Why should you spend time focusing on avoiding cyber attacks?
Let’s start with the statistics. In the last 12 months, 88% of UK businesses have suffered a data breach, and in the last 3 months, 480 new cyber threats were discovered per minute. The sheer scale of these threats show that cyber attacks should not be taken lightly and as soon as your business is hacked, the repercussions of a data breach can be severe. Especially now that consumers, as well as business owners, have a clear understanding of the rules and regulations surrounding GDPR, cyber attacks in any shape or form have the potential to devastate your customer base and reputation, as well as impacting on your wider business continuity.
What form of cyber attacks are most threatening to your business?
Phishing
Perhaps the most well known cyber threat facing consumers and businesses alike, phishing takes place when hackers pose as trusted institutions in order to trick people into handing over their personal information. Have you ever received an unexpected email or text message from your bank, asking you to reset your password as a matter of urgency? These kinds of cyber attacks use social engineering to pressure consumers into making their data available, without detection as far as possible. Despite phishing cyber attacks becoming a recognised threat, the increasingly sophisticated methods hackers are using to target people mean they’re one of the most lucrative forms of cyber threat around; phishing cyber attacks have risen by 65% over the last year. Because phishing cyber attacks are mostly caused by opening emails with infected attachments, training your team on the signs to look out for is one of the most effective ways you can avoid this kind of attack.
Ransomware
Whereas phishing cyber attacks can go unnoticed for long periods of times, ransomware is instantly noticeable as it usually operates by locking your organisation’s screens or desktop computers. The digital form of kidnapping, ransomware has the potential to steal millions of capital from your business. Making headlines in recent months because of the cyber attacks suffered by huge organisations like the NHS, ransomware works by infecting an institution with a virus, before encrypting the organisation’s data, and demanding a fee for the information to be returned safely. Cyber attacks taking this form are much more tricky to resolve because of the encryption tools they make use of. You can find out how encryption can be used to your advantage, rather than cyber attacks threatening your business here.
Internet of Things
True to form, now the digital landscape has come to impact every aspect of our lives, cyber attacks have developed to threaten a growing number of devices, software and trends. One of the most prevalent forms of cyber attacks on IoT devices is botnets – a network of systems incorporating independently connected objects with the aim of remotely spreading malware. Cyber attacks operating in this manner are a danger to your business because of their wide-ranging nature. Compared to traditional botnets that have a limited reach, IoT botnets infect as many devices as they can connect to with malware, overloading as many networks and systems as possible. Thanks to the nature of IoT and its ability to constantly generate data, this kind of attack has the potential to impact on every device your business makes use of.
While the impact of cyber attacks on your business growth should not be taken lightly, with the right security solutions to hand, there’s no reason why your business can’t embrace the Digital Transformation. Tools from encryption to unified threat management and recovery solutions like Back Up and Disaster Recovery alongside staff training and tech updates are in abundance, making sure that whatever kind of attack your business comes up against, stopping the hackers from reaching your data is easier to achieve than ever before. Read more about the security solutions fighting back against the hackers here.
Don’t let your business be put at risk by incomplete security systems. At CIS, we offer a range of security solutions to make sure that whatever cyber attacks you come across, fighting off the bad guys is easily done. Contact us for security solutions that cover every base.
