Despite the widely-spread belief that only large corporations get attacked, businesses of all sizes suffer from the malicious activity of hackers. Moreover, malefactors tend to target small and middle-sized companies - they often lack cyber protection because they believe no one will be interested in them. Therefore, they become an easy aim for hackers who will prefer a bounty that’s simple to get rather than trying to break through the iron wall of security of some huge company.
That’s why, regardless of the size of your business, you should know what are the cyber threats you might face, and how to protect your firm from them. We’ve listed the most common ways hackers use to harm companies and get some money from their loss.
Infection
Under this category fall all the malicious programs that infect the device and let hackers do their dirty deeds. There are various types of malware - worms, trojans, ransomware, and so on. These programs are usually transmitted through infected websites and devices, and phishing emails.
It’s quite simple to remain protected from this kind of cyber threat. All you need to do is to install a reliable antivirus on all the devices your employees and yourself are using for work tasks. Today providers of antivirus software offer tailored business solutions that can protect not only devices but the network, too.
DDOS attack
We’ve already covered all the kinds of DDOS attacks in this article, and we advise you to go through it so that you have more information. Performing a DDOS attack, a hacker is trying to take down or at least slow down a target website, app, service, or entire server. The reasons for this attack are different. Some malefactors will ask for a ransom, and others will do it just for fun. Sometimes, companies hire hackers to harm the competitor.
The only thing that can safeguard your business from DDOS attacks is solid anti-DDOS protection. We at King Servers can keep your company secure by eliminating the slightest possibility of any kind of DDOS attack. Our advanced filters will keep an eye on your servers 24/7 and instantly respond to any suspicious activity.
Weak passwords
It seems that novels were written on the importance of a good password. Most websites will demand the combination of numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters, and special symbols as a password to the user profile. And one could suppose that everyone is quite aware of how a strong combination should look like.
Yet, even the biggest corporations often have a “0password1” password to repositories that contain critical sensitive information. And that’s one of the biggest cyber threats businesses create with their own hands.
Today you can find numerous password managers that will remember all the combinations instead of you and store them in the secure repository. Moreover, such a manager often comes with an antivirus solution. So there should be no justification for weak passwords - let the password manager create a strong combination and remember it for you.
Hackers are very well aware that many employees neglect the need for strong passwords. That’s why brute force attacks happen a lot - during them, a malefactor uses a special bot that goes through thousands of combinations to find the one that an employee utilizes as a password. So it’s quite easy to get into the system if its members have weak passwords.
Unprotected data storages
We live in a world of big data, and businesses today generate more information than ever. Also, they move all this data online because it’s very hard to main such vast amounts of information if it’s printed out on paper. While moving to online is a smart decision, it’s also important to choose the right place for your sensitive corporate data. Many companies stick to generic cloud repositories, and that’s a risky move. These storages usually have quite many vulnerabilities, and numerous data leaks prove that.
Data leakages cost companies a lot of money. But that’s nothing before the fact that the image of a business suffers greatly due to the leak. How can customers trust the company that can’t protect information - including the client data. Every firm that happened to face a leakage had a lot of issues gaining the trust of its target audience afterward.
That’s why you should keep your corporate data in a safeguarded repository. King Servers offers storage servers that are reliably protected from most cyberattacks and, therefore, data leaks. The only thing you need to do if you use our storage servers is to create a reliable password for your account - don’t forget the previous cyber threat.
Human mistake
Unfortunately, the greater part of all cyber issues businesses face happen due to human mistakes. They range from using weak passwords to getting scammed by a phishing email. Employees could send the file with sensitive data to the wrong person. Or they could work remotely while being connected to an unprotected network that hackers used to get into the device of this employee and steal the data.
The solution to this problem is to educate your workers. You could invite cybersecurity specialists that will tell your employees how to not jeopardize the safety of their workspace and company. Also, you will find a lot of courses and lectures online that cover this topic. You could lower the risks by simply reminding your staff to stay alert and use a VPN when they’re working out of office.
But sometimes, it’s not a mistake that causes a data leak or some other problem. Sometimes, an employee intentionally provides a hacker with sensitive information or login details. They could do it for money or for some personal reasons - that doesn’t matter in the end. Such a situation is very upsetting, and it’s better to prevent it from happening. To do that, you can hire a cybersecurity specialist that will work in-house and monitor the network and activity of employees. Or you could collaborate with a company that provides businesses with cybersecurity services.
Personal devices of employees
Even though we could talk about this threat as of a human mistake, it’s important enough for us to cover it separately. It is a rather popular practice to let your employees bring their own devices. And it can be convenient both for business and workers. But you never know how well do your employees treat their devices when it comes to security. Do they have an antivirus installed? Is their software up to date and free from vulnerabilities? Are their devices not infected?
Often, a device brought by an employee to the office becomes an opportunity for a hacker to crawl into your network. Then your company could face a huge data loss, enormous expenses, and lots of other issues - all this can happen because of a single device your worker brought to the office. Of course, you can ask your employees to be aware of the possible threat and take care of the security of their devices. But you can never guarantee that they will meticulously follow your recommendations.
There are a lot of threats waiting for businesses online, and it takes a lot of effort to keep your company protected from them. That’s why it’s better to trust professionals at least a part of this job. King Servers will gladly protect your servers and corporate data from DDOS attacks and data leaks. Just drop us a line and we will begin working on the safety of your firm.
