Tech
Cybersecurity Risks: How to Protect Your Business from Attacks
Businesses are increasingly becoming targets of cybercrime. Hackers find new and innovative ways to steal information, money, and identities. If you’re a business owner, it’s important to understand the risks and take steps to protect your company from attacks. Installing extensions like Guardio for businesses keeps you and your team safe from online threats. This blog post will discuss some of the most common cybersecurity risks businesses face and how to protect themselves against them.
Most common cybersecurity risks
Phishing
Phishing scams are one of the oldest types of attacks and usually use social engineering to be successful. A common example is when an individual gets a message or email asking for personal data, such as passwords. The phishing message may look genuine due to using authentic-looking addresses and media. This puts pressure on the target to click on links, unintentionally providing sensitive information to gain access to your device.
These tricky hackers are very professional. Most of the time, it would be almost impossible for you to identify fake sites, links, emails, social media scams, popups, or ads, but Guardio does the job of revealing the truth. Guardio’s security team has developed in-house features to increase the detection of phishing and other malicious sites to prevent you from opening dangerous links and sites designed to cause you damage.
Malware
Since the inception of the internet, this style of assault has persisted as a constant problem. Malware is an umbrella term for any type of malicious software that insertion into a target system without the user’s consent. This can cause reduced performance, data loss, stealing information, and other issues like spreading to other systems.
One sign that you have malware in your system is when your device starts showing intrusive notifications and popups. Websites that alert you to new updates are frequently linked to a chain of dubious malware-related sources, so uninstalling one won’t stop the others from appearing. Guardio traces the origins and eliminates the invasive notifications all at once, blocking the sources and connections.
Organizations and users must have an anti-malware program installed on their devices as the first line of defense against malware.
Ransomware
This type of malware encrypts the victim’s files and demands a ransom to be paid so you can recover access to your information again. The most common form of payment is through cryptocurrency, which makes it difficult to track the attacker. Ransomware can spread through phishing emails, malicious websites, and extensions. Guardio blocks these harmful sites, scans your device to remove the malicious extensions, and alerts you before installing them.
Data leaks
Data leaks occur when companies fail to protect their customer’s data. This can happen in various ways, such as employee error, system vulnerabilities, or cyber-attacks. Data leaks can be used to commit fraud or identity theft, putting privacy at risk. Businesses should encrypt their data and have strict access control measures to prevent data leaks. Guardio not only warns about past security breaches but also alerts you in real time of any current threats so that you can take action to prevent identity theft.
Traffic interception
Traffic interception, AKA eavesdropping, is when a 3rd party tries to listen in on the conversations between a user and host. The type of information stolen relies upon the traffic, but it is most likely log-ins or valuable data. To prevent this cybersecurity risk, avoid visiting compromised websites. If you don’t want to worry about it, the Guardio extension will automatically block the sites due to malicious activity. Another way to prevent viruses from attacking your devices is by encrypting network traffic using a VPN.
Water hole attack
Water hole attacks predominantly used to target businesses, occur when a group infects popular websites that an organization frequently visits. By doing this, they can successfully load a malicious payload onto the victim’s device – much like in a cross-site attack.
A successful way to prevent this attack is to install an Anti-virus that can identify dangerous scripts.
MitM Attack
A Man-in-the-Middle attack, also known as MITM, is a type of intercepting where an attacker hijacks the communication between two parties. Changes to browser settings or using a default search provider from an unknown source are just two examples of what hijacking might do. Guardio protects you by directing search hijacking attempts to your preferred and secure search engine.
Conclusion
These are only some of the risks businesses face in today’s digital age. While we’ve outlined some solutions, the best way to protect your business is by being proactive about cybersecurity. Guardio can help you and your team to stay safe online.
Kenneth is a proud native of sydney, born and raised there. However, he pursued his education abroad and studied in Australia. Kenneth has worked as a journalist for almost a decade, making valuable contributions to prominent publications such as Yahoo News and The Verge. Currently, he serves as a journalist for The Hear Up, where he focuses on covering climate and science news. You can reach Kenneth at [email protected].
