Cyber Attacks: What is It and How to Protect Yourself

Cybersecurity is very important, especially for big businesses that can go broke or even close due to cyber threats.

What’s even more important is learning about cybersecurity and the type of attacks that can attack your company's systems and software. The more you know about the subject, the more you will be able to avoid it and protect your company’s sensitive data. For example, if you don’t encrypt your data or have a back-up for it, you could be risking your company’s information and exposing it to cyber theft. Here, we identify what cyberattacks are and the ways in which you can follow to prevent their dangers.  

What Are Cyber Attacks?

A cyber attack is an illegal attempt of breaking into a corporate’s system or network and breaching its security to steal or leak sensitive information. The attacker would then take hold of this data to threaten or harm a certain business. This could lead to companies paying huge fines and debts to prevent the attack or to regain access to their stolen information. A cyber attack can also be in the form of identity theft, which can lead to serious legal problems for the victim whose information was stolen. An attacker can also blackmail the victim or spam them using their stolen information for other malicious reasons.  

Other examples of common cyber attacks include; phishing, malware, hardware theft, attacks causing a denial of service in corporate networks and portals, breach of access, system infiltration, website defacement, and taking advantage of private and public web browsers. In most cases, just breaching a business’s security or access portals would expose them to huge threats and cost them a lot of money. So it’s important to identify those cyber threats and know how to stop them. 

Staff Security Training

The biggest threat to a business comes from its working staff. This is because most cyberattacks target employees by sending them scam emails that pretend to be sent from reputable positions and direct them to either providing personal details or allowing for access to certain files. Attackers can also direct employees to click on malicious links that download viruses onto the corporate’s network that give them access to steal their sensitive data. Your employees need to be aware of these common threats and be able to identify suspicious links and emails. Train your working staff or read here on how to increase the awareness for cybersecurity and what are the methods of avoiding falling into the trap of these scam emails. For example, one needs to call the sender before submitting any personal details or company information. Workers also have to check links before opening them to avoid downloading malware and risking the company’s protected data. 

Firewall System

Installing a firewall to your system or network will do the job of blocking any attacks or theft attempts striking your business. New ways for data breaching rise every day and some ways are even still undetectable to most people, so the risk is higher when you don’t have enough awareness about the kind of attack you are facing. When you protect your data with a firewall, you eliminate the chances of falling victim to these breaches even if you don’t know when to start taking action.  

Running System Updates

System updates are made to enhance a certain software to get rid of its weaknesses and help it block cyber breaches. If your systems are not up to date, hackers will take advantage of these weaknesses to breach your network and get into your data. If the attacker manages to have access to your network, it’s almost too late to stop them from exploiting your business information. To prevent this, you need to have an updated system and use patch management tools to keep your software up to date and protect them from being breached. 

Endpoint Device Management

An endpoint device is a device that communicates with the business network remotely and shares its sensitive information from outside its premises, such as laptops and mobile phones that workers use. These devices are connected to the main corporate network and can be prone to theft which can lead to data leaking and put the company at risk. This is why protecting these devices with endpoint protection software is very important in order to prevent system security threats.

Remember to always back-up your important data to stay ahead of cyber-attacks and regain access to your corporate system in times of emergencies. New methods of security breaches surface on the internet every day, and hackers know exactly how to make use of software weaknesses, so it’s important to stay aware and use the right protection software to avoid losing sensitive data. It’s also important to raise awareness and educate your workers on the common threats that can put the business at risk by being deceived through email scamming and sharing personal information.