To facilitate this task, in this article we explain what phishing is , one of the risks that we can most frequently find on the Internet. In addition, we also detail how you can identify it and we show you some good cybersecurity practices that will surely help you combat it easily.

What Is Phishing ?

Phishing comes from a variation of the English word ” fishing ” (fishing), since the cybercriminal navigates the network with the intention of “fishing” for the private information of Internet users . They can face numerous problems by exposing their confidential information:

• Theft of personal data: passwords in accounts of all kinds, address, etc.
• Economic losses: in people who make purchases over the Internet without taking security measures.
• Impersonation of accounts: especially in social networks.

If you think about it, just like with fishing, for this to happen the target person must “take the bait”. What does this mean? Well, this type of attack manages to enter computers and mobile phones, simply, because the door is “opened” for them to enter the device ; for example, through risky behavior or poor security on the device. 

Luckily, it is in our power to help make this threat disappear. It is not about abandoning the use of the Internet, but quite the opposite. The key is getting used to using electronic devices and connecting in a safe and responsible way, taking the appropriate precautions.

How Can You Suffer Such An Attack?

The best way to avoid being a victim of phishing is to know how cybercriminals who carry out this type of practice act and take care of the protection of our devices. Therefore, we will explain how they can enter your mobile phone, your tablet or your computer.

By Email

Surely, you have seen how many emails arrive in your inbox. Many of them may belong to your contracted entities (electricity, water bills, etc.). Others, on the other hand, may contain promotions in which you have registered in the stores. But what about the ones you haven’t “asked for”?

The most common entry mechanism for this fraud is email. It is a message that appears to be normal, but contains a somewhat suspicious link. One day you mistakenly decide to open it to see where it takes you and you end up on a page that, without asking your permission, downloads a virus-infected file.

Fortunately, it is not enough for the mail to arrive on your computer. To infect your devices, you need to open it and click on the link that appears. 

Also Read: What Is Phishing: How To Recognize It And Tips To Avoid It

By Phone Call

This practice acquires the name of vishing when it is done through a call. In this case, it is not something so automatic, since there is a person on the other end of the line who is executing that attack. 

Through this technique, the cybercriminal can make you believe that it is a gas company, for example. To make you a supposedly more competitive invoice, it asks you for various information. As sales calls are very common, it is usual to provide the type of data requested.  The most common thing is that they only ask for your name, your surnames and the DNI . With this information, it is enough for them to impersonate your identity wherever they want. 

To avoid falling into this practice, it is enough to avoid providing personal data by phone unless you have contacted the company directly through an official channel.

By Text Message

Text messages (SMS) were left behind with the advent of free instant messaging applications. However, we still continue to communicate in this way with medical centers, stores and other similar entities. In addition, many times we receive advertising from telephone companies through this channel.

This situation is called smishing , and it works much like email attacks. Again, we receive a message (this time an SMS) with a link. If we click on this suspicious link we may be endangering our devices and the personal information we store on them. 

For a Fake Website

A cybercriminal person can impersonate a page that you consult daily to enter your device. In this way, they simulate it in appearance and content so that it is difficult for you to tell the difference. Of course, it is always possible to detect some differences that help us identify impersonation. 

Through Social Networks

Social networks are also not exempt from attacks such as phishing . Many times, they take advantage of the trust of the users to enter their system. To do this, they can impersonate the profile of one of your contacts in a very realistic way, with the same name, profile photo and biography. 

When this so-called known person has approached us with a contact request, they will send a message with a link so that, by clicking on it, we can access the malicious website or agree to install something on the device. Of the routes that we have discussed, this is the one that is gaining the most popularity, but it is also the easiest to verify.

How To Prevent Phishing ?

Luckily, you can implement good practices so that cybercriminals have no place on any of your devices. Before teaching you how to do it, we are going to ask you to think about something that you have learned in this article without realizing it: What is the point that all the attack routes that we have mentioned have in common? Indeed: trust .

When you go down the street or enter a store, you never trust what they tell you at first glance. So why would you do it on the internet? To avoid risks, we suggest that you guide your actions online by three criteria:

• Control.
• Caution.
• Collaboration.

Acting with control implies knowing which web page you are entering or to whom you are answering that email. For its part, caution requires that you do not click on links you do not know or that you do not give your data to unknown people. Lastly, collaboration is essential so that citizens can alert the authorities to an attempted attack.

