Cyberthreats present a significant risk to business and organisations. Ever evolving, they are capable of disrupting core operations and causing serious damage to reputations and brands. A cyber-attack can maliciously steal data, disable computers and even use a breached computer to carry out other attacks.
Understanding cyber security is extremely important if you wish to protect yourself from the continued growth of ever advancing cyber-attacks. Keeping up to date with the latest techniques and tactics will help you to understand the different types of attack and the stages involved to better defend you or your business. Here we take a look at three of the leading cyber security risks to your organisation in 2020.
- Phishing
Phishing is a method used to gather personal information using fraudulent communications such as e-mails which appear to have come from a reputable source. It effectively uses a disguised email or website as a weapon with which to trick the recipient into believing it is a genuine email or website. For example, a request from their bank, a message from someone within their company or a simple link which prompts the user to click to download. The end goal is to steal important data such as credit card or login information.
Phishing is one of the oldest forms of cyberattack and yet it is still one of the most widespread and potentially harmful threats facing businesses today. Nearly a third of all security breaches in 2019 involved phishing and as the perpetrators become ever more advanced with the availability of ‘phishing kits’, even those with minimal technical skill can launch successful phishing campaigns.
- Malware Attacks
Malware is another big threat to businesses in 2020. It encompasses a range of cyber threats such as malicious software, spyware, ransomware, viruses and trojans. Malware is a malicious code which the hackers create in order to gain access to your network to steal or destroy your data. Damaging to businesses, they can cripple devices, lead to expensive repairs and give cyber attackers back door access to valuable data from yourself, your customers or your employees.
Once inside your computer system, malware can obtain information by installing spyware, block access to key components of your network, render the system inoperable and install harmful software.
- Cloud Jacking
Cloud jacking is set to become one of the more prominent cyber security threats in 2020. More and more businesses are beginning to rely on cloud storage and this makes it a tempting target for cyber attackers. Last year (2019) saw one of the biggest breaches to the cloud infrastructure and affected nearly 100 million individuals demonstrating just how vulnerable cloud storage can be. The sheer amount of data being stored in the cloud makes it a top target for cyber hackers and 2020 sees changes in cloud infrastructure and security which aim to address the risk.
In order to protect your business from these and other forms of attack, it is important to have strong defences in place. In order to identify where your business might be at risk, it is well worth consulting an IT solutions company to carry out a risk assessment that will help identify any such gaps in your cybersecurity system.
