As per a report by Cisco, in 2021, phishing attacks accounted for 90% of total data breaches. Furthermore, it is anticipated that cybercrime will cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Some alarming statistics here, right?
Well, there is no getting around the fact that cybersecurity is a major concern among individuals and business organizations alike. When it comes to security, passwords are our first line of defense as they grant access to our finances, business information, identities, and more. However, most people and organizations do a pretty worthless job of protecting that line. They follow poor password practices that lead the way to cybersecurity threats. Today, we will look at the most common cyber risks that organizations face and how they can be prevented.
Most Common Cybersecurity Threats
- Malware
Malware is the most common security threat that poses a great deal of risk. To understand, malware is an unsolicited piece of software or code that installs itself on a target system, resulting in undesired and malicious behavior. Often, it may include deleting documents, stealing confidential data, denying access to programs, and more.
Prevention: The best way to prevent a malware attack is by having an anti-malware program installed on your system. Such a program will automatically detect any distrustful links and websites, and keep you from accessing them.
- Phishing Attacks
Phishing is one of the oldest scams that influence the user to give up sensitive information to the hacker. Typically, the end-user is presented with emails or messages that appear legitimate and request sensitive data. These messages are often crafted with an urgency that compels the users to click on them right away.
Prevention: Every user and organization must rely on their trained common sense to prevent phishing. Malicious messages, for example, are generally full of syntax and spelling errors.
- Zero-Day Exploits
Sometimes, there may be an overlooked security issue in a system. Hackers may take advantage of this vulnerability and further exploit them to damage your network or devices. Often, zero-day attacks are generally hard to predict and lead to unusual behavior or stolen information.
Prevention: The only way to prevent zero-day exploits is to maintain good security practices. You can adopt multi-factor authentication as well as deploy quality enterprise-level security tools to ensure protection.
- DDoS
DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. It is an attack technique in which hackers target servers and overload them with user traffic. As a result, the server becomes unable to manage the incoming results and shuts down or slows to a level of unusable performance.
Prevention: To prevent a DDoS attack, you must identify any suspicious traffic coming to your website. Sometimes, attackers use multiple malicious IPs to distribute the attack. In such a case, you can take your website down for maintenance.
Conclusion
The truth is that cybersecurity threats are increasing every day. It is advisable to stay vigilant in your use of the internet, especially if you are an organization running your own website. Follow the best practices for malware and password protection to evade these threats as much as possible.