Most Worrisome Threats To Enterprise Security In 2019

The cybersecurity space is constantly evolving and changing as new threats as well as security solutions continuously emerge. Security which works against the most worrisome cyber threats today may be rendered outdated and obsolete by new kinds of cyber threats tomorrow.And for businesses to reduce their risk of security breaches, they need to be always alert and vigilant as well as attending valuable security corporate conference to increase their knowledge of the different kinds of enterprise security that they can face this year— both new and old.

AI As Weapons

Because of the latest breakthroughs in AI, firms, and security experts have been using machine-learning models, neuralnetworks and other technologies in order to anticipate and detect cyber-attacks.

According to a report, 87% of cybersecurity experts in the US take advantage of AI capabilities when creating security measures. However, 91% also believe that this tech is a double-edged swordthat can be used by hackers to launch even more advanced and sophisticated attacks.

Cyber-criminals can use machine learning algorithms in order to code self-mutating viruses as well as ransomware that can bypass sandboxes, firewalls, and other endpoint security solutions.

Cryptojacking

There are hackers who already started targeting individuals with bitcoins and other kinds of cryptocurrency. And while cryptocurrency theft is already a significant threat, a new form of cryptocurrency crime called crypto-jacking is even more worrisome. Attackers can hijack the processing power of digital devices of the victim in order to mine cryptocurrency.

Mining cryptocurrency requires miners to solve complicated mathematical problems, which needs a huge amount of computing capacity. Once solved, the blockchain network rewards the miners with the predetermined volumes of cryptocurrency.

In order to get these rewards, the cryptojackers compromise millions of computers and digital devices, channeling a huge amount of their computing capacity to solve these problems.

As a result, the compromised devices experience slower performance. Fallouts can be huge if cryptojackers start to compromise systems used in sensitive enterprises such as hotels, airports, hospitals, nuclear reactor control systems and more.

Unpatched Security Bugs/Vulnerabilities

Some cyber-criminals can target common security bugs in most business software programs— these are bugs that usually have readily available solutions. However, most often, these security patches or updates are not applied to the vulnerable software. As a result, the business network is exposed to outside attacks and compromise.

However, you can easily defend against this enterprise threat by maintaining and creating a strict patching schedule. Allsoftware programs need to be checked in order to see is there are available security patches from the developer. Ensure that any obsolete software needs to be patched to the most recent security version.

Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware is still one of the most worrisome cyber threats, not only to enterprises but also to individuals. Ransomware encrypts and locks down user data of compromised connected devices, systems and databases, stopping all computer-related operations. Then, the attackerdemands a ransom in exchange for the user’s data access.

While most businesses and individuals can prevent this kind of attack by continuously backing up their data to the cloud, newer kinds of ransomware now even target the data that are stored on the cloud.

The Inside Man (Or Woman)

While most people think that cyber-criminals and hackers are the only ones that can threaten the security of their businesses, their own employees, are considered to be the biggest cyber threat.

And why not? Your employees are the ones who interact and use your system, handling all business data, every single day. According to a report, 93 percent of all data breaches can be traced back to an employee.

And while this can bea result of intentional attacks, most are simple and honest mistakes of employees— visiting malware-laden websites, falling for phishing attempts, sharing their user credentials with others or bringing compromised personal devices and USB drives to work.