Protecting Against Cyber Threats & Challenges Involved

Cyber-attacks today have morphed into becoming an area of great challenge for individuals and organizations. This brings about the need for adequate measures to be put in place to ensure early identification of security threats and ways of neutralizing these threats. Frankly, it can be hard for companies to recover from such attacks and even if they manage to, they suffer from sanctions, damaged reputation, data loss etc.

Cyber-attacks use different means to achieve different ends and can vary in approach as seen in fig. 1 below, bringing about the need for various prevention measures. There are a number of precautions that can be taken regarding these cyber-attacks:

Back up data: The greatest loss individuals and organizations suffer is that of loss of valuable data. This makes it very crucial that all information on all devices is backed up on a separate system (external hard drives). Organizations usually back up their data to external servers not linked to their main network.

Screen emails & websites thoroughly: Organizations and individuals should take extra precaution with opening emails and visiting unfamiliar websites. Particularly because, ransomware threats are initiated by downloading malicious software onto a victim’s computer prior to attack launch and the way this is done is through malicious adverts on websites and phishing emails.

Antimalware software or antivirus: Most good antimalware programs detect ransomware and prevent them from being downloaded also they can detect already present (dormant) malware. They also can detect malicious adverts from websites and block secret installations.

Always install updates: It is important that organizations and individuals make a habit of downloading the newest version of software as soon as it is available. Software updates are often made available to shore up any exploitable vulnerabilities to install ransomware.

Never pay the ransom: it is advisable to never pay ransomware demand fees to the attackers as it encourages them and does not guarantee recovery of data and information. This is a where data backup becomes useful as you can easy restore backed up data. There are also programs that help to decrypt files.

Know the risks: a better knowledge & understanding of the various forms of cyber threats allows you access vulnerabilities internally and externally. Identifying ways, a cybercriminal can breach your system by identifying week spots. This can only be achieved through a better understanding of the getting informed about various cyber fraud schemes and threats.

Organization culture: It is crucial that employees themselves know ways they can potentially put the organization at risk making sure they keep their eyes peeled for potential threats and are well informed on how to keep information safe. Put rules and regulations in place that control internet practices within the office and on devices. Network access control (NAC): Organisations and individuals should enforce security policies such that every user and device is recognised and not every user has access to your network. Users and devices that carry potential risk can then be granted limited access or blocked entirely.

Behavioural analytics: There are behavioural analytics tools that detect activities that deviate from the normal and to achieve this they monitor the normal behaviour of your system. This enables organisations and individuals to better identify indicators of compromise that pose a potential risk and quickly neutralize the threats.

Mobile device security: Being cautious of downloaded software and ensuring that all applications installed or downloaded are verified by the official store will go a long way in ensuring there are no vulnerabilities for malicious software to gain access.