Operating an e-business can be tricky. Keeping yourself protected from the various digital threats that plague the World Wide Web is but one of many considerations. Read on to learn which internet security threats you must watch for and how you can protect yourself from them.
Phishing
Hackers—disguising themselves as banks, government organizations, or company leaders—send you a misleading email in an attempt to steal your information by way of a malicious link, a request for your private information, or some other means. Clicking on this link can either direct you to a dummy website they’ve created—based on a legitimate website—or activate the install of nocuous software called malware.
Malware
Also called a worm, virus, ransomware, or spyware, malware is a type of software that usually comes in the form of links or email attachments, resulting in the theft of your personal information and other sensitive assets. To avoid accidentally clicking on these links, simply Google the name of the company and compare its URL with the link provided in your phishing email. Do the links match? If not, report the email to your internal IT team. Regarding attachments, reach out—either in person, via chat, or over the phone—to the co-worker who supposedly sent you the email. Did they send you the attachment? If not, report the email.
Social Engineering
Hackers use social engineering to access your private information, should their phishing scams fail. Often, they impersonate IT workers requesting access to work on your internal systems. A good rule of thumb for avoiding social engineering scams is to remember that you should never share sensitive information such as passwords and social security numbers, especially through phone calls or emails.
Man-in-the-Middle
Hackers have discovered that they can interrupt traffic between two users to filter and steal important data such as bank account numbers, passwords, and other sensitive information. Similar to wiretapping a phone, a MitM attack happens over unsecured public Wi-Fi networks where security protections are not in place. Using a VPN and private hot spot connection can help prevent such attacks when working out of the office.
Denial-of-Service
These attacks can be either singularly focused (as in a DoS attack) or widespread (as in a Distributed DoS attack). Both types of attacks flood network providers and a variety of devices with requests and illegitimate traffic so that they cannot function as normal. During that time, hackers can infiltrate your internal systems and implement a damaging software such as ransomware. Since the network cannot answer, it won’t be able to actively protect itself. In this case, your internal IT team is your first and last line of defense; however, even the most effective team could use a little help now and then.
The internet is full of security threats you must watch for, and managing them is by no means easy. We at Atmosera can help. Our Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Security Services can help you reduce risk while meeting industry standards, giving you 24-7 peace of mind.