Cyber Attacks You Need to Know ASAP to Protect Your Company
It's your responsibility to be ready against technology threads that can ruin your business
Last year companies suffer about 1001 cases of a data breach and over the course of the same year, 2020 around 155.8 million individuals were affected with some sort of data exposure.
No one doubts it is a risk that can harm any kind of company, but what are the most common cyber attacks on organizations? And no less important. What can a company do to defend its private data?
“Security used to be an inconvenience sometimes, but now it’s a necessity all the time.” — Martina Navratilova
Fraud types you need to know
1. Information or data leaks When a security incident results in the loss of confidentiality of company information.
Cyberattack is the usual assumption, but it is sometimes also motivated by an insider, a former disgruntled employee. As a third cause, it can happen involuntarily, because of the loss of a phone with this information, e-mails, etc.
2. Phishing attack Its goal is to steal confidential information and access credentials. To achieve this, it supplants the identity of recognized companies and organizations.
The attack usually occurs via email, but can also be done through SMS messages, social networks, instant messaging applications, or phone calls.
3. CEO fraud Also known as spear phishing, this attack targets a particular victim, from whom the information has previously been collected through the corporate website, professional social networks, etc. This information makes fraud more credible and way more dangerous.
The mode of action is the cybercriminal supplements, the identity of a manager to address a subordinate of the company with the capacity to make money transfers.
In electronic communication, he asks him/her for a significant money movement, which he justifies the closure of a business transaction. The employee, thinking that the order comes from a superior, agrees, but also tends not to comment internally, because his superior assumption has asked him for maximum confidentiality.
4. Human Resources Fraud This time, the cyber offender impersonates an employee of the company and requests that his payroll be paid to a new account number, of course, controlled by the fraudster.
5. Sex-extorsion The victim is informed by e-mail that she has been filmed in a compromised situation, after “hacking” her phone, she has videos or private conversations. If you do not make a payment, usually in cryptocurrencies, that information will be distributed to all your contacts. To make your threat more credible, your communications may include personal information.
6. Attacks on corporate web The goal can differ greatly from getting confidential information to damaging the company’s image.
Sometimes, these hackers violate security more than entertainment or demonstration of their knowledge than for an economic purpose, leading them, for example, to change the appearance of the website by showing funny or obscene images.
Denial-of-service attacks are common, causing users to cannot shop on a store or view a page. And it is also common for people to use the “hacked” website as a platform to commit other crimes.
Bad web configurations, having vulnerabilities and not having patched them, or even design errors make it easier for the offender to act. The most obvious lesson is that any company website must have an appropriate security policy.
“Privacy — like eating and breathing — is one of life’s basic requirements.” — Katherine Neville
7. Ransomware This malware or malware prevents access to company information, usually because it has been encrypted. This is one of the most common and effective attacks since sometimes it is only possible to recover the information upon payment of the requested rescue.
8. Fraud of false technical support A well-known computer company’s technical assumption warns about errors detected in the company’s devices. This is how this scam begins, which can compromise the security and privacy of the entire organization or single-employee device.
9. E-mail campaigns with malware A mail that appears to be an invoice, a voucher for purchase, or any other lure can be the beginning of an infection that spreads across the organization. The malicious file can be an attachment to the mail or a web link.
10. Denial of service attacks Cybercriminals make many requests at once to a particular server until they can disable it. This causes the “crash” of the website or the e-commerce, and users cannot access it until the company can unlock it.
11. Adware attacks Advertising is displayed to a user in order to generate income for cybercriminals. They often reach the victim’s device through free software or non-legitimate programs. It is certainly the least aggressive attack of the commenters, but sometimes it is a big nuisance for the user, who cannot work normally.
12. Supplier impersonation attack As you will surely have guessed, this time the company receives an email from a provider whom the criminal has supplanted. The goal is to get a bank transfer that, of course, will never reach the intended destination.
The Bottom Line This danger should not be taken lightly, as the social engineering techniques used by these scammers are becoming more sophisticated. Now that you are aware of the most common attack situations, sit down with your tech team to revise the entire structure so you can plan accordingly a safe defense against attacks.
Also, I would recommend meeting with your team and make them aware of some possible scams, work together to implement a plan of action in certain cases when the attack target employees that may need some sort of ok from management to handle delicate information.
“Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.” — Ronald Reagan