Cybersecurity issues are emerging to be fiercer day by day. In fact, the average cost of a data breach in 2019 stood at $3.92 million. Many companies across the world experience detrimental consequences due to these breaches where they end up losing their client base, market reputation, and financial stability. Considering that more than 83% of the global workplace is expected to move to the cloud by the end of 2020, cybersecurity has become more important than ever.

However, even with security breaches skyrocketing globally, a plethora of companies still do not have sufficient budget to cater to information security. Moreover, the lack of unawareness among companies is also astonishing. In the article, we are sharing information associated with cybersecurity to generate more awareness around this subject.

Top Cybersecurity Issues to be Aware of

Following are the cybersecurity issues that companies are facing:

Misuse of Resources Internally

Even the strongest cybersecurity measures can be ineffective when employees misuse their privileges. According to reports, around 85% of employees have taken information or documents that they have created, and around 30% have accessed data they haven’t created. The data include customer data, strategy documents, proprietary source code, etc. And a majority of the employees took data because there are no technologies or policies restricting exploitation.

Phishing Scams

These are the digital version of the conventional phishing attacks that include email messages that leverage different forms of deception and manipulation. The main objective is to convince the users to click on the link mentioned in the email and share their personal information. Modern phishing scams have become extremely sophisticated and look like the email is from a trusted company.

Malware

Malicious software is quite a standard form of a cyberattack that can be introduced into a system via different methods. Some of the popular sources of malware include software downloads, email attachments, and operating systems. The malware attaches itself to legitimate code and spreads across the systems. Its main goal is to grant unauthorized access to the system or computer.

DDoS Attacks

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks have emerged as one of the common forms of cybercrime in recent years. The main objective of a DDoS attack is to put the server under excessive strain with tons of access requests until it crashes.

These are often facilitated by the botnets, defined as a fleet of computers instilled by malicious software and administered by a hacker. These days more advanced forms of DDoS attacks include a process called menacing, which harnesses open source object-catching systems in order to boost the access requests and overload the sites with over a terabyte of traffic.

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How can Insufficient IT Budget Hinder Efficiency?

IT security budgets are unable to keep up with the exponential growing security threats. The unavailability of required resources is proving to be one of the main challenges. According to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Information Security, more than 45% of the respondents agreed that the industry is struggling with a lack of resources.

The security professionals revealed that their existing budget does not allow them to keep up with the sophisticated cyber-attacks. 52% of the respondents feel that the companies are not aligning their security budget with the growing complexities of the IT threats. A limited budget can impact the mindset of the security team. The primary challenge for them is understanding where to allocate limited resources in different areas. Additionally, the lack of budget means that the team is not able to access vital tools that they need.

A restricted budget can impact the efficiency of the entire security team as they will be struggling to meet the objectives with inadequate resources.

How to Prioritize Cybersecurity in a Limited IT Budget?

The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving; therefore, it is imperative to stay updated with the growing trends. However, it is not always possible for companies to cater to the growing requirements of IT security. In such situations, there are certain ways that can be prioritized in a restricted IT budget:

Set Up an Incident Response Plan

Determine security vulnerabilities and set up policies that address the same. Considering that you have already identified the criticality of various incidents, you can figure out what actions are needed to be taken to address them and act promptly to mitigate the damages. Having a process outlined early on for monitoring as well as tracking activity post an attack can further enhance the remediation as well as forensic efforts. An incident response plan is similar to a fire drill in the cybersecurity realm. Ensure that you test this plan once in a while to ensure that the team is updated about the process.

Keep your Files Backed Up

When it comes to cybersecurity, you cannot overlook the importance of backup. Ensure that all your important system files are backed up to a computer that is not connected to a network. This can help in reducing the ability of malware to spread and target your configuration files. According to a report, constantly backing up your important system files can mitigate the average costs of a cyber-attack by approximately $2 million.

Keep your Security Updated

Make sure that you continue to update your software and systems with evolving technology. Cyber Attackers feed on outdated systems as they are easy to access into the network. Therefore it is vital to maintain the latest infrastructure security by:

1. Constantly updating any unpatched and outdated software
2. Staying updated on signatures and anti-virus rules
3. Implementing effective strategies in order to secure the network.

Training your Employees

You will be able to control cyber-attacks to a significant extent if the employees are well-educated and trained with cybersecurity measures. Similar to first responders, your employees should be trained and empowered regularly to deal with various cyber threats. Conduct regular training sessions to educate employees regarding different ways to mitigate exposure to cyber threats. Some of the steps that employees can take include:

1. Consider every email malicious until verified.
2. Create complex and strong passwords.
3. Being mindful of exposing too much data on social media.
4. Accessing files and networks only from secure devices.
5. Constantly updating systems and software.
6. Submitting a USB or thumb drive to the IT team.

