DDOS attacks

The widespread adoption of the internet and advances in communications technology have brought several changes to the way businesses and society operates. Cloud computing, remote work, the internet of things (IoT) are all powered by the internet. However, today’s technology and its widespread use has opened up organisations to new threats. The five biggest cybersecurity threats currently: social engineering, ransomware, DDOS attacks, third party software and cloud computing vulnerability. Let’s look at each in detail.

Social engineering: In 2020, most breaches incorporated social engineering techniques such as phishing. Many types of cyber-attacks rely on people clicking on links / downloading something, that grants attackers access into a network or system. Attackers often target businesses through their staff – phishing emails that masquerade to be from a trusted source, for example.

To prevent phishing attacks, enterprises should:

  • train staff to recognise common phishing emails.
  • implement Zero Standing Privileges.
  • control what executable files can be downloaded / installed.

Ransomware: Ransomware is a type of malicious program that encrypts all your data, once it infects your system. After taking advantage of vulnerabilities in your system, ransomware can spread to other devices and lock down your network. What’s worse? Once the job is done, attackers demand a ransom, typically in the form of untraceable cryptocurrencies. You need to pay, in order to decrypt your own data.

Ransomware attacks can be prevented by:

  • proactively aim to secure all vulnerabilities.
  • have a SIEM (security information and event management) tool.

DDOS attacks: Denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are growing larger, more sophisticated, and more impactful than ever. Customer-facing services are bearing the brunt of these attacks. DoS and DDoS attacks aim to make your servers, devices, services, or applications unavailable to end users. Although these attacks don’t result in stolen or leaked sensitive data, they can still do significant damage to your company’s productivity, uptime and reputation.

A few measures to prevent DDOS attack are:

  • real time auditing of log data from network devices.
  • identify repetitive connection requests from a specific IP address.
  • blocking the IP addresses that are exceeding the threshold attempts.

Third party software vulnerability: If one application within the environment is compromised, it opens up a gateway for hackers into other domains. While organisations focus on defending themselves against known threats, attackers slip under their radar by exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities. Zero-day attacks occur out of the blue, because they target vulnerabilities that are not yet acknowledged, published, or patched by a vendor. Though deploying patches and putting an end to vulnerabilities once and for all sounds ideal, there are cases when patches are not available to fix the flaw.

Actively patch all third-party software by implementing measures to mitigate zero-day exploits. This helps prevent any type of compromise within the environment.

DDOS attacks

Cloud computing vulnerability: The cloud has opened new avenues for the way businesses function. The easy deployment, adaptive scalability, and economical costs of the cloud have many organisations adopting it. However, meeting compliance needs and growing security concerns about data loss and unauthorised access, hinders the tapping of the platform’s full potential.

The best way to keep cloud environments safe is to:

  • get comprehensive reports on events.
  • detect anomalies based on timings, patterns, counts of attempts.
  • implementing multifactor authentication.

 

ZOHO‘s IT division ManageEngine, has complete and easy solutions for the most difficult IT management problems. From keeping your business safe, to ensuring high availability, your concerns can be addressed. Reach out to discuss the ways to free your organisation from the above security concerns.

DDOS attacks