5 Common Cyber Attacks that Are Putting California Companies Out of Business
Business

5 Common Cyber Attacks that Are Putting California Companies Out of Business

Cyber attacks are more than a small annoyance. They’re actually a threat to your entire business operations. If you don’t prepare for them adequately, you could go bust.

In this post, we take a look at five common cyberattacks that are making California businesses go broke so you can avoid them.

1. Malicious Insiders

Like it or not, there are sometimes people in your organization actively working against your interests. Usually, they are unhappy employees who want to carry out revenge (often just before they leave). 

Fortunately, there are several powerful countermeasures that you can take to prevent this from happening: 

  • Reduce the likelihood of employees becoming disgruntled in the first place by improving your management
  • Restrict each employee’s access using permissions so that they can only access areas they require for work
  • Set up network monitoring to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity

2. Ransomware

Ransomware is gaining in popularity due to its ability to get companies to hand over large sums of money.

It works something like this. First, hackers install malware on your network. They then use this to block access to mission critical resources that you need, such as customer data or apps. Finally, they tell you what they’ve done, demanding money to restore service.

For many companies, the damage from these attacks is so high that they actually follow through and pay the ransom. This then emboldens the hacker to attack new companies and the cycle continues. 

3. Phishing

Phishing is another highly successful strategy that has had an enormous impact on the business community. Phishing works because it bypasses people’s natural suspicions. Usually, it takes the form of emails asking staff to “confirm their details.” When they do, they inadvertently pass all their login information to hackers. 

There are a couple of tried-and-tested way to beat phishing: 

  • Train employees not to respond to any suspicious-looking emails
  • Carefully filter the emails as they arrive, ensuring that anything vaguely risky is checked first

4. Stolen Credentials

Companies rely on usernames and passwords to protect their networks from unauthorized access. However, once hackers steal credentials, they can log into your networks, pretending to be people in your organization. Furthermore, once they have access to your network, they’re often able to monitor it from the inside, capturing even more usernames and passwords, making them hard to eliminate.

To avoid this issue, apply good password hygiene. Don’t allow anyone to use passwords that hackers could guess.

5. Poor Encryption

Lastly, hackers are often able to gain access to your networks because of poor encryption standards. Encryption creates a secret key that only authorized computers in a network can read. However, if you don’t use encryption, hackers can potentially intercept your communications as they travel, finding out what’s in them.

To prevent this, you may need to use an IT company in Aliso Viejo to improve your encryption levels. You will also need to ensure that you encrypt all sensitive data while it is at rest, in transit, and in processing.