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Latest Cyber Threats that Individuals and Organizations need to Guard Against

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Ishaan Chaudhary
Latest Cyber Threats that Individuals and Organizations need to Guard Against

Cyber security has become one of the most influential and dominant sectors in today’s market. Every person and company over the internet is liable for their confidentiality and security. Due to the internet culture and massive information sharing over the web, valuable personal data as well as sensitive information is transiting from thousands of servers and residing across datacenters and storage computers. Motivated Cyber criminals are now thinking out of the box and coming up with various new means to compromise and steal sensitive data for their own benefit. Due to a lot of successes in the past, the money which was received through such thefts has now been invested back into the cyber crime cartel to make even better profits. Here’s the top latest threats that individuals and organizations need to guard against:

 


1. Phishing Emails

Over the years phishing has stayed as the top threat affecting individuals and organizations alike. What makes it so effective? The sheer simplicity and the amount of time and resources needed to craft and send a phishing email!  It only requires some creativity, an active internet connection and an open relay server that would spoof and forward these emails to unsuspecting users. More than 50% of breaches worldwide are somehow or the other connected to phishing attacks. How to identify and avoid phishing attacks? Mere common sense and an eye for detail. Always look closely at the content of the email and if at all… the links embedded in it. It should be mandatory for organizations to conduct at least some sort of cyber security training or cyber security education program for all its employees and staff. This enables your resources to understand the importance as well as mitigate the impact of such attacks.

 

2. Browser Attacks

With the invention of browser-based services like Netflix and other e service providers, there has been a strong motivated push from the criminals to target users accessing these services. Browser attacks can look as naïve as information tracking or home page hijacking but can also reach highly malicious levels such as HTTP response attacks and session compromise. One way to mitigate these attacks is to make sure your browser stays free from unnecessary add ons or extensions and “added software packages”. Private browsing is also considered a safer option when in doubt. Talking about more sophisticated attacks, such as the recent HTTP2 downgrading vulnerability, organizations can keep track of such public disclosures and security admins must patch or fix configurational issues in question.



3. Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware attacks have also been a recent advent and a much popular one given the rise of “WannaCry” ransomware that affected millions of systems over the globe. Ransomware attacks have now started showing consistent increase and complexity. A ransomware attack tries to compromise your system and encrypt your data without your consent. Thus, locking your access to your own data. The attacker then asks for a payment (Ransom) to give you an encryption “KEY” that will decrypt your data back to normal again. The preferred payment method for cyber criminals is bitcoins and once the ransom is paid, a key would be sent by the criminal to your email address. Although in a lot of cases, the victim pays the ransom and doesn’t hear back from the attacker at all, losing data as well as money. A good way of avoiding complete loss of data is to have a backup of your data kept at an external media. Paying ransom, however, is not recommended or advised in any situation.

 

4. Malicious Android applications

Almost everyone owns a smartphone in the 21st century. The availability of technologies such as 4G/5G networks and connectivity has made smartphones a primary choice for many users to browse and access the internet. Many applications have been developed for mobile users and are made available through open portals like the google Appstore. One can download and install any application through a list of vast numbers of applications on these portals. The problem arises when an unsuspecting user downloads and installs a “Doppelganger” or a fraudulent application thinking it to be of a certain use. These apps, however, are involved in several malicious activities that range from information stealing to backdoor access. It is very important for the user to make sure that they download a legitimate application from the play store or any other repository, to avoid falling prey to these cyber security risks. 

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Ishaan Chaudhary
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