As companies strive to build secure businesses, they end up spending a significant portion of their work week on security-related tasks, such as scan reviews, secret discovery, and context switching between multiple tools.
Furthermore, sorting out false positives or duplicate vulnerabilities consumes a huge amount of an organization’s time, reducing the effectiveness of their cybersecurity solutions.
AI-powered automation and autonomy Endpoint management Act as a catalyst for the effectiveness and transformation of your IT management. This blog discusses various cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities and ways to defend against them. Keep reading to learn how to improve your company’s security posture.
The definitive guide to cybersecurity threats and defenses
Phishing attacks: the human element at risk
Attackers obtain sensitive information such as usernames or passwords by disguising themselves as trustworthy entities in an electronic communication via a fake email or website that mimics a reputable organization. It is usually associated with email fraud and has emerged as one of the most prominent cyber attacks today.
Why it’s a big threat:
According to the report1, the most prevalent type of phishing scam in 2023 was mass phishing, which affected approximately 86% of businesses worldwide. In the first quarter of 2024 alone, there were nearly one million unique phishing sites worldwide. Phishing attacks exploit human error to gain a foothold in corporate or government networks as part of a larger attack, such as an advanced persistent threat (APT) event. They bypass the security perimeter, distribute malware within a closed environment, or gain privileged access to secure data.
How to defend against it:
Preventing phishing scams requires awareness first and foremost. Proper training should be conducted for employees to recognize phishing attempts. Businesses should also implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce risk. AI-based threat detection enterprise security solutions also implement spam filters to detect phishing emails. It checks the security of the site before entering personal information to identify and block malicious emails.
Ransomware: a growing extortion threat
A malware attack, commonly called ransomware, threatens or permanently blocks access to an organization’s data unless a ransom is paid. It effectively prevents users from accessing their systems, potentially paralyzing the entire network until the ransom is paid. Companies pay ransom demands to gain access to their systems, and spend a lot of time and effort dealing with the consequences.
Why it’s a big threat:
2023 saw the highest volume of posts on defamation sites, with nearly 30% of posts on newly identified DLS associated with several ransomware families, including ROYALLOCKER.BLACKSUIT, RHYSIDA, and REDBIKE. The threat actor searched internal resources, such as SharePoint drives, documents, and emails, for specific information that could support its operations.
How to defend against it:
Maintaining regular, separate backups of your essential files helps companies defend against them. Businesses should also avoid clicking on suspicious links and update all their software and systems. An enterprise security solution that ensures ongoing compliance is enforced will also help your organization stay secure and compliant.
Insider Threats: Insider risks and data breaches
Security risks originating from within the target organization, such as your employee or business partner, make enterprise security important as they can access sensitive information or privileged accounts within the enterprise network and aim to abuse that access.
Why it’s a big threat:
Insider threats cause significant financial, reputational, and operational damage because they already have legitimate access to an organization’s critical systems and data, making their malicious actions difficult to detect. Common misuse includes abnormal data access, privilege escalation, unusual network traffic, employee behavior changes, and unauthorized system modifications.
How to defend against it:
Implement least access privilege, which limits user and application access to the minimum resources and permissions needed to perform their tasks. Use real time Application security tools To monitor potential threats. Multiple scans can be reviewed in central dashboards for illegal access, and security tasks can be easily shared among different team members, providing greater efficiency. The secure organization also correlates results from different tools for more efficient sorting and processing.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks: Overwhelm your network security infrastructure
An attempt to take down a server, service, or entire network by flooding it with Internet traffic, making the system/network inaccessible to legitimate users, resulting in a denial of service from the organization. These attackers usually flood the system with requests or exploit vulnerabilities.
Why it’s a big threat:
Attackers can infiltrate a database and access sensitive information that affects a business’s finances or reputation. They are often implemented using a botnet, a network of Internet-connected devices that can also distract Cyber security operations while other criminal activities are taking place. These attacks are more brutal to prevent or mitigate because they originate from different sources; However, you can take measures to reduce it.
How to defend against it:
To protect against DDoS attacks, organizations can adopt cloud content delivery networks (CDNs) and implement network security rules. A cybersecurity solution platform that automates real-time detection, management, and remediation of all on-premises, virtual, or cloud endpoints would be beneficial.
Advanced Persistent Threats: Long-range attacks
APT is a type of long-term cyberattack when a hacker enters a company’s network, creating an ongoing illegal presence to steal highly sensitive data. They differ from traditional cyberattacks in several ways, such as complexity, continuity, objectives, etc. For example, Operation Aurora, an APT attack in 2009, targeted Google, Adobe, Intel, and other companies to steal intellectual property and gain insight into their operations.
Why it’s a big threat:
Executing an APT attack requires more resources than a standard web application attack, as the perpetrators are usually teams of experienced cybercriminals with significant financial backing. They are not hit-and-run attacks, but once the network is compromised, the perpetrator still has to obtain as much information as possible.
How to defend against it:
Proper detection and protection of APT requires a multi-faceted approach from network administrators. Companies must leverage unparalleled coverage, operational efficiency, and effective risk mitigation to protect their assets from pressing vulnerabilities. Whitelisting of applications and domains, traffic monitoring, and access control procedures should be implemented. A cybersecurity AI platform that automates real-time detection, management, and remediation of all endpoints would be great.
conclusion
Businesses face all types of cybersecurity threats. However, there are ways to mitigate each threat. Organizations can protect computer systems, networks and data with a comprehensive cybersecurity solution platform that protects devices, networks and digital assets from cyber attacks. It acts as a single platform solution that provides a wide range of testing tools under one umbrella, leaving no room for zero vulnerabilities. Additionally, when combined with AI, it reduces the number of false positives in scan results, expands scan coverage, and aids in tool processing. Doing so will provide centralized access to valuable, accurate, real-time information about traffic at the edge of your company’s network perimeter and protect your business data and systems from malicious attacks and theft.