Why Is Database Protection Important?

A database is a collection of information, usually stored in a computer system. This can be anything from your email address to passwords and other sensitive information. A database is much more complex than normal data, so special measures need to be taken when it comes to its protection. With the rise of hacking and malware attacks across the world, it is crucial that you protect yourself and your business by taking the necessary measures. This could mean that you should purchase software for database protection. There are many solutions, like dbvisit.com, that can help to keep malicious attacks from infecting your database. In the event that a hacker does breach your databases, you have a better chance of preventing any damage by using protection software.

What Are Some Different Types Of Database Security?

There are many different types of security measures you can take in order to keep your database safe. Let’s go over a few:

● Firewalls

A firewall is a program or hardware-based system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. They are effective at detecting and removing any malicious software, such as viruses and malware. They also prevent intruders from accessing your database.

● Access Controls

These are used to identify who is allowed to access specific information within your database. You can set up user accounts for employees and customers, which will help to better protect the sensitive data they need access to. With this security measure in place, you can ensure that only the right people have the ability to access your information.

● Data Encryption

This is a very effective security measure that you can take in order to protect your data. When sensitive data is encrypted, it requires decoding in order for any hacker to see it. This means that even if they are able to break into your system, there is a good chance that they won’t even be able to see your data.

● Password Protection

Passwords are used to gain access to digital properties such as files, computers, and databases. Using the proper password protection will help to prevent unauthorized access by hackers and malware attacks. A hacker might have a difficult time trying to crack a strong database password.

Types Of Database Attacks

There are many types of database attacks that can occur. A hacker could try to steal your data, delete files, or even destroy the entire system. It’s important to know what you need to do in order to protect yourself from these potential threats. Let’s take a look at some different types of attacks:

● Brute Force Attack

This occurs when a hacker tries to guess your password by entering several different combinations. By doing so, it leaves the doors wide open for malicious attacks.

● Dictionary Attack

Similar to a brute force attack, this is when an attacker will try every word in the dictionary in order to gain access to your data.

● Denial Of Service Attack

This occurs when a network or service is denied access to clients. It can also be considered a type of “hacking” that can cause your database to crash or malfunction.

● Malware/Viruses

Malicious software such as viruses and malware can wreak havoc on your system and corrupt your data.

● Social Engineering

This occurs when a hacker tries to gain access by pretending to be someone else, such as an employee or customer. They might try to trick you into giving them the information they shouldn’t have access to.

● Phishing

This is similar to social engineering, but it uses email and fake websites in order to gain access to your data.

Protecting your database is a big responsibility. If you don’t take the necessary measures to protect it, there’s no telling what might happen. You could be at risk of getting hacked or having all of your data destroyed by malware and viruses. That’s why it’s important that you know how to keep yourself protected from these threats with different types of security controls like firewalls, access control policies, encryption software, password protection software, and more. There are many different types of attacks against databases as well – brute force attack passwords/guessing words in the dictionary, a denial-of-service attack which takes down networks, malware/viruses which corrupts files (and can also encrypt). These are just some examples of how hackers may try to get into your database. You must keep yourself protected against these threats.

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What Is Leakware?

Leakware began to surface in 2019 and has since become one of the fastest-growing types of ransomware. Instead of encrypting companies’ data and demanding a ransom to return it, leakware steals confidential information and threatens to release it unless targets pay a ransom.

For example, cybercriminals may break into a hospital’s electronic health records (EHR) system and steal patients’ names, addresses and medical information. If the hospital doesn’t pay a ransom, the criminals will leak the data, potentially endangering these patients and exposing the hospital to legal damages.

Companies in the medical and financial sectors and government contractors are at a higher risk of leakware than others. These businesses could face legal action or reputation damage from a breach of privacy, so they may be more willing to pay a higher ransom. Consequently, they’ve become favorite targets for leakware attacks.

Protecting Against Leakware

As more companies have started storing sensitive data, leakware has become a more prominent concern. Thankfully, it’s not a problem without a solution. Here are three crucial strategies for protecting against leakware.

