of security creates a risk for hackers to get into the system and tamper the work and steal sensitive information.
Cyber threats are a severe risk to manage in this technological dependent world. With almost everything being computerized, the criminals involved in cybercrime make up to 6 trillion US dollars every year by looting funds from the legal systems.
The risk of cyber-attacks demands the need for cybersecurity services. An expert software development company can help you with the essential tools that can prevent you from losing control of your critical data.
However, knowing about the cyber threats is as much important to help you identify the areas to invest in for security.
Cyber Risks And Threats In 2020
Many cyber threats are prevailing in the market that a user needs to take care of. However, few of them make it into the list of the most infamous cyber threats. Keeping scrolling through this article to get to know about these cyber threats.
Phishing Attack: It is a major and one of the most common cyber attacks. A phishing attack is an attack that involves fraudulent emails, links, texts or websites that look genuine however tricks the user into passing their critical information such as passwords, credit and debit card related information and much more.
Via phishing, the phisher gains access to the victims sensitive information and thus making the target object vulnerable eventually and giving the exposure for any unauthorized activity.
Phishing is one of the cheap and easy cyber attacks. According to the reports, it is said that 1 email out of every 99 is a phishing attack that the user needs to identify.
Phishing can be avoided by training the employees to identify the unusual out of usuals or by deploying any software for automated detection.
IoT Attacks: Almost every device that we come across are connected to the internet. However, not all the devices we interact with are secure and immune to the cyber attacks. On the other hand, hackers are always searching for vulnerabilities in these internet-connected devices.
In an IoT based attack, the hacker seeks for vulnerabilities when a user is accessing the device features via the internet. Malware is injected onto the network with an aim to disrupt the normal functioning of the device. The hacker targets IoT devices because of their lack of appropriate security.
Having said that, one of the precautionary measures is collecting the inventory of all IoT devices on your network and ensuring that the firmware is up to date.
Ransomware: The rate of ransomware attacks reported to have been decreased at least for the individuals if not for the business operators. However, what makes such attacks unique is that it targets mostly businesses and not individuals because of their potential and willingness to pay money.
In a ransomware attack, the attacker infects the system by injecting a malware through the network, alerting the user about the suspicious access. The attacker then asks for the ransom in exchange for not to corrupt the data.
One of the most preferred techniques to prevent the user from facing such attacks is to have an updated and strong firewall security. Having a reliable antivirus installed on the system is also as important as the former.
Internal Attacks: The employees accessing a system also poses a risk to expose it for cyberattacks. Either done intentionally or accidentally compromising the sensitive information, internal attacks are a significant concern for the organization having employees with access to the network.
What makes it a significant threat is the capability of even a minor exposure turning into a series of horrific events.
The policy of least privilege is an effective measure to prevent an incident of internal attack. Restricting the user’s access to the resources of a company will minimize any chance of accidental leaks.
Security Gaps: Security gaps is any space that is left vacant in the security layer, making scope for the malware to penetrate. Any neglected point in a secured network is sufficient to let attackers infect your system, causing severe damage.
Regular IT audits are the key to lock any scope of vulnerabilities in the security system. Also, ensuring that any newly incorporated layer of security is applied evenly, especially on the nodes that are more exposed to attacks.
Distributed denial of service attacks: Making its name in the list, DDoS attacks are one of the major threats to many organizations. They can also be termed as trick attacks as they trick the user into a particular attack; however, some other process going on under the hood.
DDoS attacks have the potential to halt the business functions making it an area of concern. Also, their ability to disguise makes them typical and challenging to be identified.
Steps Towards Preventing Cyber Attacks
Once you fall victim to cyber-attacks, you may end up losing loads of important data and money. It is better to train the staff and ensure security in the computer systems than to regret the event of cyber attack later on.
Below mentioned steps will help you stay prepared and detect any suspicious activity before it incurs severe damage.
- Training employees for maintaining the best practices and work culture.
- Using antivirus and antispyware software and keeping them updated.
- Using a firewall for internet connection will further keep the risk at bay.
- Keeping your system up to date by abiding by all the software and application updates will keep your system protected.
- Limiting employees access to the computer will restrict any internal attack.
- Securing and hiding the wifi networks should be a foremost priority.
- Assigning individual user accounts and promoting frequent password changes.
- Creating backups frequently of the important data will prevent you from losing all the information handy in case of any cyber attack.
Final words
The list of potential cyber-attacks mentioned in this article is just a glimpse into the vast world. However, there are numerous ways by which an expert hacker can breach into the system and access the confidential data that might put a question on your brand’s reliability.
Cybersecurity service providers ensure smooth and secure functioning of your business processes by developing tools for effective monitoring of activities and safeguarding from lending any unauthorized access.