Avoid Being Attacked By SMS And Email

A fraudulent email or SMS usually presents several symptoms that you can learn to identify. Do not trust if it deals with any of the following topics:

• Confirmation of an account on a web page that you have not accessed.

• Notifications from the Treasury (neither the Andalusian nor the Spanish Tax Agency requests data through these channels).

• Labor circulars addressed to all workers.

It is also important that you delete emails or messages that have a suspicious link or a poor quality corporate image. Likewise, misspellings or inconsistent messages are clear indications that something is wrong.

Also Read: Cybersecurity – Three Ways To Prevent Cyber Attacks

Protect Yourself Against Phishing And Fraud on Social Networks

A fraudulent call can have many different symptoms. The most important thing you can detect by knowing who is calling you (supposedly). Here are some examples:

• A utility company: asks you to download an app to get a refund.
• A bank: requires your account or card number to make some validations.
• An official entity: such as the police to identify you by phone.

On social media, you can prevent phishing by not accepting friend requests from unknown people . In turn, you should be wary of messages that contain statements such as the following (which often contain links):

• “Are you really the one in this video?”
• “Congratulations! You are the customer number 1000 and you have won a raffle ».
• “In order for you to continue using your account, we need to verify your identity.”

Detect Fraudulent Web Pages

You will know that a website is false when it does not have these three aspects:

• The lock icon next to the address: It means that the page has a security certificate.
• The term “https” (note, not “http”) at the beginning of the link: Implies that your data is not exposed.
• The legal notice in one of its sections: All websites are required by law to identify their manager.

Online banking websites are, by their very nature, the most secure . However, they may also have been impersonated, so it is always recommended that you call the entity if you have doubts about the veracity.

The post What Is Phishing, How Can It Attack You And How Can You Prevent It? appeared first on Web Updates Daily.

Managed IT services providers are third-party vendors that offer a range of IT services, including network security, data backup and recovery, and compliance management. With their expertise and experience in managing enterprise networks, MSPs can help organizations achieve their security and compliance goals while reducing operational costs. Here are some ways MSPs can improve security and compliance for enterprise networks:

Proactive Monitoring and Management

MSPs use advanced tools and technologies to monitor network activity and identify potential security threats. They can detect and respond to security incidents in real time, preventing data breaches and cyber-attacks before they occur. MSPs can utilize remote access and monitoring software from ConnectWise to manage complex client networks and discover security vulnerabilities before they become problems. Managed IT services should be implemented using the best cybersecurity and IT technologies and software by ConnectWise.

Proactive monitoring and management also allow MSPs to identify network vulnerabilities and implement necessary patches and updates to ensure the network remains secure. MSPs offering updates and patches can be particularly useful and cost-effective for enterprises that lack the resources or expertise to manage their networks internally.

Endpoint Security

Endpoints such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets are often the weakest link in enterprise networks, making them vulnerable to cyber-attacks. MSPs can provide endpoint security solutions that protect devices from malware, viruses, and other cyber threats.

Endpoint security solutions also include data encryption, access control, and remote wiping tools, enabling organizations to secure their data in case of a lost or stolen device. As more and more companies turn to remote work options, endpoint security has become more critical than ever before.

Data Backup and Recovery

Data backup and recovery are critical for enterprises to ensure business continuity during a disaster or cyber-attack. MSPs can provide data backup and recovery solutions that ensure data is protected and accessible during an outage or data loss. MSPs can also help enterprises develop disaster recovery plans that include backup schedules, recovery time objectives, and failover procedures.

Compliance Management

Many industries, such as healthcare and finance, are subject to strict regulations that govern how they handle and protect sensitive data. MSPs can help enterprises achieve and maintain compliance with these regulations by implementing necessary security controls and procedures.

MSPs can also provide regular compliance assessments to ensure the organization meets regulatory requirements. Enterprises that fail to comply within their industry may face hefty fines and other consequences that may halt business operations.

Security Awareness Training

Employees are often the weakest link in enterprise networks, making them vulnerable to phishing attacks and other cyber threats. MSPs can provide security awareness training to educate employees on recognizing and responding to security threats.

Security awareness training can include simulated phishing attacks to test employee awareness and identify areas for improvement. Employee security training can help enterprises improve their security posture and reduce the risk of a successful cyber-attack.

