Hacking is a problem that impacts everyone in the world. People can reach across borders to target everyone, from large businesses to individual consumers. That’s why hacking costs the world economy $1 trillion per year.
If you want to stop hacker attacks, you need first to understand the hacker threats out there. Below are four common cybersecurity threats that you need to know.
1. Phishing
Phishing is a common cyber-attack that targets employees. Hackers send fake emails to unsuspecting victims that mimic the appearance of legitimate companies. The email sends people to a phony website that grabs the user credentials from your employees.
As a result, hackers get the username and passwords for essential web accounts for your business. If you reuse the same password across multiple accounts, it can result in numerous accounts getting compromised.
If you want to avoid this, teach your employees what to look for in phishing emails and not click links requiring you to log into an account.
2. Malware
Malware is a malicious program people download on their computers. Most of the time, malware disguises itself as popular software. People don’t know something is malware and install it thinking they’re installing a different program.
Malware can compromise everything when it gets installed. It can steal files, log keystrokes, and spread to other computers.
If you want to prevent malware, you need to install malware protection on your devices. This software will scan downloads and system files to look for problems. These scans should be part of every small business cyber security checklist.
3. DDoS Attacks
There will be times when a hacker can’t compromise business networks. If someone is in that situation and still wants to cause damage to a business, a DDoS attack is one of the popular choices.
A DDoS attack is a denial of service attack that floods a business network with connection requests. If your company has limited bandwidth, it can grind its operation to a hault.
Luckily, you can defend against these attacks. There are firewalls and DNS services that detect DDoS traffic and block everything.
4. Man-in-the-Middle Attack
A man-in-the-middle attack is a cyber attack that targets individuals. Hackers create WiFi access points that appear to be from legitimate companies. They can be fake company WiFi networks or fake public access points.
If someone connects to one of these networks, hackers can snoop on the web traffic. On top of that, the attacker can redirect traffic from real website domains to fake web pages. From there, hackers can gather the information that can compromise businesses.
You’ll need to train your team to spot these fake networks. You should also require VPN use from team members that work remotely to encrypt all internet traffic on a computer.
There Are More Hacker Attacks to Be Aware Of
While the hacker attacks above do an excellent job preparing your business against cybercrime, they aren’t the only attacks to be aware of. New threats are regularly introduced, and they don’t always use the same methods to infiltrate businesses. Keep up to date on new cyber threats, so you’re ready to add whatever protection you need for business safety.
Do you want more tips that will help you build a reliable IT department? Check out the latest tech tips on the blog to learn more about business technology.
