Cybersecurity refers to the practice of protecting programs, networks, and systems from digital attacks. These attacks normally destroy, change, or access sensitive details, interrupt normal business processes, extort cash from users through ransomware, and destroy sensitive details.
Using effective cybersecurity measures is especially challenging because there are more devices than users, and cybercriminals are becoming more creative and innovative.
The Scope of Cyber Threats
Cyber threats continue evolving globally rapidly, with increasing data breaches yearly.
A certain report shows that a shocking 8.2 billion records have been exposed to a data breach in the first nine months of 2022. This figure is likely to increase by 25%.
Retailers, public entities, and medical services experience the most breaches, with cybercriminals responsible for many incidents.
Some industries appeal to cybercriminals since they collect medical and financial data. But businesses using networks can be targeted for corporate espionage, customer attacks, and customer data.
With the scope of cyber threats setting to increase, some experts predict that the spending on cybersecurity solutions may reach a massive $10.3 billion at the end of this year.
Governments globally have responded to the increasing cyber threats with guidance to help business organizations use effective cybersecurity practices, like network traffic analysis tools.
The Impacts of Cybercrimes
There are several factors contributing to the costs of cybercrimes. All these factors are attributed to a poor focus on proper cybersecurity practices.
A lack of focus on those best practices may ruin your business organization in various ways. Some of these ways include:
- Reputational cost
- Regulatory costs
- Economic costs
Common Cyber Threats
Even though cybersecurity experts work extra hard to close a security gap, attackers are constantly looking for newer ways to exploit emerging weaknesses, evade defense measures, and escape IT notices.
Modern cybersecurity threats put a new spin on the known threats, taking advantage of network traffic analysis tools, new cloud services, and work-from-home environments. Some of these common threats include the following:
-
Phishing
This is a practice of sending malicious communication, normally emails, designed to look from well-known or reputable sources.
These emails usually use the same wording, logos, and names as a company or CEO to get victims to click on those harmful links.
Once phishing links are clicked, cybercriminals will have access to your sensitive details, such as login information, social security data, and credit cards.
-
Malware
This refers to malicious software like worms, viruses, ransomware, and spyware. Malware gets activated when users click on malicious attachments or links, leading to dangerous software installation.
According to experts at Sangfor Technologies, once malware gets activated, it can do the following:
- Disrupt individual parts
- Covertly get information by transmitting information from spyware or hard drive
- Install additional dangerous software
- Block access to important network components
-
Ransomware
This kind of malware locks down systems, data, or files and threatens to destroy or erase them unless you pay a ransom to the cyber attackers who launched the threat.
Recent ransomware threats have targeted local and state governments, which are much easier to breach compared to organizations.
-
DoS
A DoS (denial of service) is a kind of cyber threat that floods networks or computers. A distributed denial of service achieves the same thing. Though the attacks originate from a computer network.
Cybercriminals usually use flood attacks to disrupt the DoS and carry out the handshake process. Several other methods can be used, and some attackers can use that time the network was disabled to launch other threats.
Why Cybercrime Keeps on Increasing
Theft of information is among the fastest-growing and most expensive segments of cybercrimes. The increased exposure of identity information hugely drives it through cloud services.
Though this is not the only target. Industrial controls managing power grids as well as infrastructures can be destroyed or disrupted.
And theft of identity is not the only objective. Cyber threats may as well aim to compromise the integrity of data so as to breed distrust in a government or organization.
Forms of Cybersecurity
Every asset of an organization is a combination of different systems. Those systems have a stronger cybersecurity posture, which needs coordinated efforts across other systems.
This makes it possible to categorize cybersecurity into several forms, including network security. This involves the use of software and hardware to secure computer networks from misuse, disruption, attacks, intruders, and unauthorized access. This helps business organizations protect their assets against internal and external cyber-attacks.
Application security is also another form of cybersecurity. It encompasses protecting devices and software from unwanted threats. Basically, this protection is achieved by updating apps to ascertain they are safe from all forms of threats.
Successful security starts in the validation, writing source code, threat modeling, and design stage before a device or program is deployed. Apart from application security and network security, other forms of cybersecurity are:
- Mobile security
- Operational security
- Cloud security
- Identity management
- IoT security
Why Cybersecurity is Important
For the past few years, cybersecurity has become an important component of the modern-day success of any business organization.
If you own or run a business and are still contemplating why cybersecurity is crucial, there are reasons to convince you otherwise.
First and foremost, there is an increase in cybercrimes. The fast growth of technology, like cloud computing, better gadgets, and fast broadband, has increased connected devices.
Some studies show that there are around 23.2 billion networked devices globally. This, with the advancement of the dark web, has created a very fertile ground for different forms of cybercrime activities.
Another reason is that tech users have become vulnerable. Nearly everyone globally depends on communication and information technology, so there is a booming opportunity for criminal activities.
Factors such as the development of social media growth and cloud storage have left many tech users exposed to cyber threats, making cybersecurity more vital than before.
The Takeaway!
In order to neutralize cyber threats, business organizations need a comprehensive and constant vigilant cybersecurity plan meant to mitigate risks to an organization.
A reliable cybersecurity service partner may support all your efforts with managed security services featuring planning, threat detection, ransomware protection, identity management, and endpoint protection agents, just to name a few.