Technological progression is an evolutionary process. As new technologies evolve, so do their side effects. One of the serious side effects of the digital age is the growing risk of cyber attacks. For businesses, it’s more serious than ever.
The good news is that technological advancements have allowed us to identify and foil cyber crime attempts before they actually happen.
Read on if you want to know how new technologies have changed cybersecurity.
Enterprise Cyber Security Risks
Most enterprise cyber security breaches result from criminals manipulating employees to provide them with critical information via scams and social concocting. Hackers have honed their skills. They use new and innovative methods to detect loopholes and fissures in enterprise security systems. As such, most of them succeed in gaining access to critical business data, files, documents, and information.
These 20 cyber crime statistics should be an eye-opener for organizations.
Spear Phishing: A New Method of Targeting Businesses
While phishing email is common and most people are aware of it, a spear phishing scam is new ploy hackers are using to steal your money, confidential information, and critical business data. Spear phishing is a method whereby cyber criminals target enterprise employees via email. The email will seem to be from a colleague within the enterprise structure.
The hackers use advanced techniques to disguise the email address as someone within your organization. Most employees fall for it, ending up providing important information to hackers.
Moreover, hackers use social media to implement their nefarious designs. They use social networks to steal identity information and lure employees of the target organization to click on certain malicious links or download malicious files or codes. By doing so, they succeed in intruding into your systems and stealing critical business data and information.
The new practice of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) at work is popular and productive for businesses; however, it increases your cyber security risks. Since your employees would be using their personal devices to perform business functions, a breach of an employee’s device could lead to a serious security risk for your organization.
Digitization of Data and Information
The majority of offices have gone paperless. Modern organizations rely more on digitized information than hard copy information. When you look around, you see virtually everything digitized. Even though digitization has immense benefits for businesses, it poses a security risk.
If you don’t have robust cyber security in place, a cybercriminal could easily intrude into your networks, cloud storage, or systems and steal your digitized data. This could put your organization at greater risk.
Cloud computing and cloud networks make your business cost-effective, but they also provide an easy way for unauthorized people to access your data and information. To prevent this, you need to have an unfailing cyber security solution in place, focusing on cloud security.
New Technologies and Employee Training
Advanced technologies would benefit your organization only if your employees are properly trained to use them. Otherwise, they would do more harm than good to your business. As stated earlier, new technologies carry new security risks. And to reduce those new risks, you need to have advanced security measures in place.
When you bring new technology to your organization, you need to train your employees in how to use it safely. Also, be sure to use a reliable cyber security service to assess the new technology before connecting it to your network. There is always a risk that untrained and unaware employees would use the new technology carelessly, making your business susceptible to cyber-attack.
The Threat of Hacktivism
Hacktivism is a new term that describes instances where a hack is done for a social or political purpose. Cybercriminals have already taken hacktivism to an advanced level using newer technologies, techniques, and tricks.
Hackers are busy trying to access organizations that store critical and confidential data belonging to other organizations, businesses, government agencies, and important individuals.
Depending on the nature of your business, you may be at a greater risk of hacktivism. For example, hacktivists may target you if you are a government agency or legal entity.
The Rise of Botnets
There was a time when hackers used botnets (a combination of systems to spread viruses and spam) to capture email addresses and passwords. But now, cybercriminals are using advanced botnets to capture even your personal information like name, age, payment card information, online activities, email addresses, and passwords.
Just imagine a botnet that targets your organizational systems, stealing critical business data. The hackers could sell the data to other parties, or they may hold it for ransom.
Using the data and information gathered via botnets, the criminals could even take down your network and systems, purge your data, and take your business to the verge of bankruptcy.
The only surefire way to prevent botnets from accessing your systems and network is to have robust cyber security measures in place.
The Takeaway
With technological advancements and innovations, cyber security risks have augmented in leaps and bounds. It is important for organizations to have precautionary measures against cyber threats in place. If you think that your cyber defense is not vigorous enough to thwart possible cyber attacks, hire a reliable cyber security firm to assess your position.
