Preserving the integrity of computers
and servers, of data or of the corporate website should be a priority for all
companies. Today, at Sale Systems we talk about 10 threats
to computer security that you should avoid and know, we give you the
necessary clues to prevent them.
Personally, I recommend investing a
little money and time in renewing or installing a new ANTIVIRUS rather than
having to format a computer or server for not having done it on time.
10 threats to your company's IT security that you should avoid
Did you know that at least 430 million
new types of malicious software were registered in 2015? And we
are only talking about those that Symantec was able to detect, as indicated in
its annual Internet Security Threats report. The document concludes
that the companies lost or suffered the theft of around 500 million personal
data of their employees.
Industrial espionage, economic
blackmail, theft of sensitive information. Cybercrime can have many
faces. But all of them involve a cost for those affected. And when it
comes to a business, the consequences can translate into significant financial
losses.
What are the main threats to my company's IT security?
Let's see below the types of risks
that your business runs if you do not take the precautionary measures to avoid
it.
Most of them are cases of malware,
also known as "malicious code" or "malicious
software." But we will also talk about practices that, although they
can take advantage of malware, do not stop there, and go one step further on
the scale of cybercrime.
#1. Computer viruses
They are the best known threats to the
non-IT public. It is basically code that infects an executable program and
that spreads by copying itself and infecting other programs or files. Its
consequences and its severity vary greatly. Some viruses are only intended
to play a prank on the user; others can cause software to malfunction,
damage hardware, or even infect an entire network of users. Viruses always need
human action to activate themselves (for example, by executing infected
software due to ignorance).
The economic losses if it damages the
company's software, the operating system or the computers and devices
themselves can be very large. Keep your antivirus updated, you
cannot imagine the amount of time lost and the money that companies lose having
their employees sit idly by for not having invested a little time and money in
updating their antivirus .
# 2. Worms
What name do they put true? But
they do behave like that and I assure you they don't turn into butterflies,
they are often mistaken for viruses. However, worms, unlike them, do not
need human action to activate, copy themselves and spread throughout the
network. Because that's what they do! They can, for example, be copied and
sent to each of your contacts through your email or instant messaging service,
and repeat the operation with the address book of each of your
contacts. Its propagation capacity grows exponentially. Worms often crash
computers, servers, and the network, hogging resources, consuming bandwidth,
and causing serious performance problems.
But they can also be used for even
darker purposes, such as creating large networks of zombie computers,
controlled by bots that can use them to send spam in bulk, launch cyber attacks
or download all kinds of malware onto the computer. Can you imagine how much
damage worms can do to your computer equipment and your network…?
#3. Trojans
Do you remember the Trojan Horse in
which the Greeks hid to enter the city of the Trojans and defeat
them? Well, the malware known as a Trojan does the same, but on your
computer! A Trojan Horse or computer Trojan usually enters your
computer or your device taking advantage of legitimate software
downloads. (Be careful when downloading programs, I recommend that you
always download it from the official domain and be careful with the word
free in this context, it almost always has something hidden). Hence its
name, because the Trojan Horse was supposedly a harmless gift from the Greeks
to the Trojans for its valor in battle.
Its objective? Opening a back
door to hackers so they can control your computer and its software. Unlike viruses
and worms , the Trojan does not harm or spread. That is why it goes
unnoticed, something important to fulfill its function.
#4. Adware
Another popularity champion among
users. And it is that the effects of adware do not go unnoticed. Who
has not suffered the inconvenience of surfing the Internet surrounded by a sea
of spam ads and pop-up windows that open in the browser in an uncontrolled
way? Adware is a seemingly harmless type of software compared to some of the
previous types of malware, but it can drastically lower the performance of
workers who need to surf the Internet to perform their tasks. Sometimes adware
includes an “antivirus”
or some other paid registration option that eliminates the problem. It is
a hoax perpetrated by the authors of the adware to be eradicated.
Some time ago I located a cleaner for
this software that we have used for a long time and this one is free, I do
recommend that you do it with a specialized technician, sometime another
deletes a service if you touch or activate an option that you should not
activate. called AdwCleaner.
#5. Rootkits
It is software that allows cyber
intruders to access computers without being detected to steal sensitive
information. Rootkits allow privileged access to a user (the hacker), who
connects remotely, altering the operating system to hide the maneuver. A real
risk for companies and users, who can have their access codes, bank details,
etc. stolen.
# 6. Keylogger
Although there are also versions that
work through devices or hardware accessories, we are basically talking about
programs that can reach a computer through viruses, Trojans, etc., and that are
dedicated to memorizing the keystrokes made by the user. The information
is recorded in a file and can be sent over the Internet. As you can imagine,
cybercriminals can get hold of all kinds of passwords, bank details and any
other kind of private information.
# 7. Man In The Middle Attack
(MITM)
It is a type of attack in which the
hacker intercepts traffic that travels from a sending computer to another
receiver. That is why it is called Man in the middle, which in Spanish
means “Man in the middle”. By becoming an intermediate point where information
passes from its place of origin (an employee's computer, for example), to a
destination site (let's say it is the company's server), the cybercriminal can
decrypt the data and get hold of keys and passwords.
# 8. DOS attacks
Having the company website down for
some time can lead to significant financial losses, especially if it is an
online store! That is the goal of Denial Of Service (DOS) attacks, or
"denial of service." A computer launches requests to the server
where the website is hosted until it saturates it and begins to deny
access. The web falls with its corresponding losses in sales, business
opportunities, etc. To stop the attack, just ban the attacker's IP. But if
the time the web remains down is long enough, the losses have already taken
place and the damage is done.
# 9. DDOS attacks
The concept is the same as in the
previous threat: massive requests are made until the server is saturated and
the web falls; however, the attack we are talking about now is a Distributed
Denial Of Service (DDOS), and it is more sophisticated than the previous.
Instead of launching attacks from a
single computer, DDOS attacks use many computers to distribute requests to the
server. Often times, these computers belong to users who do not know what
their computers are being used for, who have been added to a zombie network by
hackers infecting them with malware. The problem with this type of attack is
that by having a multiple origin it is more difficult to find out all the IPs
from which it starts and, therefore, it is more difficult to stop. And these
threats are only the tip of the iceberg! They are the most common, but
there are many more.
In addition, with the revolution of
the Internet of Things (IoT) or “ Internet of things ”, the
challenges to device security are expected to increase massively. The
increase in devices and consumer goods with access to the Internet will
stimulate the development of new threats of all kinds. You may fear that you
will never sleep peacefully again thinking about the number of cyber threats
that threaten your company, but do not worry. Not everything is lost!
#10. What can I do to prevent
information theft and other computer security problems?
We would like to reassure you by
recommending the latest antivirus
on the market… But unfortunately, installing antimalware is not enough! To
guarantee the computer security of your company and prevent threats, identity
theft, data theft, extortion, industrial espionage and a long list of problems,
it is best to implement security protocols.
The variety of measures that can be
taken to prevent security threats ranges from updating all software, to
configuring and managing servers, to installing antivirus and other
security software.
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