At present, businesses and governments store tones of data on computers and share it across different networks. A data breach can bring devastating consequences for any business because it might affect a company’s reputation and finances. If a company lose critical data, they might also lose consumer and partner trust, and its competitive advantage. A lack of focus on cyber security can be greatly damaging to any business. There is the direct economic cost such as theft of corporate information, disruption to trading or reparation of affected systems all resulting in financial loss. As well as the physical impact, cyber threats can also produce reputational damage that why all businesses, no matter its size, needs to be prepared to face the latest cyber security threats.
Cyber security threats
Businesses need to be aware of cyber security threats in order to address them and fight them efficiently. These are some of the most common cyber security threats that a business can face.
Data leak
This is one of the most common threats to cyber security which can affect to both, individuals or businesses. One way to protect data from any leaks is limiting the amount of personal information available in the public domain. Other way is by setting up a ‘burner email’, which is a dummy email account that businesses can use when signing up for a site or service that they don’t want to give their real email address.
If a you think that your email account may have been put in jeopardy, there is an online tool called ‘Have I been Pwned’ which allows users to see if any email address has been compromised.
Ransomware
It is a type of malware that prevents users from accessing their system or personal files and demands ransom payment in order to regain access. There are several different ways that ransomware can affect you and one of the most common is through malicious spam, or through an email that has been used to deliver malware via attachments, such as PDFs or Word documents or including links to malicious websites.
To protect against attacks from ransomware, businesses should ensure that valuable data is backed up in multiple places. It is also necessary to keeps antivirus software updated at all times.
Phishing
It is the process of fraudulently attempting to obtain information in order to exploit data associated with some accounts, from emails to banking accounts. To ensure that your business doesn’t become victim to a phishing scam, you and your staff should avoid opening or responding to unexpected emails which request for personal information. This can also be supported by a business not posting too much personal information online, as scammers can use this information to convince of their legitimacy when contacting business.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
This is a type of attack that inundates servers with requests from multiple sources in order to slow them down or even crash them. Once this occurs, the system cannot be used effectively until theses numerous interactions are cancelled and blocked.
In the last few years, cybercrime has grown at such a rapid rate it is now an issue all businesses should constantly be monitoring. Business managers need to ensure everyone within the company is up to date on the latest cyber security threats. They also need to get the best methods for protecting data.
Cyber security is important because it is a necessary attempt to protect condidential information, intellectual property, data, and governmental and industry information systems from thefts, criminals and adversaries. The lack of awareness about cyber security makes most organizations an easy target for anyone trying to hack into their confidential data.
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