Implement Two-Factor Authentication

You can protect your data by adding an additional layer of security that goes beyond including passwords. In two-factor verification, generally, users are required to enter a password, and then they will receive a code via a text or email that they need to enter before accessing the account. Two-factor verification may include code, face scan, fingerprint scan, etc. This form of security measure is available on platforms such as Apple, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft.

Final Thoughts

With the world trending towards a digital revolution, the importance of cybersecurity is increasing manifolds. However, companies worldwide are yet to realize the importance of cybersecurity, even with growing cases of attacks. Companies need to take proactive steps to protect themselves from sophisticated cyber attackers. If they fail to take timely measures, then the consequences can be detrimental. Along with losing money, they can end up losing their market reputation, customer confidence, and overall reliability.

However, there’s an issue. While most cybercriminals tend to use new tactics for preparing their attacks, their overall strategy generally stays the same. Therefore, if you know even a little bit about the methods, then you can easily prevent them. Also, you can include a privileged access management system (PAM) in your infrastructure to track and predict the operations of the risky profiles.

Nonetheless, you still need to be wary of these attacks and learn more about their prevention methods, such as using an identity access management system. And, in this case, the following section will help you out. So, let’s get started!

1.    Traffic Interception

Traffic interception, also called eavesdropping, usually occurs when a third-party module intercepts the data, which is exchanged between a host and user. The stolen information tends to vary on the details shared by the two parties. But, in most cases, the hackers attempt to uncover the login details or other invaluable data, such as passwords of privileged identity management, from the user.

Prevention: Traffic interception can be mitigated by avoiding websites, which do not employ HTML5. Moreover, you can also encrypt your network with a VPN to shadow yourself from sneaky hackers. As a host, you can use identity access management system or UBA (User Behaviour Analytics) to assess the actions of your end-user. It, in turn, will help you to find out if he/she is the reason behind the stolen data.

2.    Malware

Malware is widely considered as the most common and prolific type of security threat. In the year 2019, the digital world encountered around 9.9 million malware attacks, which is mind-boggling. But what is malware? Well, it is, in essence, an unwanted program, which can enter through e-mail and installs itself on your PC automatically. Moreover, it can cause various unusual behaviours like deleting files, obstructing access to a specific program, and stealing data.

Prevention: In case of malware mitigation, taking a proactive stance would be the perfect defence. You can install an anti-malware application on your PC or system to take care of this issue. Moreover, avoiding non-verified websites, too, might help you in this aspect. Be sure to improve your privileged account management system in this aspect as well.

3.    DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)

The cyberattacks, which can compromise and interfere with the availability of systems and networks, belongs to the DDoS category. In this case, the hacker usually overloads a particular server with a substantial amount of user traffic. It, sequentially, causes lag in the network and slows down its overall performance.

Prevention: To stop DDoS attacks, you will, first, need to identify the incoming malicious traffic. In this case, using identity management in cloud computing can help you out. However, if the hacker is using a lot of IPs, then you might need to perform offline maintenance to your server.

4.    Crimeware

The category of Crimeware consists of any malware program that is used for committing cybercrime. The most prominent example of it is ransomware, which has grown by almost 350% in the last few years (in 2018). It is quick and easy to capitalize on the attack. Thus, the victim does not even get the time to react to it at all. The ransomware attacks are more common on cryptocurrency websites and affect the identity and access management module in most cases.

Prevention: The Crimeware assaults can be mitigated by updating software programs regularly. Furthermore, you can also implement a privileged access management system on your infrastructure to monitor your crucial data and assess the presence of anomalies instantly. It is a great system to detect malware in your data.

5.    Phishing

In truth, phishing scams are an older approach to cybercrime. But, if it is done correctly, then it can cause massive damage to the victim. In this aspect, the victim gets an e-mail or message, which asks for sensitive data, like a password. Sometimes, the phishing e-mail might masquerade as something official and legitimate.

Prevention: Phishing messages tend to have a lot of typos and spelling errors. So, if you have gotten a mail content with many childish mistakes, then avoiding it can help you to get rid of phishing. Using identity and access management solutions can be beneficial for you in this case as well.

Conclusion

While the strategies remain the same, the complexity of the cyber-attacks is still rising daily. Thus, being cautious about everything and implementing proper security measures, such as access management system, on your infrastructure can be an ideal option for you.