How to protect yourself against Cyber Attacks?

How to protect yourself against Cyber Attacks?

Protect yourself against Cyber Attacks.

The modern world is witnessing the usage of the Internet at a much faster pace. With time, the number of Internet users is increasing rapidly. Thanks to smartphones and highly efficient yet cost-effective computers. Another reason is the hardworking developer community that has made development and use of the software more and more easy with the requirement of lesser and lesser technical sophistication. The capabilities of software programs have also enhanced exponentially. The need for distributed computing and connectivity to the world for staying updated on current trends is the reason for businesses to increase their online presence. Some of these businesses are completely online with no offline element in their service or product. With all the emphasis on usability, an aspect has been mostly ignored since it has been a hurdle in usability. The security of online assets is a factor that was getting less attention than it deserved until the last four years. Cybercrimes were not that frequent before 2013. The rise in internet usage has resulted in rise of cybercrimes. The rise in cyber crimes resulted in an increased awareness of the importance of cyber security. But, a single successful attack can be enough to cause a loss of multi-billion dollars. Companies know it and hence are working towards making their products safer. Today's cybercriminals are not part-time amateurs or script kiddies, but state-sponsored adversaries and professional criminals looking to steal information. While disruption and vandalism are still prevalent, espionage has replaced hacktivism as the second main driving force behind cyber attacks, after financial profit. Whatever the motive, many security teams are struggling to keep their IT systems secure. Cyber attacks are launched against organizations every day: According to Check Point Research, in the fourth quarter of 2021, there was an all-time peak in weekly cyber attacks, reaching over 900 attacks per organization, while IT Governance reported 34.9 million records breached in June 2022 alone. A RiskIQ study estimated that cybercrime costs organizations $1.79 million every minute. These costs are both tangible and intangible, including not only direct loss of assets, revenue and productivity, but also loss of business confidence, trust and reputational damage. Cybercrime is built around the efficient exploitation of vulnerabilities, and security teams are always at a disadvantage because they must defend all possible entry points, while an attacker only needs to find and exploit one weakness or vulnerability. This asymmetry highly favors any attacker, with the result that even large enterprises struggle to prevent cybercriminals from monetizing access to their networks -- networks that typically must maintain open access and connectivity while trying to protect enterprise resources.

 

Cyber attacks can significantly hamper business operations as companies greatly rely on technology, social media, and the Internet to manage costs and maintain a competitive advantage. Being cyber resilient can help a company prevent loss of revenues, business downtime, several unforeseen costs, and legal liabilities that come bundled with a cyber breach. Companies, whether small or large or of any industry, can become a target of a cyber attack. It is thus imperative that businesses take preventative measures and adopt a serious approach to cyber security to help minimize risk. Efficient cyber resilience can enhance your business’ reputation, its brand image, protect from losses and much more. Here are some measures that one can take to safeguard himself / herself against Cyber Attacks.

 

Use an Internet Security Suite: If you know anything at all about a computer and the internet, the chances are very high that you might be using an antivirus already (And if not then do not take the risk unless you are seasoned cyber security professional with data backups in place). An antivirus program combined with an internet security program set helps you in:

 

·         Avoiding malicious downloads done by mistake.

·         Avoiding malicious installs done by mistake.

·         Preventing from being a victim to Man In The Middle Attack(MITM)

·         Protection from phishing.

·         Protection from damage that trojan horses may cause. Some Trojan Horses are built in a way that the majority of the code is for doing useful and seemingly innocent things while a small portion does something nasty like acting as backdoor or escalating privileges.

 

Learn how to detect a potential social engineering attack: Whether in the form of phishing, ransomware, or pretexting — among others — social engineering attacks are dangerous and often hard to pinpoint. The ability to detect them as soon as possible is vital to protecting your organization against such cyber threats.

 

Every single member of your organization should learn how to detect a potential social engineering attack. All it takes is one employee to click on the wrong link or send personal information to the wrong person, for a large-scale data breach to occur.

Here’s a list of data and communication exchanges that you should think twice about before offering or engaging in:

 

·         Requests for user or shared credentials

·         Requests for contractual or financial information

·         Requests for personal information

·         Unusual or suspicious links and files

·         Unusual or suspicious phone calls

 

Use Strong Passwords: This can’t be emphasized enough. If you have “qwerty123” as your bank’s password and a lot of money in the account, you must be ready for a surprise transaction. You should not fully rely on the rate-limiting measures used by websites that you visit. Your password should be strong enough to be practically unbreakable. A strong password is one that is 12+ characters long and contains a diverse use of alphabets(both cases), numbers and symbols (and spaces). Setting a really unbreakable password should not be difficult specially when there are help available as random password generators. You can use this one or this one. 3. Keep Your Software Up-to-Date: Despite the developer’s best intention to create secure software and thorough reviews from the security teams, there are unfortunately many zero-days that are revealed once the software is being used by a large user base. Companies are well aware of this fact and that is why they release frequent updates to patch these vulnerabilities. This is the reason why those updates, however annoying they may be, are important. They help in preventing attacks that can easily skip the radar of the antivirus programs on your computer. 4. Avoid Identity Theft: Identity theft is when someone else uses your personal information to impersonate you on any platform to gain benefits in your name while the bills are addressed for you. It’s just an example, identity theft can cause you to damage more serious than financial losses. The most common reason for identity theft is improper management of sensitive personal data. There are some things to be avoided when dealing with personally identifiable data:

 

·         Never share your Aadhaar/PAN number(In India) with anyone whom you do not know/trust.

