Common IT Security Threats To A Business
Running an organisation involves staying up to date on competition, new trends and new technology. Things change within IT too. Positive changes can be healthy and help a company grow. Unfortunately, there are always people looking to exploit the weaknesses in IT and this has many negative consequences.
In this article we are going to discuss the top threats to organisations at the moment, and some tips on how they can be mitigated.
Phishing Scams
It seems like phishing scams have been around so long, they shouldn’t still be working. However, as humans, we keep falling for them and because they work so well, they are staying popular. The number of cyber attacks in the UK, increased by 77% in 2022 (compared to 2012). Globally, in Q4 there were an average 1168 attacks on organisations per week. Phishing scams are typically conducted via email. Organisations rely on employees to spot a suspicious email. The scams can be highly sophisticated but often they simply rely on employees to be complacent or ignorant. Advice for organisations who want to avoid phishing scams, is to train all their employees, thoroughly and regularly. Establishing a ‘zero trust’ policy will help everyone take responsibility for IT security.
Patch Mismanagement
Patches are updates designed to fix vulnerabilities and close gaps in IT security methods. The patches tell a IT team what is needed and where. Patches are public knowledge however, so cyber criminals circumvent these improvements by getting to the weakness first. They exploit any delay by installing ransomware, virus’ or other malicious software. To avoid leaving an opening for criminals to manipulate, an organisation can create a patch management system or rely on an IT support company to do that. Someone who understands patches and cyber security, will be ready for patch updates to be released. They know exactly how to implement them quickly.
Ransomware
Ransomware is delivered through phishing scams or by exploiting poor patch management. However, its increasing popularity warrants its own section in this blog. As the fastest growing threat to businesses, ransomware encrypts files and the criminals demand money in exchange for the return of the files. Many companies will give in to the ransom demands so they don’t lose customer data, however there is no guarantee the criminal organisations will give the data back. With ransomware, the key is not only to defend against it, but have a response plan in place just in case. Ensure staff are trained in IT security basics and you have good IT support in place managing patches and updates. Keeping data backed up securely will decrease the desire for someone to target your company as you are less likely to give in to their demands. Phishing scams, patch management and ransomware are just three of the most common threats to organisations in 2023. An IT support team will help. They provide training and are accomplished in patch management. They understand how to prevent and react to problems such as ransomware. Talk to our team at PCR Connected for details on our IT security services.
