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1. Phishing / Spear Phishing

The Threat:

Phishing is one of the most common forms of cyber threats. A phishing attack uses technical trickery and social engineering to achieve its goals: attackers choose their targets carefully and take on the guise of a trusted source that victims are less likely to question.

It often involves sending emails with malicious attachments designed to steal personal information, or leading victims to an illegitimate website that steals passwords, credit card details, business information, and other sensitive data.

Spear phishing is even more targeted, focusing on specific individuals or organisations!

How to Fight Back:

• Train Your Team: Regularly train your employees to spot phishing attempts. Show them how to recognise suspicious emails, sketchy links, and unexpected attachments so that risk is minimised.
• Email Filtering: Set up email filters to catch phishing emails before they reach your inbox. These filters can flag dodgy content and help keep your team safe from scams, preventing human error completely.

2. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks

The Threat:

Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) is an attack that targets the resources of a server, network, website, or computer to take it down or disrupt services.

They overload a system with constant flooding of connection requests, notifications, traffic. As a result, the system denies service requests from legitimate users.

DDoS attacks don’t benefit the attacker directly as they don’t steal any information: they compromise the systems so that they can’t function properly! They can halt your operations completely and result in damages worth thousands of dollars.

How to Fight Back:

• Watch Your Traffic: Use tools that monitor your network traffic for odd patterns that could indicate a DDoS attack. Setting up this detection will allow you or your IT team to act fast when something seems off.
• Limit Requests: Implement rate-limiting to control how many requests a server can manage from a single IP address. This prevents your server from getting overwhelmed and minimises DDOS impact!

3. Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks

The Threat:

A MitM attack occurs when a hacker inserts themselves between the communications of a client and a server.

Cybercriminals use session hijacking to gain control of the victim’s sessions and get access to resources or data. The most common method is IP spoofing, where the hijacker uses the IP of the trusted client to avail unauthorised services from a server or application.

This kind of unrestricted access to your business’s most secure resources brings clear downsides…

How to Fight Back:

• Use VPNs: Encourage using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to encrypt data on public networks. VPNs provide a secure way to communicate, making it hard for hackers to intercept and hijack your information.
• Two-Factor Authentication: Implement 2FA to double-check user identities! This adds an extra layer of security, making it tough for attackers to break in even if they get hold of your credentials.

4. Malware Attacks

The Threat:

Malware, or malicious software, is designed for compromising a system for a purpose.

A user can unknowingly download malware that infects a system and replicates itself, and it can be designed to act in many ways, just like software.

How to Fight Back:

• Install Security Software: Get antivirus and anti-malware software on all your devices. Along with other safeguards, make sure to scan your systems to catch any malicious software before it causes trouble.
• Keep Everything Updated: Ensure all your software and systems are up to date with the latest security patches. Closing security gaps is key to keeping malware at bay!

5. Drive-By Attacks

The Threat:

Drive-by attacks use various online resources to compromise a user’s system. Contrary to other forms of cyber-attacks, a user doesn’t have to do anything to initialize the malicious software or virus. A single click on a pop-up window or website link can do the job!

Drive-by attacks are being increasingly used to spread viruses due to their ability to run in the background, meaning they aren’t visible to users.

How to Fight Back:

• Web Filtering: Use web filtering solutions to block access to known malicious websites. This helps prevent users from accidentally visiting harmful sites and giving drive-by attacks a chance to run.
• Secure Browsers: Make sure browsers are updated with the latest security patches and configurations to prevent vulnerabilities from remaining. Proactive updating is the best way to minimise the threat of a drive-by attack!

6. Password Attacks

The Threat:

Password attacks are simple: they enable cybercriminals to gain unauthorised access to user accounts and networks with, well, their passwords!

From using unsecure passwords to someone in your office finding your password on a sticky note, there are many ways for a password attack to be enacted. Attackers may spy on your network, use decryption tools, or use brute force to break your passwords.

How to Fight Back:

• Password Managers: Encourage the use of password managers to create and store strong, unique passwords for each account. This reduces the risk of successful password attacks substantially by making it much less likely for your passwords to be guessed!
• Account Lockout Policies: Set up policies that temporarily lock accounts after several failed login attempts. This prevents brute-force attacks and alerts you to potential security threats as they are occurring! Combined with MFA, vulnerabilities are significantly removed.

