Cybersecurity is getting a lot of attention from businesses where it is often classified as one of the biggest threats today. That is, of course, for good reason. Cyberattacks are varied and are growing and hackers and cybercriminals make use of the many different ways of launching these cyberattacks, leveraging weaknesses in your business protection. These methods are called attack vectors. Here are some of the most vulnerable threat vectors that your business should aim to protect and educate against.
Phishing
Phishing attacks take the form of email messages designed to look like an official communication from a bank or other business that requests you do something urgently. A common type of phishing attack is an email that appears to be from your bank informing you of recent fraudulent activity and requesting that you change your password.
Accompanied with this email will be a link it will ask you to click or an attachment it will ask you to open. The intention with a phishing mail is to get you to hand over your credentials or infect your computer with malware.
Malware
Malware is no new threat to cybersecurity. This is a piece of software that is designed to look like something you’ll interact with often or be inconspicuous enough that you won’t think twice about it. They’re often delivered as email attachments and come in a few different forms. At its core, though, this attack vector aims to get access to the user’s computer. Types of malware include viruses, ransomware, and adware. Malware can do many different things to a computer that they infect like log keypresses, encrypt files and demand ransom to unlock or even give an attacker remote access to the infected computer.
Social Engineering
Social engineering exploits the weakest link in the chain – the human. Hackers will often try and get information from the user, either by pretending to be someone of authority or an IT department employee and calling or emailing them. They will take any means needed to convince employees to part with the information or credentials needed to log into the company’s systems.
Unauthorized Mobile Apps
Unauthorized, or fake, mobile apps, are an emerging trend in the world of cybersecurity and one you should make yourself aware of, particularly if your staff make use of mobile apps to do their work. Having a good mobile fraud detection strategy should be top of your mind since a lot of sensitive information passes through our mobile apps like login credentials and company documents.
Man-In-The-Middle-Attacks
Man-in-the-middle attacks are the reason you’re told never to trust public Wi-Fi. As the name suggests, man-in-the-middle attacks involve the data you’re exchanging with a server or service being intercepted and read by someone positioning themselves between you and the remote computer.
Education will always be your first defense against cybersecurity threats and making your employees and users aware of these and the many other types of attack vectors is important. Common sense will always be better than any antivirus or firewall, and being proactive about this education and having the right software tools and partners in the fight against cybercrime is non-negotiable in the age of the internet.
