Last year was one for the record books when it came to cyber attacks on businesses, governments, and individuals. There were more data breaches and heightened sophistication on all fronts from cyber criminals.

Ao acessar o MundoFut, os fãs de futebol podem desfrutar dos jogos ao vivo de clubes consagrados, como Manchester United e Manchester City, além de outros times importantes da Premier League. copa libertadores A plataforma também disponibiliza informações atualizadas sobre as partidas, classificações e destaques dos jogos do campeonato inglês e do Campeonato Brasileiro.

As we are halfway through 2021, it’s important to take a deep dive into your business and assess how secure your sensitive data, connected devices, and everything else within your IT infrastructure are. Even if you’re a small business (and especially if you’re a small business), cysecurity matters now more than ever.

Here’s a look at some of the top threats your business and others are facing in the current climate.

Threat #1: Lack of readiness

78% of senior IT and IT security leaders lack confidence in their business’ cybersecurity posture. This is despite increased investments in security, and has much to do with 2020’s abrupt increase in a work-from-home workforce.

Whatever the reason, this lack of confidence constitutes an internal threat that demands action. If you’re in this camp, consider what you need to do to amp up your protection.

Threat #2: Malware

This type of threat increased by 358% in 2020, and just as with other attacks, volume is not the only concern. Advanced tactics have made detection that much trickier.

Malware is a broad term that refers to any malicious software that is designed to harm a computer system by stealing, deleting, or encrypting data, hijacking functionality, or tracking user activity. Most malware (94%) enters your systems via email.

Threat #3: Ransomware

Ransomware attacks have been in the news quite a bit recently, and it turns out that the U.S. ranks highest in number of attacks, at 18.2%. Ransomware encrypts a victim’s files so that they can’t access them, then demands a ransom payment, usually in cryptocurrency. The average ransomware payment increased 33% in 2020 over 2019.

It’s distributed through phishing emails, malvertising (when legitimate ads are hacked), and exploit kits. Not only can it spread like a worm, double extortion tactics have become the norm.

Threat #4: Phishing

This type of threat is also referred to as a social engineering attack because it requires interaction from people. Phishing attacks involve hackers tricking people into providing them sensitive information or giving them access to sensitive data or software.

One of the most typical ways this occurs is when the hacker tricks someone into thinking they are helping them. They might pose as a long-lost family member, friend, or fellow employee, usually via email. It can also occur as “smishing,” or SMS-based phishing, which happens through text messages.

Threat #5: Cloud vulnerabilities

When a hacker gains access to your cloud through improper controls or by unauthorized use of employee credentials, this can be the result of vulnerability in the cloud.

There are five major vulnerabilities to make sure you’re protected against: Account hijacking (including phishing, keylogging, and brute force attacks), data breaches, insecure APIs, malicious insiders (such as former or current employees or contractors), and system vulnerabilities.

Threat #6: IoT attacks

IoT (Internet of Things) is a huge security hassle for a number of reasons. IoT devices (of which there are more than 26-billion running in the world) don’t have much in the way of built-in security, and have so many different operating systems and configurations, making them challenging to secure, patch, and manage.

What’s Next?

AccountabilIT is an award-winning cybersecurity partner. We don’t just find security threats, we have the solutions, remediation capabilities and resources to thwart and fix them. Contact us to increase your security posture and your confidence.