Last few years, the pandemic has threatened the globe with viruses from both a biological and a digital perspective. In the digital world, cybersecurity is a top priority for most enterprises. Mostly, the remote working culture has shifted the weight to the expansion of global cyber attacks. Additionally, after 2020, the hackers found new loopholes in digital space and increased attacks against an expanded and target-rich environment.
Furthermore, it is important to continue to boost cybersecurity as a strategic business issue and advance more partnerships between industries, business leaders, regulators, and policymakers.
Although, the underlying question for most enterprises is what can be done to better protect data in the increasingly connected global digital landscape. Below are a few basic actions we can take on to make ourselves safer.
Types of Cyber Security Risks and its Viable Solution
- A Ransom Affair: How to Combat Ransomware Effectively
Ransomware is a type of malware that employs encryption to threaten the victim by publishing their personal data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom amount is paid. Besides, it has become a more prevalent method for hackers as they can operate under the cover of cryptocurrencies that are more difficult to trace.
In fact, ransomware can hold technical devices, and even entire networks, hostage for ransom payments. Cybersecurity Ventures forecasts that global ransomware damage costs will reach $20 billion by 2021 — which is 57X more than it was in 2015.
So, the important question is how to cease ransomware attacks? One way is to have a very strong endpoint security solution. These solutions are installed at the endpoint devices so that it leaves no loopholes for malware attacks. Moreover, admins have the ability to see when the endpoints are compromised.
Check out more related articles like 5 Ways Data Breach Can Damage Your Company Financially
- Phishing for Solutions
Phishing is a type of cyberattack in which a hacker dupes the victim to open a spam link sent through email, text messages, or social media messages. It has been a tried-and-true method of gaining access to company and personal data.
It is usually done by employing a fake website that is designed to look like the actual website. The objective of this attack is to deceive the user into entering their username and password into the dummy login form, which allows the hacker to forge the identity of the victim. Nowadays, hackers can seamlessly mimic known brand websites, banks websites, and even personal finance-related mobile applications.
Most phishing attacks try to enter through emails. Hence, to secure the email channels technologies specifically designed to protect the email endpoints can be the go-to solution. Secure email gateway technologies refine email communications with URL defenses and attachment filtering to identify threats and block them from being delivered to users.
Thus, stopping phishing attacks at the endpoint devices and blocking users from inadvertently installing viruses onto their devices. Moreover, there is post-delivery protection support which makes use of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to detect phishing attacks.
- Large Scale Threats: IoT, DDos, and Other Attacks
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks can attack online infrastructure, including websites and online applications, by overwhelming the host servers. The purpose might be blackmail, to disrupt a rival business, a protest, or as part of a nation-state-backed campaign for political, or even quasi-military aims.
Surprisingly, home Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as smart security cameras, lightbulbs, fridges, and baby monitors are infamous for their poor security and are often targets of DDoS attacks.
Meanwhile, most home automation users are no experts in dealing with technical whereabouts. This puts the burden of detecting vulnerable IoT devices on the shoulders of the Internet Service Providers (ISP).
With the data revolution, service providers have shifted their approach towards Artificial Intelligence. They are using Machine Learning models to detect vulnerable IoT devices. The data scientist train the model with data collected from the router. Eventually, the model can detect known patterns of vulnerable IoT devices.
Concluding Thoughts
Cybersecurity risks are upgrading with the changing times. To combat the risks, new technologies and tools need to improve even faster. Additionally, the three popular types of cyberattacks mentioned in the article have had damaging effects on enterprises until now.
Presently, the version of security solutions is just a means to an end. Real control will always be in the hands of the top executives and the IT teams. Hence, they must evaluate how well the security solutions work for them. In the future, security solutions have to fully immerse themselves with the automation wave. Hence, tech giants and other organizations should take full advantage of automation in cybersecurity.
