Most businesses now have a web footprint due to the many benefits of using the internet to attract customers, even for their physical products. With the growing increase of companies operating online, cybercriminals are aware of the massive gains they can make from stealing data. Hence, the countless attacks on businesses.
Before an organization can fight cybersecurity threats, it must first understand these types of threats and how cybercriminals utilize them to weaken businesses. Knowing how many of these web security threats happen will help an organization derive strategies to stop them. In this article, you will gain substantial knowledge of the different types of cybersecurity threats and how they work.
What Are Business Security Threats?
With the growing increase in cyber attacks, the importance of web security nowadays cannot be overemphasized. A successful cyber attack on an organization can even make many small and medium businesses run out of business. A web security threat is intentional and unintentional acts by employees and cybercriminals to steal data from an organization.
In some cases, the intention of these cybercriminals isn’t to steal data; they just want to destroy the information database of an organization. There are many types of web security threats, each with different severity variations. Some security threats only steal a fraction of an organization’s data, and others destroy an organization’s operational systems. Nevertheless, the major highlight is that it harms an organization no matter the type of threat.
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Weak Passwords and Authentication
One of the things that can harm a business very much is having weak passwords and authentication methods. Some companies are using their date of establishment as their passwords. In the case of employees’ credentials, sometimes there’s use of birthdays as their authentication method.
This is extremely weak and can cause severe damage to a business due to how easy it is to crack weak passwords. Hackers and cybercriminals use sophisticated tools for their operations, and using a weak password will make their operations very easy. Instead of weak passwords, a business must have a strict policy on employees and even customers about using robust passwords. But it doesn’t end with passwords.
The business should also ensure they also integrate powerful multi-factor authentication methods. And most importantly, they should ensure that at least one or more of these authentication methods are independent. Furthermore, employing the services of security solutions like LayerX will serve a very important purpose in taking the web security of a business to sophisticated levels.
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SQL Injection
Structured Query Language (SQL) is an imperative computing language as it serves a very important purpose for search and query databases. A search and query database in an organization or business is basically a request for important information such as passwords and financial information like credit cards.
So, cybercriminals find a way of compromising the Structured Query Language (SQL) so they can access any information from this search and query databases. The thing here is that when an SQL injection takes full effect, it allows cyber attackers to steal things like customers’ data and other vital business information.
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Phishing
Phishing is one of the oldest methods of web security threat for individuals and businesses, which has refused to get outdated due to its effectiveness. Phishing attacks are quite rampant and contribute to a major part of the cyber threats an organization receives in their day-to-day operations. According to data, phishing plays a major role in about 90% of the cyber attacks that happen to an organization.
This is how phishing works. The person or group carrying out this attack against an organization pretends to be a trusted figure known by employees. They can pretend to be the project manager, the CEO, business associates, or even fellow employees. No matter the roles they play, the ultimate goal of cybercriminals using this attack method is to get the business employees to give very important information.
This information can be anything like passwords, usernames, company insider information, and many more. In most cases, these cybercriminals might send enticing malicious links, take employees to such websites, make them give access to critical information, or download malicious files that can harm business data.
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Insider Threats
For small and large businesses, insider threats can heavily damage a company if it is not handled with care. An insider threat is when an employee, former employee, or even current and former business associates provide a link through which cybercriminals can harm an organization. In other words, it is when someone with access to a business establishment’s data gives cyber attackers that data. In most cases, what they get in return is financial compensation from these cyber attackers.
Like any cyber attack, insider threats are something that can be curtailed with the proper steps. Employing a zero-trust approach in an organization is the first step in preventing this. Zero-trust is when everyone in an organization must go under stringent authentication before they are given access to any data. Access to such data is withdrawn immediately after the usage period elapses.
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Malware Attacks
Malware attacks are another common security threat for businesses, mainly involving viruses and other discrepancies like a trojan. Malware attacks is an encompassing term that consists of different methods through which cyber attackers try to harm businesses. It can be in the form of malicious software downloads or the injection of compromised files into a business database to harm their data.
Nevertheless, with the proper steps, a business can actively prevent malware attacks from happening. Besides the traditional methods, a company can employ the services of security solutions like LayerX to prevent malware attacks from having any effect.
Conclusion
A business web security threat is any effort by cybercriminals to steal an organization’s data with or without the collaboration of employees and business associates. Sometimes, the goal of cyber attacks on a business isn’t to steal data but to entirely destroy the company.
Cybercriminals employ different methods to steal data from businesses, including phishing and malware attacks. Furthermore, other forms of cyber threats for a business include using weak passwords and authentication methods, insider threats, and SQL injection.