1. Endpoint Detection and Response

Many leakware tools lie in hiding for some time, collecting as much data as possible before making their presence known. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) can find and remove these programs. Like antivirus programs, EDR continually monitors for potential threats, but it goes beyond traditional anti-malware measures.

EDR uses multiple malware detection methods, including looking for suspicious user activity and the misuse of legitimate programs. These more nuanced monitoring strategies make it easier to spot leakware as it accesses or moves sensitive files.

Small and medium-sized businesses don’t likely have IT teams large enough for manual monitoring, but many automated EDR programs exist. These solutions can help direct cybersecurity workers to potential threats before losing any data.

2. Email Security

Most ransomware attacks, including leakware, start as phishing attempts. As a result, companies can prevent many of these attacks by implementing better email security. First, they should install advanced email filters that can spot and automatically delete suspicious messages.

Second, and more importantly, businesses should train all of their employees to spot phishing attempts. These fraudulent emails often contain unusual links, web addresses, spelling errors or odd requests. Workers should also know to double-check sources before responding and never to give away sensitive information over email.

Without this training, employees may unknowingly give attackers access to company systems, letting them install leakware software. On the flip side, when they know how to spot and respond to these emails, they’ll prevent damaging attacks.

3. Zero-Trust Architecture

As leakware grows, companies can’t afford to take any chances with their sensitive data. Consequently, they may want to consider zero-trust security. Zero-trust strategies rely on restricting privileges and verifying everything to prevent and mitigate breaches.

The first part of implementing zero-trust architecture is segmenting networks. By dividing their data and processes into separate areas, businesses limit how much damage an attack can do. Without the ability to move laterally throughout a network, a breach in one area won’t affect the rest.

Next, zero-trust systems use methods like multi-factor authentication to verify users are who they claim to be before granting them access. Even then, every user will only have access to what they need, limiting what leakware can get. These steps are so effective that 30% of organizations worldwide have already started implementing them, with another 42% planning to do so.

Stay Safe From Emerging Threats

When businesses understand what leakware is, they can start to defend against it. This threat is concerning, but by following these steps, companies of any size can stay safe. As the data organizations hold becomes increasingly valuable, these security measures become all the more important.

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However, as more high-value purchases move online, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to accurately and effectively authenticate consumer identification has become extremely crucial.

With over five billion data breaches reported in 2020 alone, the risks of account takeovers and identity theft have never been so apparent.

Therefore, it is important for businesses to use a reliable method of confirming a person’s identity.

In this article, we will talk about what identity verification is and how it works. We will also talk about the problems related to the conventional manual identity verification process.

What is Identity Verification?

In simple words, identity verification is confirming that you are who you claim to be. It prevents a person from acting on your behalf without your consent. It also prevents someone from forging phony identities and committing fraud.

84% of businesses agree that identity verification reduces their risk and the costs associated with it. In 2020, penalties for non-conformity with Know your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), iFID regulations, and data privacy against financial institutions were more than $10 billion.

Not only businesses, but customers are also concerned about identity verification. 27% of customers abandon an online transaction when they fail to see a proper security system.

How Does Identity Verification Work?

The traditional method of identity verification is through document verification. You simply check the documents like a driver’s license or a PAN card and verify a person’s identity.

There are several problems associated with conventional identity verification.

• Criminals generally target customer records of large organizations. These stolen identities are auctioned on the darknet.
• Users are lured into voluntarily sharing personal information through phishing techniques like fake Amazon refund emails.
• Fraudsters can easily make duplicate documents by photoshopping their pictures into someone else’s ID card.

Sadly, both B2B and B2C firms use inefficient manual ID verification. This usually leads to bad client experiences, a higher risk of forgery, and an inability to meet regulatory criteria.

In such circumstances, it becomes difficult for businesses to retain a positive client impression.

As per a study on digital verification, 78% of decision-makers believe that identity verification solutions are necessary to balance consumer experience and safety. Many organizations rely on the capacity to reliably verify identities in a reasonable timeframe. This enables them to form legal agreements, comply with regulations, and supply services to customers.

