Major IT security risks all businesses should be aware of
Cybercrime and its ability to strike anyone on the web is now one of the top concerns any business should have when considering their computer security.
Whether it’s lone wolf hackers or organised gangs, there are people with the skills to make a good effort at accessing your data infrastructure. To make you aware of the threats that exist, here are some ways they could go about attempting it.
1. Email worms
Sometimes referred to as ‘mass mailing worms’, these infections often come in the form of harmless-looking emails. The danger will usually lie within an attachment that’s hooked in them. Open this and your system will become infected, with the ‘worm’ gathering information at a rapid pace and transferring it back to the original sender.
Emails as well as web pages are also capable of releasing viruses upon computers, sometimes through the guise of ‘trojan horse’s. These are programs containing harmful coding designed to inflict damage upon the recipient in whatever particular way it was programmed to do so.
2. DDoS attacks
A DDoS attack – which stands for Distributed Denial of Service – involves a person or group of people overwhelming a web site by sending copious amounts of traffic to it from multiple sources. The idea is to push the site beyond its capabilities, therefore freezing it and stopping the owner from adding anything to it.
Although such attacks are usually nothing more than a short-term inconvenience, their ability to adapt to defences put in place has made them an ever-growing threat to businesses that rely on online advertising revenue. DDoS attacks are also targeted at office networks to try to gain access to confidential information.
3. Social media hacking
As the public face of many businesses, social media can have a big impact on their wider reputation. As a result, criminals wishing to hold companies to ransom, enact revenge upon them, or simply take control for fun, may target these platforms.
The issue businesses have to face is that with so much information publicised through social media, that data can be turned against them by clever confidence tricksters. For instance, someone following social media may work out that ‘James’ is head of IT services and that ‘Sally’ in a new intern. They could then call Sally, say that James wants them to post something on Twitter and ask her for their passwords.
Countering these threats requires the powerful combination of smart employees and protective technology.
