With most businesse being conducted across the internet, keeping your data and infrastructure safe is of paramount importance. Cyber security protects these crucial systems and private information protected from digital attacks. In addition, measures are taken to prevent threats against any assets on a network, both internally and externally.
What Is Cyber Security?
The estimated average cost of a data breach in 2020 was about $3.86 million internationally, and $8.64 million in the United States. The cost of a data breach includes things like downtime, lost revenue, resources to discover and recover from the breach, and the damage to a business’s reputation and subsequent loss of income from that. What cybercriminals usually look for is your customers’ personally identifiable information or PII. PII includes names, social security numbers, addresses, and credit card numbers. They will then sell that information on an underground digital network.
Experiencing a breach and compromised PII can even result in fines and legal actions. If your system relies on noncongruous technology and a lack of on-site expertise, this, along with the veritable complexity of security systems, can significantly increase these costs. But a system developed with best practices that constitutes a comprehensive strategy, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics, can help significantly diminish the frequency and severity of a breach.
Cybersecurity Domains
To effectively defend against cyberattacks, one must fully understand the various layers required to protect from breaches. Your strategy should include:
- Critical infrastructure security. This includes protections for the systems vital to your business operations, and without them, you cannot function.
- Network security. Simply preventing unauthorized access to your network both internally and externally.
- Application security. Protection for any applications running in-house or on the cloud needs security measures such as user authentication to prevent breaches.
- Cloud security. This is keeping a secure, encrypted connection, whether the data is in use during processing or as it travels to the cloud, and keeping the data safe within the cloud platform itself.
- Information security. Protection measures specifically secure the sensitive data held within your systems, such as customer data and employee data.
- End-user education. One of the best lines of defense against cyber attacks is to educate your employees to detect and avoid attacks like recognizing suspicious emails and not opening attachments or clicking links, care when using unknown USB devices, and the like.
- Disaster recovery. Even the best cybersecurity systems can be breached. So another important aspect is to have a recovery plan in place if and when a breach does happen. This does not just refer to cybersecurity breaches but power outages, natural disasters, etc.
Types of Cyber Threats
While cybersecurity professionals constantly analyze systems and close gaps in systems, hackers are always finding ways to exploit vulnerabilities and circumvent preventative measures. With the recent proliferation of remote working and the subsequent remote tools and cloud services, the threat of breaches is more prevalent than ever. These ever-evolving threats include:
Malware
Most people are familiar with malware, which has malicious intentions like spyware, worms, viruses, and Trojans. Malware exists to grant unauthorized access to a computer or to cause damage to the file system. A recent trend in malware is to attack in a file-less method, avoiding standard anti-malware tools that scan files for anomalies.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a specific type of malware that exists to prevent access to a computer system with a threat to destroy data or expose sensitive data unless a ransom is paid. For example, another deviant threatens you with legal action unless you pay to have incriminating evidence removed from your computer that doesn’t exist.
Phishing
Phishing is a way hackers trick people into willingly providing sensitive information or even their own PII. The most common version of this is to use an email or text message that seems to come from legitimate sources and ask the recipient to provide sensitive information. Unfortunately, since it appears as a legitimate request, end-users often unknowingly provide bad actors with sensitive data.
Insider Threat
Anyone that has ever had access to sensitive information and systems currently or in the past can be an insider threat if they seek to abuse their permissions. Unfortunately, firewalls and other intruder detections systems are typically unable to detect insider threats as they focus externally.
DDoS Attacks
DDoS, or distributed denial of service, attacks seek to bring down a server or website by bombarding it with traffic and overwhelming the systems causing them to fail.
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)
APTs refer to intruders accessing your systems undetected to spy on activity and steal information without causing any damage to the system in the hopes of avoiding defensive countermeasures.
Man-In-The-Middle Attacks
Think of these as eavesdropping attacks in which a hacker intercepts messages from one party to steal information. The message is then sent to the original recipient, so neither side knows the message has been intercepted.
Let Golden Tech Manage your IT Systems
We at Golden Tech in Indiana specialize not only in cyber security issues but the entire management of all your information technology. Golden Tech in Indiana understands that being proactive and getting ahead of any technical issues, including cyber security, limits client downtime and frustration. We can develop a strategy as a preventative measure rather than waiting until a problem arises to make sure you operate at peak efficiency with minimal downtime.
If you currently use a break-fix strategy where you only fix what’s broken, Golden Tech in Indiana has a managed IT solution called Golden Complete that mitigates IT breakdowns, downtime, and data loss. Golden Complete consists of services that include comprehensive cyber security measures, monitoring, and maintenance of your IT infrastructure, all for a monthly fee. The first step of Golden Complete is to meet with our CTO, who will work with you to develop a plan that deals with your current system and how to improve and upgrade in the future.
Contact us at Golden Tech in Indiana today to schedule your consultation to bring your IT infrastructure up to peak performance and take the worry out of managing your IT systems. You can reach us at 219-462-7200 or via our secure online messaging system. With Golden Tech’s Golden Complete Fully Managed IT Solution, you can focus all your efforts on running your business, and we will take complete care of your IT systems.