Cybercrime has been increasing every year, and the costs of cybercrime attacks are expected to touch an annual global amount of $10.5 Trillion by 2025. Some cybercrime costs include stolen money, theft of financial and personal data, fraud, theft of intellectual property, and destruction and data damage. What’s concerning is that the cybercrime landscape is constantly changing, and both businesses and individuals need to stay on top of cybercrime threats. Let’s look at how to adapt to ever-changing cybersecurity threats.
1) Take protective measures when your employees work over public networks
With remote work rising in the last few years, especially after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people access their company’s data using public WiFi networks in cafes and coffee shops. However, such public networks do not usually enforce stringent security measures of the kind available in offices. Consequently, hackers tend to target public networks to get access to sensitive data.
In such a scenario, businesses need to educate their employees on how public networks are prone to being hacked. All employees working remotely should access public networks using a VPN for PC. By doing so, individuals can securely browse and access sensitive data through public WiFi networks without being in danger of being hacked. A VPN encrypts all data when it is sent over a public WiFi network.
2) Be aware of the dangers of ransomware
Ransomware is a significant cybersecurity threat that global businesses face. Cybercriminals usually distribute Ransomware with the help of phishing emails. It takes over the control of endpoints and encrypts the data they contain. After this happens, the hacker sends a ransom note to the user, threatening businesses to pay an exorbitant amount of money or lose all their data. At times, users cannot log on to their computers until they pay the ransom demand. Businesses should implement a ransomware attack response and mitigation checklist to protect themselves from cybercriminals.
3) Take measures to protect employees from social media data breaches
Cybercriminals are also increasingly taking advantage of the rise of social media usage in the last decade by targeting the accounts of social media users. Hackers can use social media data breaches to create in-depth profiles of users and conduct targeted phishing attacks on them. Cybercriminals may target a business’ employees and attempt to steal their credentials by impersonating the brand. Scammers may also try to infiltrate the social networks used by employees with the help of mutual connections or by sending friend requests from fraudulent accounts. The measures that businesses should take include regular training sessions to cover the usage of different passwords on each account, using secure websites, and monitoring online transactions.
4) Be aware of spear-phishing tactics
Cybercriminals are increasingly using spear-phishing tactics to extract information, such as private information or business secrets, for monetary gain. Spear phishing takes place when a hacker targets employees with the help of emails that seem to be from colleagues in their organization, allowing the hacker to steal personal information. Hackers can send emails to a business’ employees disguised as others in the same company. Such emails usually contain messages asking the victim to download an attachment containing malware, a link to change passwords or requests for sensitive employee information. To protect themselves from such attacks, here are a few steps to follow:
– Ensure that your computer is updated with the latest updates and security patches.
– Encrypt any sensitive information with the help of file encryption
– Implement multi-factor authentication wherever you can
– confirm all suspicious email activity before acting on the instructions in the message
In Summary
With cyberattacks growing to be more complex and sophisticated, both employers and employees need to take appropriate steps to prevent themselves from becoming victims of such attacks. While it is impossible to anticipate all cyber risks, you can follow the tips shared in this article to protect yourself.
