2020 will not only be remembered as the year of the pandemic, but also for the importance and relevance of cybersecurity for individuals and companies. All this was the result of the increase in cyber-attacks derived from the accelerated implementation of teleworking, where organizations were forced to establish new cybersecurity measures outside their offices.
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Global cyber threats continue to develop at a rapid pace, with an increasing number of data breaches each year. In a report by RiskBased Security, it was revealed that 7.9 billion records have been exposed by data breaches in the first nine months of 2019. This is more than double (112%) the number of records exposed in the same period during 2018.
Medical services, retailers and public entities suffered the most breaches. Some of these sectors are more attractive to cybercriminals as they collect financial and medical data, although all companies using the networks can be attacked.
With the extent of cyber threats steadily increasing, the International Data Corporation predicts that global spending on cybersecurity solutions will reach $133.7 billion by 2022. The importance of monitoring systems is reflected in «10 Steps to Cybersecurity,» guidance provided by the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Centre. In Australia, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) is responsible for publishing periodic guidance on how organizations can counter the latest cybersecurity threats.
The threats facing cybersecurity are:
- Cybercrime: involves individual actors or groups attacking systems for financial gain or disruption.
- Cyber-attacks often involve information gathering for political purposes.
- Cyberterrorism aims to weaken electronic systems to cause panic or fear.
How do they gain control of computer systems? These are some common methods employed according to a Kaspersky article:
- Malware: this is malicious software and is one of the most common cyberthreats. The cybercriminal or hacker has been responsible for creating it to damage a user’s computer through an email attachment or a download, with the aim of making money or making a cyberattack for political purposes.
- SQL code injection: (Structured Query Language), is a cyber-attack used to take control and steal information from a database. This gives them access to confidential information.
- Phishing: refers to when cybercriminals attack their victims with emails that appear to be from a legitimate company requesting confidential information. These types of attacks are often used to induce people to hand over their credit card details and other personal information.
- Man-in-the-middle attack: this is when a cybercriminal intercepts communication between two individuals to steal data. For example, on an unsecured Wi-Fi network, an attacker could intercept data being transmitted from the victim’s device and the network.
- Denial-of-service attack: cybercriminals prevent a computer system from fulfilling legitimate requests by overloading networks and servers with traffic. This renders the system unusable and prevents a company from performing vital functions.
There are many threats to which companies are subjected on a daily basis, which is why it is vitally important to be aware of them and get down to work to prevent them through various mechanisms and rules that we establish to take care of all our IT assets.
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