11 Aug Biggest IT and Cybersecurity Risks For Your Business

Watching Out for the Biggest Business Cybersecurity Risks

With the onset of cybersecurity staff shortages and mounting threats, businesses of all sizes must prioritize data protection. While technology makes great strides in the realm of productivity, any advancement can also be used for malicious purposes. Generative AI and machine learning, for example, allow threat actors to expedite campaigns, and attacks, and create comprehensive phishing scams. 

Thus, you want to know what the biggest threats are to your business model. Remember, if you house any form of data, it is valuable to attackers. Administrator logins, customer credentials, and contact info are samples of info threat actors readily target. 

Know Your Enemy

There is a common family of dangers any business should remain aware of. More so, having a comprehensive BDR for each threat type will put your company in safer territory. Additionally, understand that attacks, threats, and malware are constantly evolving. Malware gangs don’t take vacation days and continuously spend time fine-tuning their approach.

Phishing and Social Engineering

There has, unfortunately, never been a point where phishing schemes were not a problem. To this day, phishing continues to be brutally effective. To circumvent cybersecurity defenses and techniques by deceiving a single user (or group) is an invaluable prospect to malicious third parties. Because so much of our personal data is readily available online, it’s also easier for attackers to develop effective threat campaigns.

To protect your data integrity from phishing theft, set up comprehensive training and awareness. Remain vigilant of the techniques hackers use to launch phishing and know the types (Business Email Compromise for instance).

Phishing attacks probe every available attack surface, from voice calls to emails and even SMS messages.

Malware and Ransomware

Malware will always remain a massive cybersecurity risk since it is a cybersecurity risk. Designed to destroy systems, render services unusable, or even encrypt data via ransomware, a computer virus is a permanent danger and threat when using any internet-facing machine.

Therefore, your enterprise must always have security conditions in place to proactively check against any potential malware intrusion.

IoT and Endpoint Attacks

IoT stands for “Internet of Things,” the catch-all phrase for devices, machines, and computers with internet-facing capabilities. “Smart” devices, for instance, fit into the ecosystem of the IoT. While convenient, creating the potential for new levels of efficiency, they invite risk because of their internet connectivity. Any device “talking” with the internet must remain secure with updates and patches to account for exploits. That’s because a device is sending bits of information. Sometimes this data is simple, other times it contains crucial information like security tokens, passwords, account logins, and even personal data.

The more IoT-capable devices interact with your enterprise network, the higher the risk.

Limited Insight and Oversight

One “indirect” cybersecurity risk is a lack of administrative decision-making and oversight. Management and team leaders are responsible for taking crucial steps to introduce better cybersecurity and IT policy. However, poor oversight and lack of understanding of one’s infrastructure creates a web of problems.

Insight is data gathered from internal activity. Where data goes, how it’s stored, accessed, and handled, and how it’s recovered are all characteristics of data insight. Good insight creates quality decision-making paths. However, a limited understanding of your infrastructure develops harmful patterns. You cannot properly assess weak points or properly steer the enterprise in a safe direction. For instance, poor insight leads to a fragile cybersecurity culture.

Oversight is also of critical importance. Those who are responsible for making long-term IT and cybersecurity decisions need quality, digestible information. It is therefore important to strengthen your data analytics and focus on creating useful reports for top decision-makers – those responsible for hardline decisions and financial investments.

Limited Patch Management

Right behind the importance of strong data insight is patch management. Or, rather, lack of strong patch management. Patches fix weaknesses in software, apps, and security systems to prevent intrusion events. Any application your business relies on should have consistent patching against the latest threats, as hackers rely on zero-day vulnerabilities for maximum threat efficiency.

Poor patch management comes from neglect, legacy infrastructure, and relying on tools that no longer receive security support. It is another reason why maintaining insight over your IT infrastructure is important, as it reveals (or should) what software, apps, and services require patching.

Lack of Cybersecurity Staff

Perhaps one of the biggest risks to modern businesses is a total lack of needed IT/Cybersecurity staff. Staff shortages remain a serious problem for organizations, despite their severe importance. There are several reasons for current shortages:

• Difficulty entering the field with education/training requirements
• SMBs lack enough budget to hire the necessary staff
• Hackers and malicious actors outpacing advancements in security technology

Though certification programs and access to cybersecurity training have improved over the years, they still lag behind the constant changes in adaptive technology and malicious threats. Unfortunately, businesses can ill afford to wait. Left to fend for themselves, they risk suffering a severe data breach which can lead to costly recovery periods and potential business closure.

Mitigating Risk and Improving Cybersecurity Posture

With numerous dangers present in the tech sphere, doing what you can to mitigate risk towards your business is important. Using a mix of comprehensive training and adaptive, affordable solutions helps reduce threats to your infrastructure.

It is important to get assistance when needed. An alternative and viable solution is to utilize the services of a managed service provider like Bytagig. Bytagig can provide the various resources, training, and oversight to keep your IT and cybersecurity healthy.

For more information, contact us today.