If you have been in cybersecurity business for more than a year, you would know that no matter how well you prepare for all threats and exploits, you have a certain gap in your complete infrastructure that is or will be exploited. Businesses invest heavily towards the firewalls, antivirus solutions and even towards the cybersecurity awareness but cybercriminals can exploit various vulnerabilities in your business operation and infrastructure. It could be because they exploit all different types of vulnerabilities that they can find, it has been happening because cybercriminals are aware about the exploit attack vectors that are known to organizations or even because they know that they are aware of certain vulnerability or zero-day exploit.  Security experts from various industries that have been affected by security incidents feel that the rising technology gap between the current business and cybercriminals mean that cyberattacks are coming your way, but the question is when. Security risks come in all different shapes, sizes with attacks vectors that differ, and level of potency that the attack can cause even vary. Considering all the threats to cybersecurity are continuously changing and adapting it’s a challenge for business to keep up with all of them to focus on the current business. Taking a step back we need to learn that cybersecurity can be challenging but working on it can be a learning phase for business, they can take the required time to learn and identify about as many cybersecurity threats that are present possible and work towards identifying them and addressing as many gaps present in the security infrastructure.

We have analyzed cybersecurity of major organizations around the world and listed five biggest security threats that will affect you even if you have a security infrastructure:

1. Phishing and social engineering

Phishing is one of the oldest forms of attacks that are being used by cybercriminals to gain access to sensitive information. Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to elicit sensitive information from victim in order to perform some type of action that would include extortion of money. Phishing is very real and costly for a modern-day business, in Evil Internet Minute infographic, RiskIQ shares that the company loses $17,700 every minute due to phishing attacks. There are several types of phishing attacks that are present- General phishing, CEO fraud, Clone phishing, Domain spoofing, URL phishing, Watering hole phishing, and evil twin phishing.

There are several ways using which the businesses can avoid phishing threats,

I. Run random phishing simulations.

II. Push HTTPS on your websites to create secured and encrypted connections.

II. Institute access mnagment policies and procdures.

IV. Use reliable email and spam filters.

V. Require two-factor authentication.

VI. Use email encryption and email signing certificates.

2. Formjacking

Formjacking, much like how it sounds such type of cybersecurity threat involves cybercriminals taking over the forms on websites by manipulating their security weaknesses. Cybercriminals use lines of changed JavaScript code on the checkout page forms of eCommerce websites to get access to customers financial information.  The goal is to harvest any type of valuable information using forms, and cybercriminals will be using third-party applications such as chats and survey as their attacks vectors.

Some of the ways that you can prevent Formjacking include:

I. Running vulnerability scanning and penetration testing that will assist in identifying any vulnerability or weakness for your complete cybersecurity defense.

II. Monitoring outbound traffic for your site- it will assist you to be aware of any traffic from your site to another location.

II. Using Subresources integrity (SRI) tags- assist you in ensuring that files used by web applications and documents don’t contain any unexpected, manipulated content using hashing.

3. Patch management

Purpose of a patch is to cover the hole in your infrastructure, and manufacturers release patches all the time to address vulnerabilities in their operating systems, software, and other technologies. They provide essential aspects for security of your business- yet frequently we see that patching gets ignored in a business setup. Cybersecurity experts have expressed concerns of rising patch wall that is required by business regularly even as the software implemented should be initially tested.  Some businesses aren’t even patching like they should be, because not all businesses have the resources to expedite the process in-house, so they roll patches when they can or when they want as a compulsion.  

Solutions: Patch management is a priority but not optional. For effective patch management is an essential livelihood for business and security of your customer’s data. The organization should be closing the holes in infrastructure by automating the process would be highly beneficial. Patching these vulnerabilities in real-time through automation makes your cybersecurity more effective and also one less task for your team to have to perform manually.  

4. IoT insecurity

IoT devices have made an upsurge with application in connectivity and solution to build a harmonized environment. IoT technology devices include everything from smart thermostats and videoconferencing technology to warehouse stock monitors and even smart vending machine that can order their own required refills.  Gartner reports that by 2020 there will be more than 20.4 billion IoT devices that will be a combination of sensors, software devices, networks making the homes and workplaces more intelligent. They assist the businesses to make the environment more comfortable, certain operational function with convenience and automation.

Solutions: Securing IoT is about more than just securing your devices; it’s about protecting data and privacy. We look beyond IoT device security solutions consider everything from the applications and network to the IoT ecosystem as a whole to identify any vulnerabilities and potential liabilities.

5. Human factor

Whether with intent or without any malice, employee is biggest threats to cybersecurity. There are vulnerabilities coming from employees, vendors, or anyone else who have access to your network or IT related systems. Cyberattack or data breach can occur due to human error or lack of cybersecurity awareness such as with an easy to guess passwords or falling for phishing emails. Even social engineering attacks that can trick users to take certain steps to get confidential information from user.

Solutions: In addition to keeping strong firewalls and antivirus solutions in place businesses should invest is usage of services of an in-house or even third-party cybersecurity operations center (CSOC) to starve off the cybersecurity threats for both the overall websites that are being used and for an organization.

Conclusion

The above challenges are not an exhaustive list for businesses it might vary based on business and data requirements, the solutions added give you a brief about the steps that must be taken to fend off these challenges.

To know more, you can download latest whitepapers on cybersecurity solutions.