Businesses are moving on to the digital methods of identity verification. These include biometrics, face recognition, digital footprint verification, and several more.

As an example, identity verification with SEON involves a process known as digital enrichment. In this process, open source databases are ‘rummaged’ to gather a person’s information through phone numbers, email addresses, and social media activity. This method of identity verification has minimal friction, is quick and increasingly successful.

Other methods of digital verification are as follows.

• Biometric verification: Checks whether the selfie in the ID is of the same person who presents it.
• OTP verification: It is one of the most common ID verification processes. It uses a single-use passcode that is sent via a text message or email, to verify a person’s identity.
• Trusted identity network: It uses the claimant’s current credentials from another source to authenticate their identity and eliminate friction during account creation and activation.
• Knowledge-based authentication: It generates ‘out of the wallet’ queries using an applicant’s credit file data.
• Liveness detection: It determines the authenticity of a snapshot by identifying spoofing attacks such as face masks or images of pictures.

Wrapping Up What is Identity Verification and How it Works

Hopefully, this article helped you learn about identity verification and how it works.

Having the capacity to correctly and comprehensively verify your clients and staff can help safeguard your business against fraud. In fact, in some jurisdictions, a digital contract is not legally binding unless it is linked to a secure identity verification mechanism.

Accurate verification procedures also put clients at ease and open up more options for your company to expand. Creating a digital identification process lowers risk, boosts confidence, and ensures legal validity and conformity.

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Protect your data

Probably the most essential part of any IT support, a business is going to it in order to protect the data of their company. If this information gets into the wrong hands, it could cost a lot of money and cause a lot of issues for your employees.

Without IT support, you risk losing potentially sensitive or private information that can be used against you by cyber attackers who are always looking for ways to gain access to your systems so they can gain unauthorized access or take over control which puts all data at risk. Protecting yourself with IT services will ensure that no one else has access other than those who need it because these IT professionals know how important protecting this data really is.

Here’s what it’s going to protect your business from:

• viruses
• malware
• spies
• crashes
• bugs
• cyber attacks

It will help increase productivity and grow your business

Your company will definitely be more productive with IT support. These professionals will help with your company’s technology, including servers and computers to keep them running smoothly. You’ll be able to focus on what you’re good at, the actual business of making money for your customers instead of worrying about IT issues!

The IT service can also increase productivity by helping grow a company through more modernized methods like cloud storage or VOIP services (which allow calls over data networks). The professionals at a popular London-based IT support company MacTribe say that one of the main goals of these services is to help businesses transform their technology into profitable frameworks that cultivate success. These are just some ways an IT professional can make things easier for companies using their expertise in order to improve how businesses operate every day.

To make your system run smoothly

A good IT support service will ensure that your system runs as smoothly as possible. IT support is a must for any business with an IT system, and it’s important to find the right company that will work well with your needs. There are many IT services out there that can help you make sure all of your IT hardware runs efficiently, but not every IT service has the same qualifications.

It’s important to do research before hiring a new IT support team because if they don’t have experience dealing with businesses like yours then you might run into problems later on in the future when you really need them most.

The best way to ensure that your business gets good quality service from its IT staff is by doing thorough background checks beforehand so you know what kind of people are working for you behind closed doors without even realizing it.

Improve customer experience

Customer experience will be much better with IT support in place. IT services are designed to increase customer satisfaction and overall performance in a business, so it’s not something you should skip out on. IT service providers have the experience needed to solve any IT issues that may arise in your business, which will lead directly to an improvement of customer experience for everyone involved.

As mentioned earlier, IT has the ability to improve the reputation of businesses because there is more focus on security with IT support behind them. Many people believe they do not need this type of help but cyber-attacks are happening every day across all industries. If people know it’s safe, it’s more likely that they will choose your company for the services they need.

Minimize disruptions to business operations due to IT failures

What kind of disruptions you’ll have will depend on the quality of IT support you hire. IT services from reputable companies should provide a rapid response to IT issues as well as manage those problems before they become serious enough for the company’s operations to be impacted. The IT service will do this by having an established process in place that includes regular preventative maintenance, which can help avoid IT failures and disruptions altogether.