Stay At the Forefront of Cybersecurity

Cyber threats are always evolving, but staying informed and proactive makes all the difference! Implement the above solutions to strengthen your cyber shield and keep your business secure.

If you have any questions at all or would rather have an IT Team manage these solutions for you, we are here to help! Get started by downloading our free Cybersecurity Essentials Booklet at https://www.dspit.com.au/cybershield/

By prioritising cybersecurity, you’re setting your business up for success. Don’t wait until it’s too late!

Sources: thetechnologypress.com/thetechtribe.com

Common Malware Threats

Malware can disguise itself as legitimate software, making it tough to spot. It can get into your system in various ways, each with its own tricks.

Macro Viruses

Macro viruses target popular applications like Microsoft Excel and Word, hiding in documents and executing harmful code when you open files.

To protect yourself, be cautious when opening email attachments or files from unknown sources and disable macros in your applications unless you trust the source. Another great safeguard is to regularly update your software to patch vulnerabilities that macro viruses might exploit.

Trojans

Trojans disguise themselves as legitimate software to trick you into installing them, allowing cybercriminals to access your system and steal information.

Only downloading software from trusted sources is the best way to prevent this type of malware from infiltrating your devices. It’s also always a good idea to use a reliable antivirus program to scan for Trojans and keep your security software updated!

System or Boot-Record Infectors

These infectors attach themselves to critical parts of your storage devices and activate when you boot up your system using a compromised disk.

To protect against them, avoid using unknown or untrusted external storage devices. Regularly scan your drives with antivirus software and ensure your system’s boot settings are secure for additional protection.

Polymorphic Viruses

Polymorphic viruses constantly change their code to avoid detection, making them challenging to spot and remove.

Use advanced antivirus solutions that can detect and adapt to this changing form of malware. As with many of these threats, regularly updating your antivirus software and running frequent scans are some of the best safeguard methods!

Stealth Viruses

Stealth viruses hide by pretending to be part of your system’s normal functions, avoiding detection by manipulating system responses.

Monitor your devices for unusual system behaviour that might indicate a stealth virus. If it seems out of the ordinary, it’s worth a closer look (and scan for safe measure).

File Infectors

File infectors target executable files, like those with .exe extensions, and become active when you run the infected file.

This solution is simple: avoid downloading or running files from untrusted sources and use an antivirus program to scan all new files before opening them.

Advanced Malware Threats

Beyond the basic types of malware, there are more sophisticated threats that can cause significant harm.

Logic Bombs

Logic bombs are malicious code that remains hidden until certain conditions are met, unleashing destructive payloads.

To defend against them, maintain regular backups of important data to recover from unexpected attacks. Using monitoring tools in to detect unusual system behaviour will also help to prevent them from resting dormant on your devices.

Worms

Worms are self-contained malware that spread across networks and systems on their own, consuming bandwidth and carrying harmful code.

Fighting back against this malware type will require you to ensure that your network security settings are robust. Use firewalls to block unauthorised access and, as always, keep your operating system and software up to date with the latest security patches!

Droppers

Droppers help malware enter your system by delivering it to the target, often going undetected by antivirus software.

Make sure to scan with your antivirus program… all right, we’re just kidding! Antivirus scanning obviously won’t help much with this malware threat: instead, you’ll need to be cautious about what you download and use comprehensive security solutions like heuristic scanning to detect suspicious behaviours typical of droppers. This form of malware is definitely more advanced, and we’re here to explain further if you need it.

Ransomware

Ransomware locks your files or data and demands a ransom to unlock them, often spreading through email attachments or malicious downloads.

Regular backups of your data to secure locations are crucial to prevent ransomware attacks from severely impacting your business. Along with the usual prevention tools of following download best practices and regularly scanning for threats, you’ll need a strong backup solution to make sure your data isn’t poached.

It’s Easy to Get Overwhelmed: That’s Why We’re Here!

As you can see, malware comes in many forms, each with its own unique tricks to infiltrate your systems. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, the best option may be to partner with an IT provider like us, who can manage these threats for you! We’ll handle cybersecurity while you focus on what makes your business tick!

Download our free Cybersecurity Essentials Booklet from this page to continue bolstering your cyber shield and solidifying your business’s cybersecurity.

Sources: thetechnologypress.com/thetechtribe.com