Why A Cyber Attack on Your business is Imminent
Data shows a cyber attack on your business is imminent. This costs businesses of all sizes a great deal in financial losses. Historically, individuals and small groups carried out cybercrime. Now, the internet security landscape has changed as criminal organizations work with tech professionals to commit cybercrime. Their goal; funding various other illegal activities. In addition, this is all carried out across the internet in real-time. They target just one individual, dedicated server, website or company.
Why a cyber attack will happen
A cyber attack on your business will happen in a variety of ways. Most important is knowing how a cyber attack occurred with as much detail as possible. When a cyber attack occurs again, you can prevent it from happening again. There is no point in restoring services if the same vulnerabilities are still present. Hackers can choose many methods of attacks such as simple brute force attacks, malware, phishing, keyloggers, rootkits etc. Some focus mainly on WordPress exploits since it is such a popular Content Management System and many users fail to implement even basic security measures since they don’t have the know-how or skills to do so or even been told to take certain basic security measures.
Having a complex system in place makes it all the more difficult to ensure security over a wide variety of potential exploits even within just one dedicated server. Secure everything starting with the network, Operating System, software, and apps, down to scripts and even code. Having one simple CMS in place such as WordPress can help but may lead to a false sense of security. Simpler does not necessarily equate to more secure.
The human factor
The human factor is also always part of a company’s security formula. If several employees are working within a system, they all need to be participating in daily security awareness and staying on the alert for anything unusual or odd. This will also lead to more difficult breaches that need investigating. Internal attacks are arguably the most destructive since they have the most access and may be the least expected type of attack. Disgruntled former employees and contractors are classic examples of a type of cyber attack on your business.
Being tricked into revealing sensitive information or login credentials occurs when employees are fooled into providing this information to those they assume (and assume being the key word here) are allowed access. This can happen via a simple phone call or email impersonating someone at the same firm requesting this information. Larger firms can present a more complex environment that needs securing resulting in inconvenience to employees. There is always a balance between too much security making day-to-day task cumbersome and offering too much leeway insecurity.
Online banking can be a classic example of this. Clients need to be able to access their online account at any time from any location. Since it involves financials and highly sensitive data, there need to be strong security measures in place. Many banks request notice of vacation travel for example, so if online banking is being accessed from another location/IP they are aware of it. This is a typical example of unusual user activity where a bank’s security will simply block access. Blocking access can also occur with too many failed login attempts and is basic security for an online system.
Don’t think you are secure. Know you are.
A false sense of security is in many cases the worst case scenario. This results in a compromised dedicated server being used for various malicious activity and is only discovered when a third-party reports attacks or suspicious activity from a server and forwards this data to that system administrator or datacenter. It is very common for hackers to wish to remain undetected for as long as possible.
The most difficult part of security is informing companies with an online presence of the need to invest in security before a cyber attack on your business. Attacks against large companies are making headlines all the time. This also means smaller companies with lower security defenses are much easier targets, even though the payoff for hackers may be less. Even having security triggers in place for random attacks can warn of an impending successful breach. Is there and Incident Response Plan and how long would it take to investigate and by whom? Not all web hosting providers offer this service so third-party solutions should be an alternative.
Is your security annoying? Then it’s working!
The best solution is constant security assessments, testing, and updates. If your attackers are opportunistic then your basic security measures must be in place especially with CMS such as the popular WordPress. Too many WordPress sites go unsecured. This presents an easy opportunity for attacks from opportunistic hackers. Targeted hackers, on the other hand, are a different scenario in which case testing basic security will not be sufficient.
Knowing who your potential attackers are is vital in determining what your security measures should be. For more information, please visit:
http://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-media/News/2015/N2015-038
.