Keep up with technology changes

You’ll have an easier time keeping up with technology changes when you have IT support because professionals are always up to date on the latest trends. They will know what kinds of new services and products can help your company run more efficiently, save money, or increase revenue.

If you’re trying to keep up with changes by yourself, it might take a lot longer for things to get done. IT professionals are usually able to update software or make other changes on your technology systems faster than you can do it yourself.

A successful modern business has to have IT support because, first of all, it provides the best shield against all sorts of attractions. It will help you grow and increase productivity ensuring everything runs smoothly in your firm. It will also increase customer experience making more of them gravitate towards you while also minimizing disruptions and updating your system whenever it’s needed!

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More than half of the small businesses in existence have experienced a cyber-attack of some kind. However, most companies that have fallen victim to the attacks have had no idea how to protect themselves from the various security risks such as phishing, ransomware, zero-day, and malware attacks.

Knowing some of the best ways to protect your online business is an excellent way to protect your data, finances, and reputation.

The good news is businesses can explore many different ways to protect their online businesses. In this article, we look at some of the methods you should keep in mind if you want to improve your online business’s safety.

1. Choose a Safe Hosting Service

You cannot run a successful online business without a website. However, having a well-designed and powerful website will not help your business if you work with the wrong web hosting service. You should prioritize finding a reliable web hosting company that is entirely PCI compliant. This way, you can have guarantees about the safety of your business website’s checkout and payment services.

While free hosting services can help you cut costs and save money, you should never give it much thought if you want to run a successful online business. In addition to low speeds and shared server space, free hosting also comes with poor security features. Free hosting will never work for you if you want to protect sensitive business information, customer data, or credit card accounts.

Ideally, you should work with a hosting service that offers an SSL certificate which marks your website with HTTPS meaning HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. It means that every bit of communication between your site and the customer’s browser is secure.

2. Work With an Experienced and Qualified Support Team

The online landscape keeps changing, and you may have a hard time staying up to date with all the changes that may affect your business. Naturally, your responsibility is growing the business and taking it to the next level. You can hardly manage this if you take on every single task on your own. For the best results, have an in-house team of support staff or outsource some responsibilities. You can work with eCommerce lawyers who help with everything ranging from IP problems to internal governance. They can also offer other services such as contract drafting, selling a business, and dealing with infringers.

3. Focus on Email Security

Businesses send millions of emails each day. However, not all emails share legitimate content. It means that most of the emails sent to your company and employees are spam emails which could present a security threat. Emails can infect your business computer systems with ransomware. In this case, cybercriminals attach malicious content to the emails they send. If you open an infected email, you allow the ransomware to access your system.  This puts your business at risk for further attacks.

To prevent this:

• Educate your employees to avoid using the business email address to subscribe to insecure mailing lists.
• Ensure that everyone in the company understands the importance of taking precautions with links sent through emails, unreliable websites, and social media channels.
• Unless you expect to receive a specific link, make sure you scan it before opening.

Frequently cleaning up your email and using anti-spam software can also improve security.

4. Use Strong Passwords

You should be extremely careful with passwords. Ideally, any password you use for your online business should combine lower and upper case letters, special symbols, and numbers. This way, you can make it harder for hackers to crack. For improved security, change the passwords regularly. You can also use two-factor authentication. If you have to send passwords or any form of sensitive data via email, make sure you use encrypted emails.

Understanding how you can protect your online business from various security threats can help you succeed. If you do not want to damage your reputation and waste a lot of time and money, you should focus on security. You can enhance the safety of an online business by choosing a secure hosting service and working with a reliable support team. Paying attention to email security and using strong passwords for all business accounts can protect your business from cybercrimes.

The post How To Properly Secure Your Online Business In 2021 appeared first on The CEO Views.

When you start researching antivirus software, you will come across many companies that claim that their software provides the ultimate protection. In such situations is it difficult to select one software that can protect against viruses and malware. To help you make a choice while buying this software, consider the below factors.

