I can order my favorite lunch (a naked burrito) on my Grubhub App in about 39 seconds – in that same amount of time a cyber-attack has occurred. That’s two hacks a minute. 90 hacks an hour! Cybersecurity threats will increase in 2021. People are -evolving the new working from home environment. Hackers evolve too.
Most businesses understand the most common security threats to look out for, but some of the biggest dangers may not be what you’d expect. If you are a business owner, you need to have these threats top of mind to keep your information secure.
Inadequate Encryption Methods
What I find is true across most small -to – medium sized businesses (heck, even big companies) is that they feel “too safe.” The consequences of a breach will be costly if businesses don’t apply standard encryption tools effectively.. Most have mastered data encryption in transit but fail to secure data at rest, leaving data vulnerable and failing to give encryption its total value.
“If you don’t have a security platform in place, then your encryption means nothing.”
Careless key management also lowers the barrier to entry for cybercriminals. When you store encryption keys on the same system as the data and give the keys to employees, everyone can access the keys. That is basically the same as the keys being unlocked!
Malvertising
Malvertising has been around for a long time but recently has become a threat for a new pool of targets. Hackers previously targeted high-profile sites. Now, their attention has shifted and become laser focused on smaller brand names with a lot of traffic. Why? Less visibility.
Hackers mainly rely on malicious ads to:
- generate revenue
- collect identities
- install malware that can be used to add a machine to a botnet in the future
Botnets could be the biggest of the three. They can be used to perform Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send spam, and allow the attacker to access the device and its connection.
Open-source App Development Widgets
My kids are always running up and showing me a newAPP they discovered and that they’re downloading – on the daily. There are thousands of new APPS every month. Here’s the problem. The people building these apps are third-party agencies with little to no security experience. They’re skipping the checkpoints and testing practices need to keep the APP secure. They aren’t bad people – they just don’t know any better and that leaves you vulnerable.
Today’s developers create applications with frameworks and widgets. They prefer open-source tools, and a lot of those components were built by threat actors. Many of them are looking for backdoors to steal employee information.
When developers build and test apps in development environments that are not secure, with tools that may be malicious, hackers can target apps still in production.
Mobilization of Data
I can safely say that if I could, I’d put my entire life into my phone and simplify things. If only it were that easy – and safe. Now more people rely on mobile devices to do their jobs – their personal mobile devices – not company issued devices. If businesses aren’t taking steps to secure data stored on them, then the growing mobilization of data leaves them vulnerable to a breach.
One of your employees could unknowingly be leaking your most private data.
There’s a lot of configuration management that needs to be done to ensure users store data in the right place, not in your iCloud account, which hackers know how to access easily. It’s not just corporate data at risk. When you sign up for subscriptions, apps, or games, you are plugging in all of your personal information. If there is a breach, all of this data will become publicly avaialable.
Undereducated Employees
The majority of the time, security is a people problem, not a technology problem. The majority of breaches are brought on by an uneducated employee making a security mistake that could have been avoided if they had been trained properly. It’s common for some employees to share their credentials with a fellow employee or manager when they are out of the office, whether on vacation or during a leave of absence.
If organizations don’t have defined security policies for these situations, a lack of accountability could compromise email security.
Your employees are your first line of defense. Equip them with security awareness training so they can identify phishing emails and protect their passwords. I suggest partnering with an IT company that will put advanced security defenses in place, point out system vulnerabilities, and correct them before a breach occurs.
Get Serious About Security
At ReachOut Technology, we address all of these threats and more. At ReachOut Technology, we have a unique blend of cyber, physical, and psychological security aspects in our cybersecurity training program. We put all these aspects together to strategize and predict criminals’ moves to prevent breaches from happening. Security is not just throwing anti-virus on something anymore. It is about the psychology and strategy behind how the criminals think so that you are two moves ahead. If you’re ready to take cybersecurity seriously, contact ReachOut Technology and speak to one of our cyber experts today.
And I should also tell you that we’ree actively acquiring MSPs companies to help make them stronger and create a safer, more seemless online environment. If you know of an MSP looking for capital or to exit – share this blog with them!
Rick
