Recent government statistics have revealed that cyber-attacks are on the rise, and with the average cost of an attack being estimated at nearly £20,000 a cybersecurity breach is an obvious real threat to businesses.
Here we highlight the most common cyber-attacks to look out for as well as the measures that can help keep your company’s IT systems safe and secure.
The most common cyber-attacks explained:
- Malware – This is malicious, intrusive software designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system.
- Phishing – Phishing refers to fraudulent emails aimed at tricking individuals into revealing personal information, such as passwords or financial information.
- Ransomware – This style of attack encrypts files, denying the owner access until a ransom fee is paid. Ransomware is often spread through phishing emails containing malicious attachments or links.
- Denial of service (DoS) – These attacks render a computer or other device unavailable by overwhelming or flooding a targeted machine with requests until normal traffic is unable to be processed.
- Man in the middle – This type of attack aims to steal personal information. Perpatrators place themselves between users and applications making it appear as if a normal exchange is underway.
- Cryptojacking – Cryptojacking is a scheme to use people’s devices without their consent or knowledge, to avoid overheads by secretly mining cryptocurrency.
- Structured Query Language(SQL) injection – SQL injection attacks exploit vulnerabilities within systems and can result in unauthorised access to sensitive data, such as passwords, credit card details, or personal user information.
So how can businesses protect themselves?
Undertaking a cyber risk assessment can help protect against an attack before it occurs. The best way to do this is by conducting penetration testing or endpoint security checks to identify IT system vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit.
The government backed cyber essentials certification also provides an additional layer of protection for organisations of any size against a whole range of cyber-attacks.
Implementing a robust firewall can provide a high calibre threat prevention and unified security management solution across IT networks and the cloud.
At b4b Group we have the expertise and experience necessary to help protect your business from a whole host of cybersecurity threats. Get in touch with our team to learn more about the tailored solutions available to your organisation.