Real-Time Protection

This is an important factor to consider. When looking at Norton 360 for use as antivirus software, one of the best benefits it brings with it is that it provides real-time protection. Real-time scanners and on-demand discovery can play a vital role in keeping your devices safe. This is because such processes run continuously in the background. All the files are checked and assessed both offline and online. The on-demand scanners run through your files to check for malware. When these two are combined together, they give the best protection possible.

Payment Options

Most antivirus software companies provide you with a yearly subscription offer. However, some may apply some additional charges or deduct some funds without informing the clients. These are absolute red flags you must look out for. Look for a company that is efficient and provides reasonably priced software. However, look closely if the company is indeed providing you the latest version of the software. Some companies offer a free trial period so you can test the software properly. Make use of these opportunities to see it for yourself.

Effect On Your Device

If the antivirus software is heavy-duty and runs continuously in the background, it will affect the append of the device. This is because it will consume the resources of the CPU which will decrease the processing speed of your device. For people who use their devices for heavy-duty things like playing games or video editing, it could be a problem. When you have a trial version, then you can test the speed of your device after installing the software. If they conflict with the speed of your device, then you should not purchase it as it will further damage your device.

Privacy Policy

Your personal information is critical and must be protected at all times. Identity thefts can lead you to serious problems. Thanks to the internet, personal information has come under the biggest threat than it ever was. There are even antivirus companies that are supposed to be protecting your data that have come into the limelight for exposing it to information brokers. Check the company’s profile from buying from them. The reviews will help you understand if they can be trusted. Refrain from buying from any company that was previously involved with a scandal. Read the privacy policy properly so you know how your information will be used.

Virus Removal Process

The main job of the antivirus software is not only to detect the virus but also to remove it. Check the method used for removing malware and viruses from the device that is used by the software. This means that the software should make sure that your files are not affected when the virus is removed. At the same time, the virus should not spread to other files. Any suspicious sources of data that could be a threat should be blocked automatically.

Compatibility With Your Device

Remember that not all antivirus software is compatible with all systems. Some systems do not guarantee full protection against malware on all systems. Before buying antivirus software, check your operating system and make sure that both are compatible. Some software is available only for a specific version of the operating system.

Added Features

There are some other features that you can look for apart from the basic protection that the software will provide your device. These depend if you will need them for personal or business use. These could be anti-spying software, a secure firewall for company devices, parental lock, and protection for multiple devices with one software package.

You can research all the needed information on the website of the seller or even get in touch with the tech or customer support if you have a query. It is a good way to understand if the software company actually provides quick solutions to your problems. Read the reviews on popular software websites to get a better idea of which brand you can trust. When you have done your diligence, then you will be able to purchase software that is the right fit for your needs and be stress-free from any threats that may come your way.

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Despite growing awareness, many businesses still don’t have basic cybersecurity policies in place, putting them at greater risk of a data breach or other kind of successful attack.

These are some of the most critical considerations for enterprise network security. Considering these tips when developing a business security policy can help owners and managers build strong cyber defenses.

1. Keep Devices and Software Updated

Outdated software and firmware can contain vulnerabilities that make devices more vulnerable to an attack. Keeping these items updated will help ensure they can’t be compromised by hackers taking advantage of vulnerabilities.

This tip is especially important for businesses with a large number of Internet of Things (IoT) or smart devices. Each of these items is connected to the internet and provides another vector of attack for hackers.

IoT cybersecurity can be much more challenging than securing devices like computers and servers, but the right practices can keep them secure. When setting up a new smart device, IT workers should be sure to change any default usernames or passwords and turn off features your business won’t use — like remote access capabilities.

Once active, IoT devices should be regularly checked to ensure they are running the latest security patch available.

2. Use Multifactor Authentication

Multifactor authentication is a common enterprise cybersecurity practice that requires users to present both a password and another form of evidence for their identity when attempting a login.

Often, this evidence will be a code sent to an email address or phone number. The system will send users a code they must use when they try to log in. This strategy ensures people are who they claim to be — reducing the risk that hackers can compromise network accounts.

3. Segment the Network

Limiting the access users have to the business network can reduce the impact a compromised account may have.

