Most Common Cybersecurity Threats for Businesses
Many of our day-to-day activities depend on how we’re doing in the digital space. Companies conduct their businesses in the digital space and they need to have an online presence and be easily reachable by their customers to be relevant.
Having a website is a basic necessity for every business, but building a secure website is a crucial detail many businesses miss out. Web security plays a big part in establishing your reputation and building trust with your prospects and customers.
With more malicious threats and possible cyberattacks lurking somewhere on the internet, organisations, big and small, are susceptible to cybercrimes.
Here are some of the most common cybersecurity threats for businesses that you need to avoid:
1.Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting is the act of registering domain names similar or identical to known brands to sell them for later. In this sense, the cybersquatters will purchase domains of a known brand or business who doesn’t have an official website yet. They will take the name and make a profit out of your name through web traffic attracted by your company’s popularity.
Another way they can manipulate your company is to sell the domain to you at a higher price. After all, you would want to preserve your company’s credibility and not lose potential traffic to these domain squatters.
2. Data Breach
Whether you’re a startup or a large enterprise, you’re not safe for potential data breaches. In Australia, many organisations have been compromised with their data after a series of cyberattacks left them red-faced and scrambling to maintain their services.
According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), there are around 1,057 reported malicious or criminal attacks to the agency from January to December 2020. Most of the data breaches came from the cyberattacks (60%) some from human error (35%) and the remaining from system faults (5%).
How do you protect your website from data breaches? Here are some useful tips
- Have SSL for your website. Encrypt your data.
- Maintain strict security policies within the company
- Create unique passwords and have a reliable password manager
3. Phishing or Social Engineering Attacks
Masquerading as a trusted entity to extract essential information is another type of cybersecurity threats faced by digital users. Phishing is one of the most common cyberattacks and one of the easiest attack to fall for. It gives hackers all they need to ransack your accounts.
Most common phishing types:
- Pretentious email – emails that mimic genuine organizations and sends thousands of generic requests.
- Spear Phishing – malicious email targeting a specific person, usually done via email.
- Whaling – aiming for a company’s senior executives using more subtle techniques.
- Smishing – a phishing attack using text messaging or SMS to get the attention of the victim.
- Vishing – a phishing attack done through voice calls.
- Search engine phishing – also known as SEO poisoning or SEO trojans, where hackers work to rank on the search engine to link on genuine sites and collect their sensitive information.
4. Denial of Service Attacks
Disrupting a website’s function to deny user access is the ploy of Denial of Service (DoS) cyberattack. It is meant to shut down a machine or a network which makes a website inaccessible to its intended users.
How was it used?
Hackers flood the target with traffic, or they send it an amount of information that triggers a crash. DoS attacks deprive genuine users of the service or resource they expected.
How to protect yourself from DoS attacks?
Invest in tech or DoS services that can help you detect legitimate spiker in network traffic. Having a strong firewall and strong routers to reject bogus traffic. Make your website updated with the latest security patches.
Don’t fall victim to these cyberattacks. If you’re building and maintaining secured websites, hire a reliable team from Flexisource IT. We offer end-to-end website development solutions to ensure your website is safe from cyberattacks.
