As time goes on, businesses are doing more and more to protect their digital assets from theft and corruption. Whether that is deploying tools, providing training, or getting the support you need to successfully secure your business from the myriad of threats coming your way, you need to be deliberate about the way you go about deploying your security resources. Today, we want to touch on security training and the role it plays in your cybersecurity. 

Phishing attacks are one of the most common security threats to your business, not only because they are effective, but because they can be utilized in many different ways. You can become the victim of a phishing attack through email, instant message, phone, or even your voicemail. These “phoicemail” attacks are quite crafty in their approach, and you should be wary of them.

Most people have become pretty accustomed to hearing about the importance of cybersecurity when shopping online during the holidays—whether or not they heed the advice given from the experts is an entirely different story—but business owners and managers need to be aware of other threats that tend to peak during this time of year.

Are you tired of hearing about the importance of secure passwords, two-factor authentication, and security updates?

We get it. All of these techno-nerds (ourselves included) have spent all of October and even the weeks leading up to it talking about the importance of cybersecurity, preaching the importance of things that, let’s face it, just get in the way of you getting work done. Thank goodness Cybersecurity Month is long over, and now we can all get back to being absolutely reckless with our data, right?

It’s easy to focus on WHAT people should be doing to prevent themselves from becoming victims of cybercrime, but it’s just as easy to ignore the advice from experts while thinking “nah, that won’t really affect me.”

The thing is, you HAVE to be aware of these threats, and you have to take measures to protect yourself. We’re going to drop the dramatic language here, and focus on breaking the threats down so it’s easier to be more aware of them, and hopefully make it easier to navigate and circumvent a world that has a growing amount of cyber threats.

Financially-focused cyberthreats are no joke, especially considering how digital payments now make up 41.8% of all payments made worldwide. Let’s consider a few statistics that highlight how important it is to ensure that the payment card data your business collects is sufficiently protected.

Business owners often get unsolicited emails from individuals who want to sell them goods, services, or products. Depending on the message, they might even come across as a bit suspicious, prompting you to question the authenticity of the email. If you’re not careful, you might accidentally expose your organization by clicking on the wrong link in the wrong email, thus falling victim to the oldest trick in the book: the phishing attack.

The greater Baltimore area is no stranger to cyberattacks, but recent trends are pointing to an increased rise in attacks targeting businesses throughout the area. Let’s take a look at what businesses and other organizations have been experiencing.

Social engineering is a dangerous threat that could derail even the most prepared business. Even if you implement the best security solutions on the market, they mean nothing if a cybercriminal tricks you into acting impulsively. Let’s go over specific methods of social engineering that hackers might use to trick you.

Cybersecurity is an important consideration for all businesses—including the over 13,000 private businesses and 420 government establishments that were operating in Baltimore City as of 2020. This has unfortunately been reinforced a few times in the recent past, with many businesses having been the victims of rampant cyberthreats. Let’s review what some of these events have been, and what modern organizations should be teaching their employees to help avoid these issues.

Phishing attacks are serious business, so it is important that your team members know what they are, for one, and know how to spot them. To facilitate this, let’s review the signs of a phishing attack—or ideally, a phishing attempt (because by spotting it, you’re more able to stop it).

How often do you check social media only to find your news feed clogged with your friends and family sharing the results of quizzes like, “Which Star Wars character are you,” or “What’s your superhero name based on your birthday.” While these quizzes might seem harmless on the surface, they often hide a far more sinister agenda, one which uses the personally identifiable information provided to them for nefarious purposes.

For twenty years, hackers have tried to breach organizational networks by finding or breaking holes in the network’s perimeter, or in exposed servers. This led to the cybersecurity industry creating software designed specifically to stop these threat actors in the act. This, in essence, created a situation where the perimeter of an organization’s network was extremely hard to breach. The problem was that as soon as something was able to get through the outer defenses, there was no end to the devastation a hacker could cause inside a network.

Network security isn’t just for large, high-profile enterprises; even small businesses need to take it seriously. All businesses have something of value to hackers, and if you don’t believe this is the case for your organization, think again. All data is valuable to hackers, and you need to do everything in your power to protect it—especially against threats like Agent Tesla, the latest version of phishing malware designed to steal your data.

The situation surrounding the hack against Colonial Pipeline has only become more complex as new information has come to light, each new discovery providing more insights and potentially actionable takeaways. Let’s examine some of the biggest developments surrounding the attack, and what they will likely mean for overall cybersecurity from this point forward.

With new crisis-level cybersecurity events making headlines, it’s easy to assume that smaller businesses aren’t at the same risk level as larger enterprises. However, most common attacks don’t care who gets hit. There is also plenty of evidence pointing out that smaller businesses are at an even higher risk—you just don’t hear about them on the news.

GoDaddy—the domain registrar and web-hosting company once famed for its risqué advertisements—is facing some significant backlash for a much different reason. On December 14th, GoDaddy’s employees received an email that appeared to be from the company, promising a holiday bonus. However, while the email was from the company as it appeared to be, it was actually a phishing test that the hosting provider decided to run.

As serious as they are, cyberattacks are not always labeled with the most serious-sounding names. We are, of course, talking about phishing: the use of spoofed email addresses and fraudulent messages to get hold of data, or whatever goal the attacker has in mind. One of the silliest-sounding versions of phishing—smishing—has proven to be of particular risk.

With everything else going on, it’s easy to let your guard down. Business owners have more to worry about than ever before—the health and safety of their staff and customers, making payroll, keeping the lights on. Granted, some businesses have it harder than others, but the general consensus right now is that things are less stable than they were.

When people talk about cybersecurity nowadays, there certainly seems to be a lot of emphasis put on phishing attacks and ransomware. This is for good reason. Not only can either of these attack vectors create significant difficulties for a business, they are often used in tandem. Let’s discuss why these threats are so potent, and why they so often show up together.