Get MSP Support Today

MSPs can provide various services to help enterprises improve their security and compliance measures. By partnering with an MSP, organizations can leverage the expertise and experience of dedicated professionals who ensure their networks are secure and compliant.

Overall, partnering with an MSP can be a cost-effective way for enterprises to improve their security and compliance measures while freeing up resources to focus on core business objectives. As cyber threats evolve and become more sophisticated, organizations must prioritize security and compliance measures and partner with MSPs to stay ahead.

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What Exactly Is “Cyber Resilience”?

Cyber resilience describes a company’s ability to react to information security incidents, particularly cyber attacks, so that the material and immaterial effects on the business are kept to a minimum. This is not about the implementation of technical defence measures – such as virus scanners, firewalls and other security measures – but about the establishment and regular exercise of reactive skills, such as setting up a crisis management system or having concrete plans and procedures ready for the occurrence of the actual cyber emergency.

Cyber ​​resilience is divided into the following two pillars of information and operational security:

Incident Management

Incident management deals, in general, with processing disruptions in IT operations and is the most important linchpin for the company’s ability to react. As part of incident management, specific cyber-relevant incidents are identified, analyzed, processed, and rectified; their status is monitored and, if necessary, communicated to relevant stakeholders. If an escalation occurs, (IT) crisis management, BCM and ITSCM are involved.

(IT) Crisis Management

(IT) crisis management forms the overarching bracket and takes over the control of incidents that can no longer be processed in the normal IT business organization – for example, because the effects are significant and pose an acute threat to the company’s business success. The goal of crisis management is to maintain or prioritize the impaired critical business processes, communicate with all relevant internal and external parties involved and make the necessary decisions during the disruption, emergency and crisis.

Therefore, several areas are relevant for successfully mastering a major cyber incident – and the system is only as good as the sum of its parts. The system must be viewed holistically to increase cyber resilience, and the individual components must be coordinated. In addition to the three pillars mentioned above, close integration with other risk disciplines is essential – information security and third-party risk management.

What Can a Roadmap To Increase Cyber Resilience Look Like?

Before you can devote yourself to this question, you have to check your status quo of the relevant skills. This is done, for example, as part of a cyber resilience maturity assessment.

In this first step, an inventory of one’s skills in the respective areas contributing to cyber resilience occurs. The focus is on the question: What options do I have to react to relevant cyber security threats to minimize the impact on the company? The answer is based on further questions:

• Have all relevant threat scenarios been identified?
• Are the critical business processes known?
• Has it been defined how long a possible failure or impairment may last?
• Do contingency, response, or recovery plans exist for all scenarios and critical business processes (and associated IT resources)?
• Are the responsibilities regulated to rectify a corresponding fault, from detection and analysis to elimination and recovery?
• Are such threat scenarios regularly practiced in the units involved?

Only by considering all these elements can sufficient cyber resilience be achieved.

Once transparency has been established about one’s capabilities, the content of the necessary cyber resilience measures can be planned:

• Design, testing and implementation of a reproducible method kit (framework)
• Definition of relevant cyber scenarios and prioritization of them
• Survey of the critical business processes and their (IT) resource requirements
• Creation of all necessary plans and procedures in order of scenario priority (e.g. business continuity and disaster recovery plans)
• Establishment of an IT emergency and crisis organization
• Embedding, practicing and improving the plans in the general and higher-level emergency and crisis organization

Outlook

Considering your cyber resilience means accepting that it is only a matter of time before you will be hit by a cyber attack yourself. Fortunately, building and expanding your cyber resilience is not an unattainable goal, albeit one that requires continuous attention and close collaboration between different areas and disciplines. In particular, identifying and constantly running through potential scenarios with a defined reactive emergency and crisis management organization increases the skills and knowledge to react successfully to unexpected events.
The need to build and expand your cyber resilience has never been more important – after all, the stakes are nothing less than the loss of your ability to do business.

Also Read: Top Most Common Types Of Cyberattacks

The post Strengthen Cyber Resilience – How To Prepare Yourself For Dealing With Cyber Attacks. appeared first on Web Updates Daily.

Although no one will be completely safe from threats to computer security (unless one decides to completely disconnect from the Internet), it is the companies and public administrations that are most exposed to this type of attack and those that will suffer the most from its consequences. economic and reputational.

