The tremendous benefits of modern technology are not without high costs – although, as you’ll see in this article, nearly all of these costs can be mitigated. Connecting with the World Wide Web has more benefits than it does risks – especially when it comes to your business. Liabilities mount with increased exposure, and it’s worth investing in products such as eDiscovery services by CBI cybersecurity specialists to ensure your digital information is as secure as possible in the current era.
Here we investigate a handful of the most common cyber attacks that businesses – and people – have to deal with.
DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service Attacks
The gist of a DDoS attack centers on overloading your network with requests, which forces it to shut down or be unable to weed out legitimate traffic. It was a most effective attack in the early days of the Web when data allocation was small.
This method uses many computers to attack one; your network may either be the target of such an attack or have workstations co-opted to function as one of many digital tentacles in an overall assault. The good news is that, unless you’re a big corporation, it’s unlikely that attackers would use the many resources necessary to launch a successful DDoS. Prevention revolves around consistent software updates and monitoring systems for unexpected traffic spikes. This is something that Toronto based IT services companies can help you out with if you have your business in the USA or Canada.
Malware Intrusions
Malware is the bane of software and describes ill-intentioned programs meant to compromise your computer systems somehow. Although it’s a broad term, it usually describes worms, Viruses, and Trojans. Unlike the DDoS attack, malware doesn’t come through a network as an external attack but requires some action by a user at a workstation. If you download email attachments and click on obscure links, these are ways how your system can become infected.
The best defense against malware is an antivirus and/or robust firewall. If you need solid antivirus with powerful anti-malware capabilities, check out this Malwarebytes review that could help you protect and keep your system clean. A good antivirus or antimalware software continually updates its database so that it can identify and block evolving viruses, as well as new ones. Make sure your information technology department prioritizes malware protection updates as well as the network firewall. To avoid this kind of issue, you can check out the best free antivirus here.
MITM Subterfuge
MITM stands for Man in the Middle, and it’s a nefarious type of sneak attack that co-opts your communication with another machine. For example, if you’re using your tablet to connect to a financial site, the MITM attack manifests by presenting you with an almost identical website that’s actually an impersonation of the legitimate site. You enter your personal details, and now the attackers can access your accounts.
You can greatly minimize the effectiveness of this type of attack by always using an encrypted wireless network with a secure access point. Otherwise, an outside viewer will have access to any information you send to other networks.
Phishing
This type of attack is somewhat similar to the MITM, except it often comes via email instead of insecure wireless access points. As such, social engineering plays a much bigger factor here. You essentially initiate the attack by entering your personal information into a form or click a link to an ad that appears in your inbox.
You can avoid phishing attacks by establishing verification methods for all emails. Companies, almost to the last one, avoid asking for personal details over email, so you should be very skeptical of such a request. Call the listed company first, before clicking on the link, to verify. Or conduct a web search to see if there’s information on phishing scams associated with that address. Read more here to learn more about tools that offer reliable phishing protection.
Password Hack
This is one of the more difficult types of attacks to execute, given how hard it is to crack a password. If you use inferior ones or have somehow leaked your password, you could be subject to one of these. Compared to the above, the solution is comparatively easy: create solid passwords consisting of a special character or two and interspersed with numbers and capital letters. These are virtually impossible to break using brute-force methods.
Tomi Adewole is an influencer marketing pro with brownboxbranding.com passionate about building authentic relationships and helping businesses connect with their ideal online audience. He keeps his finger on the pulse of the ever-evolving digital marketing world by writing on the latest marketing advancements. He focuses on developing customized blogger outreach plans based on industry and competition.