Cybersecurity Challenges And Trends

You need to look out for the following challenges that will characterize cybersecurity to protect your company’s sensitive data throughout the coming year. Here is a list of some cybersecurity threat that organizations must consider.

1. Ransomware

Ransomware is malicious software that prevents users from accessing data on their computers or networks until payment is made. Ransomware was a serious issue during 2016 and isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon; in fact, it may even get worse this year.  As more cybercriminals recognize the benefits of this tactic, the chances of people falling victim will continue to increase.

2. Internet of Things (IoT) Threats

The Internet of Things is making sure that every single device you own is connected. All of those connections offer massive benefits, which makes it so appealing in the first place. Unfortunately, the connections make consumers highly susceptible to cyber attacks. In fact, one study revealed that 70 percent of IoT devices have serious security vulnerabilities.

3. Hacktivism

Hacktivism involves unauthorized used of the computer system or network for a socially or politically motivated reason. These attacks use the same techniques and tools as a hacker but do so to disrupt services and bring attention to a social or political cause, which is usually very publicly damaging for an organization’s reputation.

4. Cryptojacking

The cryptocurrency movement also affects cybersecurity in many ways. Cryptojacking involves cybercriminals hijacking third-party home or work computers to “mine” for cryptocurrency like Bitcoin because the mining for cryptocurrency requires tremendous amounts of computer processing power. For most companies, Cryptojacked systems can cause severe performance problems and costly downtime.

5. DDoS Attacks

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks remains a significant cyber threat to many organizations. These attacks have crippled multiple big names including the BBC, presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s election campaign website, and cloud-based internet performance management firm Dyn. It’s designed to overwhelm a victim’s network resources so that they cannot process legitimate traffic.

6. Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks are a kind cybersecurity attack where the attacker creates a fraudulent email or website to trick victims into giving out their sensitive information—such as passwords to online accounts, login credentials for work, credit card credentials and other types of personal financial information and use these details to wreak havoc.

Why It’s Important to Address Cybersecurity Threats?

Cybersecurity is becoming more widely talked about with an increasing number of cyber attacks. Your company is at risk of the following if you fail to address cyber threats earlier.

• Compromising of private data: Companies rely heavily on the data they collect, and if a cyber attack occurs, not only will this information be stolen, but the data could also be altered in a way that drastically damages your company’s operation.
• Costly recovery expenses: Breach of security can put your company in financial repercussions. Whether it’s in the form of restoring lost data or acquiring new software, the loss of both money and time can be devastating.

Weakened client trust: customers don’t like hearing that their personal information has been compromised. They may decide to discontinue their business and seek services elsewhere if the company they initially trusted to keep their data safe was a victim of a cyber attack.