Supply Chain Attacks

In 2021 we have already seen some of the most notorious supply chain attacks, such as those suffered. The danger of these attacks lies in the fact that they not only affect the service provider company, but also those that depend on them, thus spreading the attack throughout the chain and affecting countless companies, public entities, and individuals.

These attacks, sophisticated and with the potential to cause serious damage to countless victims, could lead (or should) governments to create much stricter and more demanding regulatory frameworks with the security measures of companies, to protect vulnerable networks and avoid failure or interruption of essential services.

Security Breaches

Digitization, especially that which had to be done quickly and urgently when lockdowns were imposed by Covid-19 and the need to telework to continue operating, have increased to security breaches. This leads companies and administrations to have to invest more money not only in preventing these breaches but also in recovery protocols, including the need to pay a ransom if they have been victims of ransomware and face possible administrative sanctions.

Ransomware Rise

Speaking of ransomware attacks, they have already featured in many of the news about computer attacks during 2021 and the trend, according to experts, is that this type of attack continues to increase. They have become a lucrative source of income for various groups of cybercriminals since they not only get money in exchange for unlocking encrypted systems but also for not publishing the information that they have managed to exfiltrate during the attack processor for selling it on the internet. dark web.

In addition, ransomware has become one of the products offered on the dark web as MaaS (malware as a service or malware as a service), which means that cybercriminals with less technical knowledge can also use this type of attack.

Cyber Cold War

Tensions seem to grow between different countries in the international arena and this is also reflected in the digital plane; the so-called “cyber cold war” seems to be intensifying at the same time and that leads experts, by 2022, to predict that there will be an increase in cyber attacks sponsored by some States to damage key or critical infrastructure of other governments, such as gas pipelines, pipelines, and power plants.

Fake News

Fake news (false news or disinformation) is not exactly a cybersecurity threat, but cybercriminals do take advantage of it to carry out other types of attacks, especially phishing and other scams related to the theft of data credentials. An example of this is the disinformation surrounding Covid-19 and vaccines and the sale of false Covid or vaccination certificates on the dark web, some of them accompanied by malware to be installed on the devices of their buyers.

Deep fake

Deepfakes, thanks to the development of the technology that makes them possible, are increasingly sophisticated and difficult to detect, which means that cyberattacks based on them are going to become more common. We already have examples of this in 2021, with company workers who were deceived by a telephone deep fake, in which the cybercriminal, using the voice of a manager or superior, pretended to be that person to request money transfers. Deep fakes also have the potential to influence people through social media by damaging the image and reputation of their victims.

Cryptocurrency Target

Cryptocurrencies and other types of crypto assets, such as NFTs, are becoming more and more popular and reaching more people, who decide to invest in them. This has caused cybercriminals to also focus on them and design attacks to steal crypto assets from exchanges and user wallets. One of these attacks is carried out using free NFTs that are used as an entry vector to steal users’ wallets by taking advantage of security flaws or vulnerabilities.

Container Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities, especially those present in containers and cloud services, are another target for cybersecurity threats in 2022 since more and more companies and public entities depend on so-called cloud services and, many times, these are left out of control. organization’s information security strategy. Cybercriminals know this and have started attacking and exploiting the vulnerabilities that these sites and services may present.

Hybrid Environments And Mobility

Remote work, both in its full format and in its hybrid format, has brought with it new weak points, especially related to attacks on remote desktop applications and mobile devices, so this trend is expected to continue to rise by 2022. In this case, the weak point is the employee who does not apply or does not follow the instructions and security measures implemented by the company and can leave the door open to all kinds of attacks whose objective is to penetrate the company’s internal network to achieve their targets, often related to ransomware attacks or exfiltration of sensitive information.

Malicious Use Of Defense Tools

Defense tools were designed to test an entity’s cybersecurity measures, however, cybercriminals also exploit them to their advantage and use them to launch much more efficient cyberattacks. It is a trend that has been increasing throughout 2021 and it seems that it will continue to grow in 2022 since it allows you to customize these tools to penetrate the defenses of entities “more easily”. As in other threats that we have seen throughout this article, they are mainly used to launch ransomware attacks and exfiltrate data.

The post What Are The Main Threats To Corporate Cybersecurity In 2022 appeared first on Web Updates Daily.