·         Never share your SSN (in the United States of America) with anyone whom you do not know/trust.

·         Do not post sensitive data on social networking sites.

·         Do not make all the personal information on your social media accounts public.

·         Do not fill personal data on the website that claim to offer benefits in return.

 

Implement multi-factor authentication and password management: Password management policies and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are essential when it comes to securing your devices. While a password’s role is straight forward, consistently rotating a strong and randomized password is just as crucial. It’s important to change all default passwords on your devices, as this is a vulnerability often exploited by threat actors. And of course, never share your passwords — with anyone. MFA is also key to securing your systems, as it forces the user to confirm their credentials through a secure, secondary application every time a device is used.

 

Keep up with software and hardware best practices: Software and hardware physical security best practices help to ensure that you’re doing all you can to secure your organization, whether it be choosing systems with built-in defense functions or regularly updating your software and hardware. Choosing systems with built-in layers of defense strengthens your organization’s cybersecurity the minute they’re up and running. With many solutions containing built-in security functions like data encryption and endpoint protection, these obstacles make it harder for threat actors to penetrate your systems. When it comes to software updates, many overlook the important role that they play in helping to secure your organization. Prioritize updating the software and firmware on all your devices, as this allows them to function at their optimal level. Product updates often provide critical fixes for newfound vulnerabilities.

 

Choose the right technology: Finding a technology provider that offers the solutions you need, all while operating with transparency, is not easy. While it may take time to decide which vendor is the right fit for your organization, it’s an important step towards shaping your ideal security solution. Most vendors offer their customers hardening guides — guides that provide tips on how to keep your system secure — so ask the right questions to ensure you receive your vendors’ relevant data and privacy protection policies. Choosing the right technology is central to a strong cybersecurity strategy, as operating with transparency and maintaining clear communication around vulnerabilities allows your organization to create an optimal cybersecurity strategy.

 

The more people and devices a network connects, the greater the value of the network, which makes it harder to raise the cost of an attack to the point where hackers give up. Metcalfe's law asserts that the value of a network is proportional to the square of its connected users. So, security teams have to accept that their networks will be under constant attack, but by understanding how different types of cyber attacks work, mitigating controls and strategies can be put in place to minimize the damage they can do. Here are the main points to keep in mind: Hackers, of course, first need to gain a foothold in a network before they can achieve whatever objectives they have, so they need to find and exploit one or more vulnerabilities or weaknesses in their victim's IT infrastructure. Vulnerabilities are either human- or technology-based, and according to a recent IBM "Cyber Security Intelligence Index Report," human error was a major contributing cause in 95% of all breaches. Errors can be either unintentional actions or lack of action, from downloading a malware-infected attachment to failing to use a strong password. This makes security awareness training a top priority in the fight against cyber attacks, and as attack techniques are constantly evolving, training needs to be constantly updated as well to ensure users are alerted to the latest types of attack. A cyber attack simulation campaign can assess the level of cyber awareness among employees with additional training where there are obvious shortcomings. While security-conscious users can reduce the success rate of most cyber attacks, a defense-in-depth strategy is also essential. These should be tested regularly via vulnerability assessments and penetration tests to check for exploitable security vulnerabilities in OSes and the applications they run. End-to-end encryption throughout a network stops many attacks from being able to successfully extract valuable data even if they manage to breach perimeter defenses. To deal with zero-day exploits, where cybercriminals discover and exploit a previously unknown vulnerability before a fix becomes available, enterprises need to consider adding content disarm and reconstruction to their threat prevention controls as it assumes all content is malicious so it doesn't need to try to detect constantly evolving malware functionality. Finally, security teams need to proactively monitor the entire IT environment for signs of suspicious or inappropriate activity to detect cyber attacks as early as possible -- network segmentation creates a more resilient network that is able to detect, isolate and disrupt an attack. And, of course, there should be a well-rehearsed response plan if an attack is detected.

 

With the broad range of opportunities that Internet has opened for you also comes the risk of cyber attacks. Attackers are on the lookout to try to steal your money, information, or even disrupt your business. It is time to fight these attacks, as most of such cyber attacks can be prevented or detected with basic security practices. Being diligent about cyber security at the workplace as well as at home can make an enormous difference towards efficient cyber resilience.

SHARE AT

0 Comments

Leave a Reply