For example, a company may create a network segment just for smart devices — allowing them to connect to the internet but reducing their access to critical or sensitive business information.

4. Provide Employees With Cybersecurity Training

Hackers can often gain access to organization networks without defeating the security software that defends the network. Social engineering attacks — which take advantage of employees with minimal cybersecurity knowledge — are a common tactic criminals use to gain unauthorized access to business networks.

Phishing attacks have caused several high-profile breaches, including the successful attack on the COVID-19 cold supply chain in 2020.

Training employees on how to spot attacks like phishing emails can help protect your network against these threats.

5. Prepare for Mobile Devices

It’s become common for employees to connect their personal mobile phones to the workplace network. These devices can make the system less secure without the right precautions.

A business should either require that employees not connect their personal devices to the network or create a security policy that handles how and when they can be used. Network segmentation for mobile devices, employee training and a requirement that software is kept up to date will help reduce the risk personal devices can pose.

Essential Ingredients for a Business Cybersecurity Strategy

Cybersecurity is likely to become even more important as hacking becomes more profitable and businesses adopt more complex networked technology. Knowing the essentials of an effective cybersecurity plan will help business owners of all kinds prepare for the threats cybercriminals can pose.

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Hackers have long threatened American information systems. From Colonial Pipeline and TurboTax to McDonald’s and Peloton, cyberattacks are on the rise. The New York Times reported that ransomware attacks rose 102% during the first half of 2021 compared to the beginning of last year. As many as 560 health care facilities were hit by ransomware last year amid the pandemic, according to a CNN report.

The question remains: how do you outpace and outsmart cyber attackers who always seem to be one step ahead?

Cybercriminals Exploit AI and Machine Learning

Like viruses that mutate and evolve to evade inoculation, criminals constantly find ways to exploit AI and machine learning to hack into systems. AI deployment by cybersecurity experts is essential for protecting organizations from the latest advancements that speed up attacks and cause major damage.

Keeping up or getting ahead of cyber attackers means adopting agile enterprise cybersecurity solutions that include:

•     Deception technology
•     Artificial intelligence/machine learning
•     Asset management
•     Intelligence gathering 

One of the problems that AI, machine learning, and other agile cybersecurity features solve is the lack of skilled IT professionals.

Moving faster than attackers means removing human interaction from the cyber-response as much as possible. While an intruder follows the trails deployed by your deception technology, leading to dead ends and traps, your agile system can watch the attacker’s every maneuver. At the same time, because you’ve employed AI/machine learning, your system can erect roadblocks and cut off traffic to high-priority assets, giving you and your team precious time to analyze an attack in progress and respond accordingly.

The Realities of Current Day Cyber Warfare

What scares attackers the most is a honeypot, and deception technology is like a honeypot on steroids. Everything an intruder does is logged for analysis, so you can erect even better defenses.

Deception technology is a window into your entire network, showing every server, router, and device, complete with traffic analysis so you know which systems are mission-critical. The first thing an attacker will do after breaching your network is scan it and catalogue all your assets and that’s the first thing you should do, too.

You should audit your network on a regular basis because every Bluetooth-enabled and wireless device that connects to your network—via employees, customers, and even vendors—is a potential attack vector through which your system can be breached.

Agile Threat Management

You can’t read every intelligence brief, no matter how dedicated and determined you are. But an agile unified threat management platform (UTM) can follow every feed, integrating that intelligence with your system, and analyzing threat levels.

Your intelligence stream can alert you to new and emerging threats like cryptojacking, swarmbots, and weaponized fuzzing—and your AI-enabled UTM can then be on the lookout for traffic patterns, network speed, random code, and other anomalies that these types of attacks can create.

New powerful embedded analytics platforms provide just-in-time analysis of cybersecurity patterns, threats, trends, and attack analytics. This use of embedded analytics provides cybersecurity analysts with a powerful weapon to utilize against hackers. Embedded analytics software like Reveal can be employed in almost any industry to collect and analyze data, including financial risk analysis, measuring healthcare performance, forecasting manufacturing production, and optimizing grocery inventory levels.

