ZZ Servers have been in the cyber protection industry for 16 years, and experience has taught them that no organization is too big or small for many malicious hackers. Whether you’re an individual with a small business or someone with an organization with multiple involved, hackers will try to pry into your data to see what resources they can dig up.
Here are a few measures you can take to better protect your business or organization against some of the most common cyber attacks
1. Malware
Malicious software, more commonly known as malware, is a malicious program that poses as legitimate files or applications. One of the most common among these are worms, trojans, and spyware. These types of malware often look innocent enough, taking the form of harmless-looking apps, email attachments, and -at one point in time- as benign-looking as an audio file. Once activated, however, they can create multiple vulnerabilities in your devices, paving the way for hackers to peer into your activities. At worst, some malware allows hackers to gain control of your webcam, making you more vulnerable to other types of cyber abuse.
The best way to protect yourself from malware is as easy as updating your device’s operating system to its latest version. Keeping your devices up-to-date protects you from the ever-evolving types of malware constantly circulating on the web. In addition, investing in good antivirus software helps create an even better wall between you and possible cyber attacks.
2. Phishing
Phishing is a type of hacking that involves social engineering. When phishing, hackers pretend to be legitimate individuals or representatives of specific organizations. Their goal is to extract as much information from their victim, to gain access to their devices and personal information. These may come in the form of an email with a malicious link, text messages, and even phone calls.
Unaware, the victim may click on a link that activates malware or give away sensitive personal information over the phone to hackers, which they use to their advantage. Commonly, hackers are after credit card information and login credentials. A great way to avoid being a victim of various types of phishing includes being wary of anything (whether they are calls, texts, or emails) that asks for your personal information, login credentials, or even PINs. Scrutinize URLs from emails that may be asking for your banking information, as these types of cyber attacks are on the rise.
3. Password Attack
This type of cyber attack takes advantage of the possibility that a user may have a very weak password for their online personal accounts. Brute-force attacks, as one may call them, involve the hacker trying out some of the most common password combinations through trial and error. Using information already hacked from the victim like birthdays, hometowns, or phone numbers, hackers can easily hack into an individual’s personal account and take even more data. In other cases, hackers also use password-cracking apps at their disposal to go through a multitude of possible password combinations.
Protecting yourself from brute force or other password attacks is as simple as keeping your password as strong as possible. While it may take some memorizing, make sure you use a combination of letters, upper- and lower-case letters.
Hackers will try all the tools at their disposal to get what can be of value to them. And while there is no single solution to prevent cyber attacks, the key is to employ multiple layers of protective measures to reduce the risk of your infrastructure being hacked into.
