Top Cybersecurity Threats and How to Avoid Them

cyber security

Businesses and industries enjoy the benefits of digitization and flourish substantially from its growing use, but that’s not all that comes with this package. Online storage and database solutions experience grave threats from hackers and cyber-attacks, making security a significant cause. Multinational companies and organizations are often on the lookout for competent cybersecurity experts to safeguard their precious data from these dangers. However, both the fronts respond to each other’s moves vigorously, making it a war of sorts.

Despite many software and programs like antivirus and antispyware that promise complete protection against cyber-attacks, hackers still find a backdoor to access their servers. That serves to prove that they are evolving and getting smarter with each attempt. Part of this development includes coming up with distinct and diverse ways of hacking, like finding API and Wi-Fi vulnerabilities of a particular network and exploiting them to gain access to other devices. It demands that people working on strengthening cybersecurity match their standards if they wish to tame the situation.

In response to these threats, professionals have started putting their advanced programming skills to work to best their opponents. The well-funded research and development departments working for large scale companies have come across several ways to overcome these attacks and offer impenetrable protection to their servers. Individual software houses are not far behind them, as they introduce their findings to this cause.

It is often the case that proficient programmers that come from an online program trump people with years of experience with their fresh perspectives. That has kept this exchange on-going and engaging for the participants. Here are some of the top cybersecurity threats and how to avoid them, which can potentially damage businesses and people to unprecedented limits. Being consciously aware of these issues is also part of the preparation to evade them, so you should try and get familiarized with them.

  1. Cloud Jacking

Cloud solutions are the latest piece of work that technology has to offer to businesses. They allow you to store a tremendous amount of data and remote access to it all from a device with internet connectivity. Unfortunately, all this attention has given rise to cloud jacking activities against these servers.

Cloud computing is likely to experience code injection attacks or invasion from third-party libraries that sabotage the mainframe. The only possible way of avoiding it with existing resources is to go for reliable and reputable cloud providers who offer adequate security measures.

Additionally, hiring personal data surveillance staff to monitor and intercept activities is also an option to consider to oppose this. Some cloud providers recommend this and managing configurations and patching to their customers to fend it off.

  1. IoT Device Hacking

The growing popularity of IoT devices among users is an untapped potential area with lurking cybersecurity threats. These are pieces of hardware that allow the sharing of data and information without physical interaction over a particular network. Trends suggest that the use of these items will become more common for medical and security purposes.

The rapid distribution of these becomes a cause of concern because the progress of security experts working on ridding them of these issues will take time. This disparity in protecting against them leaves the opportunists at an advantage before suitable security measures get established.

  1. Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks were the most common cybersecurity threat that people experienced in 2019, and the numbers will go even higher in 2020. Hackers use emails with their social engineering skills to steal user credentials of others.

The upgrade to this approach uses cloud servers to launch their attacks, through online applications or combined with other services. Luckily enough, you can avoid falling victim to these phishing attacks by being a little careful about the emails you open or random things you download off the internet, especially on devices containing delicate information related to work or personal life.

Besides this, several security programs can also offer assistance with them. Scanning files before downloading and shredding files while deleting them off the servers can also prove useful in fighting them.

  1. Mobile Malware

The use of mobile devices has replaced computers and desktop systems over time, so an emerging cybersecurity threat is malware. People can get them from downloading items, like media files or applications from an unreliable platform. It targets your device’s operating system, from where the malicious software can access all the data and alter its functionality.

The best way that telecommunication companies and software houses fight this is by having a centralized, trusted platform where they access all this data, like the Google Play store. These run several security checks on the applications and ensure that they pose no threats to the user’s device before making it available for downloads. So people can dodge them by sticking to the use of reliable platforms for downloading things.

  1. Insider Threats

Insider threats refer to internal actors that lead these cyber-attacks from within the organization. It can be intentional or through an unconscious action that makes room for these threats to get past the security barriers. In any case, the damage from these can be substantial if you neglect it.

Standard antivirus and antimalware won’t prove helpful against them, so you should enlist the help of some tools and vigilant security staff to monitor against them. These tools help restrict access, track user movements, notify logins, and detect suspicious activities against the admin. That maximizes your security and stops the problem before taking root and damaging your servers.

Summary

That was an insight into the top cybersecurity threats and how to avoid them in these times. Study and inform your experts to target these areas so that you can prepare against them. Work on enhancing your security by actively investing in this area and encouraging staff, as well as outsiders, to find flaws within the system. Even if that doesn’t free your servers from any cyber-attacks, it will still help to contain the damage and recover from that loss.

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Mark Funk
Mark Funk is an experienced information security specialist who works with enterprises to mature and improve their enterprise security programs. Previously, he worked as a security news reporter.