What is Cyber Security?
Cyber security is about protecting your computer-based equipment and information from unintended or unauthorized access, change, or destruction.
As an increasing number of daily business activities move online, including advertising, selling, finding new markets, reaching out to customers, recruiting staff, communicating with customers and suppliers or even carrying out financial transactions, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure that no one is attempting to steal your company’s information and money or disrupt business.
What aspects of your business are directly in harm’s way in case of a cyber-attack?
Your money, IT equipment, IT-based services, customer data, and information base are directly at risk in case of a cyber-attack. Information can take on many forms: client lists, customer databases, financial details, customers’ financial details, deals that are either finalized or under consideration, pricing information, product designs, and manufacturing processes.
What form could a Cyber-Attack take?
- Theft or unauthorized access of computers, laptops, tablets, or mobile devices.
- A remote attack on IT systems or websites.
- Attacks on information held in third-party systems such as cloud devices.
What Impact can a Cyber-Attack have?
- Financial losses
- Increased costs of recovery and replacement
- Damage to reputation
- Damage to other companies that you supply or are connected to
What are the different types of Cyber-Attacks?
- Denial-of-service: The denial-of-service attack refers to one that successfully prevents the authorized functionality of networks, systems, or applications by exhausting resources. Once your system is attacked in this manner, the hackers normally ask for a ransom or fee to regain access to files.
- Malware, worms, and Trojan horses: These are “deadly viruses” which are spread by e-mail, instant messaging, malicious websites, and infected non-malicious websites.
- Botnets and zombies: A botnet, short for robot network, is an aggregation of compromised computers that are connected to a central “controller.” The compromised computers are often referred to as “zombies.” Botnets which are designed to steal data are improving their encryption capabilities and thus becoming more difficult to detect.
- Scareware: More commonly understood as a fake security warning, this type of scam can be particularly profitable for cybercriminals, as many users believe the pop-up warnings that tell them their system is infected and the user are tricked into downloading and paying for the special software to “protect” their system.
( Also Read: Different Types of Hackers: Why They Hack )
Why is Cybersecurity Important?
It is very important to protect your company from the threat of scams, data theft, and other online vulnerabilities. Thousands of infected web pages are being discovered every day. Hundreds of millions of records have been involved in data breaches over just the last few years, and it is not easy to recover from such breaches. Many micro-terrorist organizations are also being created. These units hack into machines, compromising all your information.
Some hackers are more interested in uncovering passwords and gaining access to closed networks so they can manipulate data and websites or shut down essential functions. This necessitates a complete focus on rendering all points of vulnerability inaccessible to the prying eyes of hackers and cyber-terrorists
Here is an infographic on how to mitigate cyber-attacks and prepare for cyber security:
