The Top 4 Biggest Cyber Security Threats

The increase in technological know-how has changed how we view security. The world as we know it is now a computer village, and one can now talk to people on the other side of the globe via the internet. The introduction of new possibilities and benefits of technology has created an increased dependency on the internet. The ease of using the internet has caused migration from the traditional method of security to cyber security.

Despite increasing attempts at improving cybersecurity, cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, and many businesses struggle to cope with them. It is no secret that the world is still recovering from the global pandemic, COVID-19. During this global pandemic, there was a surge of global threats from common areas such as mobile and IoT devices. Covid-19 impacted the operations of the world, causing an increase in the number of remote employees, which was one of the avenues used by cybercriminals.
The changes caused by the global pandemic have led to an emerging cyber threat landscape that can affect businesses and organizations with holes in their security defenses. These will be explained below:

Remote employees are new targets for cybercriminals

The emergence of remote employees as a safety precaution in the COVID-19 pandemic has created loopholes that cybercriminals have utilized. Due to this unforeseen pandemic, many organizations had to change their security system to acclimatize with the new remote landscape. Some organizations had to carry out unplanned cloud migrations and buying of new IT products and services.

In typical situations, many of the changes made would have been planned and carried out according to a planned schedule. Still, many organizations and businesses had to rush these new services to keep running. This rush caused many to deliberately or erroneously go against their security measures, making numerous more vulnerable than they have ever been.

The pandemic also showed the remote working is beneficial and can be as effective as working in offices. This means that organizations cannot revert to formal security measures to ensure security. They have to start thinking about a long-term security measure that will cover remote working.

New challenges from Ransomware

Ransomware is similar to kidnapping in the physical world, but the only thing taken here is data. Ransomware attacks have grown in popularity, and it is now one of the most common threats that organizations face. In 202o, businesses suffered more losses from ransomware attacks than data breaches.

One of the reasons for this increase is that cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated; they are now fond of stealing the data of the company encrypt it and demand a fee for them to be decrypted. The economic loss that could ensue and the sensitive data that the cybercriminals have stolen makes it a dilemma for organizations and why most pay the ransom.

Organizations must awaken to the surge of these threats by identifying the source of these threats. For example, many companies utilize virtual private networks (VPNs) to grant access to their corporate network, but they are no longer as effective as they used to be due to the change of entry points of these attacks. Most ransomware attacks result from phishing, and companies should start establishing new measures to combat it. An option is the Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA) which has been more successful than VPNs.

Increase Use of Artificial Intelligence

There is an increased understanding of how to develop and utilize artificial intelligence. Most companies are awake to the possibilities of AI, and they have started integrating them to be part of their security infrastructure. The use of AI instead of human resources has caused increased efficiency in analyzing a large amount of data. This is very beneficial to large and mid-sized companies who might not have the resources to maintain security.

Although AI presents a chance for economic gain and helps them detect a more significant number of threats in businesses, it can also create an avenue that cybercriminals can utilize. This would not deter companies from using the technology as the deployment of AI in companies that suffered data breaches in 2020 already saved them $3.58 million.

Increased Attacks on Cloud Services

COVID-19 created an increase in the remote workforce which you can maintain by using cloud-based services and infrastructure. Based on the growing adoption of remote working, companies would have to adapt to these changes. For example, businesses can adopt cloud-hosted processes.

Although there are many benefits that cloud services offer, such as scalability, efficiency, and reduced costs, Cloud-based services will always be a target for cybercriminals. For example, an organization can decide to proceed with cloud-based services after analyzing the security implications of the cloud and locating all the vulnerable points in the security infrastructure.

Conclusion

This article discussed the importance of cybersecurity and the emergence of new cyber threats post-pandemic that can hinder companies’ operations and attract significant losses.

To learn more on how to protect your organization from cybersecurity threats, contact us at Protech Cybersecurity services. We are available to help.