No one can deny the anxiety and stress prevailing in the current world caused by the rising cyberattacks. We are well aware of the dangers and consequences coming with such security threats. Organizations have been dedicating long and long hours to devise the perfect plan to prevent attacks and minimize the repercussions in case an attack takes place.
Whether you are an independent internet user or a business owner, you need to remember that cyber attacks are very much real. Moreover, they are not going anywhere anytime soon.
Needless to say, the cases of cyberattacks are on the rise and becoming more and more advanced with time.
Although various safety measures, practices, and precautions should be in place to combat cyber attacks, no one can deny the dangers of loopholes in cybersecurity to attract attackers.
Some Underestimated Loopholes in Cybersecurity:
The majority of organizations start considering anti-viruses, internet security, and other safety precautions when it comes to combating cyber attacks. That is why cybersecurity loopholes remain unnoticed and unattended, which multiplies the potential of cyber attacks to a great extent.
You might have already taken all the necessary actions to protect all of your devices as well as your login credentials. Nonetheless, detecting the loopholes and addressing them accordingly is mandatory as well. Otherwise, cybercriminals would exploit the situation and you would have to face severe repercussions in the end.
It is time to check out some underestimated cybersecurity loopholes so that you can prevent cyber criminals right at these entry points:
Manual Error:
Did you know human error is responsible for more than half of cybersecurity breaches? Whether intentional or unintentional, you may end up facing serious financial damages, which may further strike your company’s reputation.
For instance, clicking on a malicious link or downloading a malicious attachment may end up causing cyberattacks, which may cause a massive financial loss for the company. The average loss for a small business in a single cyberattack is estimated to be around $200,000.
Train your employees at regular intervals to help them track and avoid cyberattacks. In-depth training also educates employees in cyber hygiene practices to help them protect the cybersecurity of the company.
You should also handle internal IT threats extremely cautiously. Black sheep in a company leave no stone unturned to obstruct the business growth and the outcomes can be disastrous.
No Target is too small:
You might think that you are a small business and there is nothing to entice the cyber criminals to exploit your company’s cybersecurity. This mindset is itself a grave mistake, which paves the way for cybercriminals to attack your system with severe consequences.
Note that large companies, such as giant IT companies or financial institutions dedicate an adequate budget to ensure optimum cybersecurity. On the other hand, small businesses do not allocate such a budget in most cases, which draws the attention of cybercriminals.
It is also true small organizations are not very strict about investments to prevent cyberattacks. That is how unprotected businesses get to face financial repercussions and the amount would be much higher than the investment would have been for ensuring a company’s cybersecurity.
Therefore, there is no reason to conclude that your company is too small to get attacked.
Wrong Online Practices:
Bad online habits act as entry points for cyberattacks and pose threats to the cybersecurity of both independent internet users and organizations. Many people fail to comprehend the risks of using the same passwords for different login credentials.
Some others do not hesitate to share many confidential details over social media channels and to leverage the power of public wireless networks without the protection of a VPN (Virtual private network).
It is easy to adopt wrong internet habits, but the repercussions can be disastrous for the user as well as for the organization. The worst part of such bad practices is that they are not limited to personal uses, rather they can make the entire team susceptible to different cyberattacks, including social engineering, MITM, password hacking, and so on.
Granting More than Enough Access to Employees:
It is a must to provide employees with access to critical information whenever required to get projects done within the deadline. We all are aware of the trend of remote working (especially after the global pandemic) in which sharing information and resources with professionals is critical. That is how you can make sure of successful project completion and submission irrespective of the location and working medium of the employees.
However, it is imperative to determine the level of access for individual employees in advance. You should also set restrictions to access certain apps, data, documents, and files once a project is done. If necessary, you ought to put restrictions on certain devices used by your employees to access the critical information of your business.
Failing to take precautions may attract the attention of cybercriminals that can exploit the critical information of your organization and put its reputation and financial state at stake.
You should always be careful about the level of access that you should grant to each of your employees. A correct amount of access to the right employees would lessen the risks of cyberattacks in this regard, which is critical to strengthen a company’s IT security.
The Mindset of perceiving New Technologies to be the Ultimate Solution:
Many people are already aware of the cybersecurity loopholes, which can wreak havoc on their businesses. Nonetheless, they consider the latest technologies as their saviors in this regard.
In other words, many independent users and business owners perceive the latest security solutions to be the answer to all of their cybersecurity woes.
However, most of these individuals are not well familiar with the implementation or maintenance of the latest technologies- be it a state-of-the-art antivirus or MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication).
Failing to comprehend the ins and outs of these solutions can take the vulnerabilities of a business to the next level. It is because each piece of new technology adds to the tech stack of the business and they need to be merged with the existing technologies, updated, managed, and maintained properly. Failing to do the same at regular intervals can impact the safety of your business.
The aforementioned cybersecurity loopholes need to be taken seriously and handled cautiously. It would be one of the best or most effective ways to make the cases of cyberattacks go down with time, resulting in better growth and development of businesses worldwide.
