Cybersecurity Threats and Protecting Your Business
Cybersecurity Threats
Failing to protect your business and customers from cybersecurity threats can result in legal and regulatory consequences, financial loss, loss of customer trust, intellectual property theft, and significant damage to your reputation. It is imperative that business owners protect their information technology infrastructure.
To effectively address cybersecurity threats, it is essential to understand the various types of threats that you and your employees may encounter. These threats are not merely the work of amateur hackers; they include sophisticated bad actors such as insider threats, cybercriminals, and state-sponsored attackers. The categories of these threats are outlined below.
Malware: This includes viruses, worms, ransomware, and spyware. Malware is designed to damage or disable computers and systems.
Phishing: This involves fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in electronic communications.
Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks: These attacks aim to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services.
Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks: In these attacks, the attacker secretly intercepts and possibly alters the communication between two parties who believe they are directly communicating with each other.
SQL Injection: This involves inserting malicious SQL code into a database query, allowing attackers to access and manipulate the database.
Zero-Day Exploits: These are attacks that occur on the same day a vulnerability is discovered in software, before the developer has a chance to fix it.
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs): These are prolonged and targeted cyberattacks in which an intruder gains access to a network and remains undetected for an extended period.
Insider Threats: These threats come from individuals within the organization who have access to sensitive information and may misuse it.
Social Engineering: This involves manipulating individuals into divulging confidential information or performing actions that compromise security.
IoT-Based Attacks: With the increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, attackers exploit vulnerabilities in these devices to gain access to networks.
Cyberthreats from within your business
Cyberthreats can come from the least expected places within your business. This includes insider threats, hybrid work environments (employees working from home or outside locations such as coffee shops, restaurants, or hotels), unauthorized access through your company wi-fi, data theft (USB drives or personal cloud accounts), fraud, or lack of security training and policies for your employees.
How PMC IT Solutions Protects your business from Cyberthreats
We follow established cybersecurity frameworks, such as those from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which include processes for identifying, protecting, detecting, responding, and recovering from cyberthreats. We and our partners proactively monitor your systems 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for threats and anomalies using the following processes.
Regular Vulnerability Assessments: Conducting regular vulnerability assessments helps identify and address potential security weaknesses in clients systems.
Advanced Threat Detection and Response: Implementing advanced threat detection systems that offer real-time monitoring and automated response capabilities to quickly identify and mitigate threats.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enforcing MFA and biometric keys such as fingerprint readers or facial recognition for accessing critical systems to add an extra layer of security.
Endpoint Protection: Ensuring all endpoints (e.g., computers, mobile devices) are protected with up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware software. This includes hybrid workers connecting through a VPN (encrypted) connection.
Firewall and Network Security: Installing and maintaining firewalls to block unauthorized access and protect network traffic and implementing Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) between your branch offices and hybrid worker's computers and smart devices.
Data Backup and Recovery: Regularly backing up data and having a robust disaster recovery plan in place to ensure data can be restored in case of an attack.
Employee Training: Providing ongoing cybersecurity training to employees to help them recognize and avoid potential threats, such as phishing attacks.
Access Control: Implementing strict access controls to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive information.
Patch Management: Keeping all software and systems up to date with the latest security patches to protect against known vulnerabilities.
Conclusion
PMC IT Solutions is obsessed when it comes to protecting your business from cyberthreats. We have the expertise and processes to protect your systems by proactively monitoring and responding 24x7, 365 days a year. If you worry about cyberthreats, let us handle this for you so you can focus on your business and sleep well at night. Contact us today for a complimentary security assessment of your business.