Hardening your defenses

Make sure every person in your company is trained in recognizing social attack methods. By industry estimates, 91 percent of cyberattacks begin with spear-phishing email. Training employees to recognize suspicious emails, interactions, and technology glitches are your first and best line of defense.

Most company networks are a collection of legacy applications, systems, and hardware. No matter how well integrated these disparate pieces are, they offer attackers a more porous attack surface than a UTM. By deploying at UTM with deception technology, AI/machine learning capabilities, asset management, continuous threat intelligence, and analytics, you can harden your defense network.

Remember, attackers have their own cost/benefit analysis. If you can make it difficult enough, you can watch as they retreat and go off in search of easier targets.

John Gomez is Chief Executive Officer & Cybersecurity Researcher at Sensato Cybersecurity Solutions, based in Red Bank, New Jersey. He developed the Sensato Nightingale cybersecurity platform that utilizes the Reveal embedded analytics platform.

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What Are External Threats?

External threats originate from outside an organization by an attacker with no direct connection to the target. The goal in these attacks is often to steal information and then leak it or sell it on the dark web.

Cybercriminals may also lock down the targeted organization’s information, demanding that people pay money to restore their access. The trouble is that paying the money in these so-called ransomware attacks often doesn’t result in recovery for the affected parties.

These external IT threats can also emerge when a malicious party uses malware to infect systems and infrastructure. They often do so by fabricating emails that seem legitimate and ask people to provide credentials.

A recent attempt discovered by cybersecurity researchers involved a phishing scheme that included the sender posing as the company’s chief information officer and included a faked signature. Recipients also got documents that initially seemed to outline new organizational policies. However, the content tried to trick a person into providing sensitive details.

In cases like these, external threat actors targeted a single organization after evidently researching it to get details about key players. However, some efforts are broader and aim to trick thousands of people or more who have something in common. For example, hackers might target all people who use a certain parcel delivery service or bank.

What Are Internal Threats?

Internal threats come from people with links to the affected organization. Individuals in this group include current and former employees, contractors and service providers. Since those who carry out internal threats have some familiarity with the organization, they often have well-defined intentions for what they want to accomplish.

However, many people cause internal IT threats by accident, such as sending confidential information to the wrong recipient or forgetting their company laptop on a subway seat, where it eventually gets stolen. Relatedly, a person may leave the business for a new role and not realize they took company information with them while departing — such as if it’s on a USB drive they haven’t used in a while.

One of the best ways to minimize internal threats is to have people follow specific protocols regardless of their locations. Statistics show that more than 80% of companies intend to let people work remotely at least part of the time after the COVID-19 pandemic. Reminding individuals never to leave their laptops unattended and unlocked is a good start. It’s also crucial that they choose strong, unique passwords and avoid working over public Wi-Fi connections.

Internal threats can also occur for retaliatory reasons, such as from a disgruntled former employee who was fired for misconduct but perceives their termination as unfair. However, getting into the habit of changing credentials as soon as people leave the company for any reason will limit what they can access.

Cybersecurity Is Everyone’s Responsibility

Various proactive measures exist for protecting a company against both insider and external cybersecurity threats. For example, a business might invest in tools that detect real-time attempts to infiltrate a network or monitor when employees log into company resources.

However, it’s also crucial to establish a culture where workers know that demonstrating cybersecurity best practices is always part of their roles. Employee apathy can raise cyber-risks by lowering awareness. If people believe cyberattacks won’t happen to them, they’ll be less on guard against potential attempts.

Perhaps an employee notices a company does not take IT security seriously. They may feel more compelled to carry out a malicious insider attack, believing it highly likely to succeed due to the lack of cyber defenses.

When company norms prioritize cybersecurity, people are highly likely to view it as important. They’ll also recognize their role in limiting attackers’ reach.

Knowing the Differences Is the First Step

There’s no single technique for stopping all internal or external attacks. However, recognizing the differences between each type is critical for helping people identify and mitigate an organization’s most significant cyber threats.

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Here are the Top Cybersecurity Trends in 2021

• Rise of Automotive Hacking

Today, cars come packed with automated software that creates smooth communication for cruise control drivers, airbags, and advanced driver assistance systems. Bluetooth and WiFi systems are in utilization by these vehicles to connect, revealing them to many risks or hacker bugs. The benefits of vehicle control are expected to increase with the further use of autonomous vehicles. An even more complex mechanism is used for self-driving or autonomous vehicles, requiring strict cybersecurity measures.

• Potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

As AI is launched in all business segments, this technology has brought tremendous cybersecurity improvements with a combination of machine learning. AI has been crucial in developing automated protection systems, processing natural language, face recognition, and automatic threat detection. It can also build smart malware and attacks to circumvent the new data control security protocols. Threat detection systems authorized by AI will anticipate new attacks and warn administrators instantly of any data breach.

• Mobile is the New Target

Trends in cybersecurity provide a significant increase in 2019 for mobile banking attacks. Thus it makes our handheld devices a potential prospect for hackers. In all our photos, financial transactions, emails, and texts, more threats to individuals are present. Smartphone viruses or malware will capture the attention of cybersecurity trends in 2021.

• Cloud is also Vulnerable

With more cloud-based organizations now in operation, security protocols need continuous monitoring to protect data from leaks. Cloud apps like Google or Microsoft are still well equipped with protection from their end. The user end acts as a major source of mistakes, malware, and phishing attacks.

• Data Breaches are the Main Target

For organizations worldwide, data will continue to be a leading concern. Securing digital data is now the primary target, whether it is for a person or business. For hackers to access personal information, any minor browser or computer error or flaw in your system is a potential weakness.

• IoT with 5G Network: The New Frontier of Technology and Risks

With 5G networks set to launch internationally in 2020, IoT will become a reality in a new age of inter-connectivity. This interaction between several devices also exposes them to bugs, risks, or an unknown software error having an external effect. Even the most used Google Chrome-supported browser in the world has been found to have major flaws. The 5G architecture is still efficiently new and needs a great deal of testing to find vulnerabilities and protect the system from external attacks. Any step of the 5G network could bring several network attacks that we might not be aware of. Manufacturers need to be very strict when designing sophisticated 5G hardware and software to track data breaches.

• Integration and Automation

With the amount of information multiplying every day, automation’s introduction to provide more sophisticated data control is crucial. The new demand for hectic work pushes professionals to provide fast solutions, making automation more useful than ever before. During the agile process, security metrics are in implementation to create more reliable applications in every aspect. It is also challenging to safeguard vast web applications, making automation, and cybersecurity a critical concept in the software development process.

• Targeted Ransomware

Another important factor in cybersecurity is that it is not possible that targeted ransomware will be ignored by 2020. In particular, developed nations’ sectors rely heavily on specialized software to carry out their daily operations. There is a greater emphasis on specific ransomware targets. Though ransomware usually asks for threats to reveal the victim’s data unless a ransom is still paid. In the case of countries, it may impact the big organization or even.

• State-Sponsored Cyber Warfare

In attempts to find supremacy between the western and eastern powers, there will be no stoppage. Although there are few attacks, often worldwide news is created by the dispute between the US and Iran or Chinese hackers. They have a massive influence on a case like a referendum. With more than 70 elections to be conducted this year during this period, the illegal activity will increase. Expect high-profile breaches of records, political and industrial secrets to top cybersecurity trends in 2021.

• Insider Threats

Indeed a human mistake is one of the critical reasons for the data breach. Any lousy day or intentional backdoor can bring a whole company down with millions of stolen data. To safeguard data in every way possible, make sure you build more visibility inside the premises.

Conclusion

These cybersecurity trends in 2021 jump to have more fear of piling their security measures in organizations. Organizations expect to invest $100+ billion more than ever on securing their assets alone this year. Infrastructure security is playing a crucial role in virtually every organization today. It would be an excellent choice to start their cybersecurity learning curve today to become experts for tomorrow. Educated and experienced cybersecurity professionals are among the highest-paid employees in the IT industry.

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