7 Major Security Risks Your Company Might be Facing

Featured article by Oliver Davis

These days, businesses face a great deal of threats, both online and offline. To protect a business from these threats, employees and managers should familiarize themselves with them and take steps to prevent them. This article is a great way to do so. Here are 7 major security risks that your company might be facing.

1.   Password guessing

Hackers have developed very advanced hacking software that can guess a password if it isn’t complicated enough. The most common passwords are well-known by hackers (the most popular one is “123456”, and the second most popular one is “password”). Most companies probably don’t use passwords as simple as these, but they usually don’t use very strong ones, either.

For example, if a password consists of one word, it won’t take long to crack it using password guessing tools. To protect your business from the threat of password guessing, you must use strong passwords for all accounts. To make this process as easy and effective as possible, you can use special password security software.

2.   Employee sabotage

Your employees pose a huge risk to the security of your company. They have access to sensitive company data, which can cause lots of damage to your company if leaked. Employee sabotage can happen for various reasons: maybe someone didn’t get their desired raise or promotion. Maybe an employee is a bit of a chit-chat and keeps telling outsiders about your company’s confidential information.

Sabotage doesn’t have to be intentional, but it’s just as damaging either way. The thing is, company managers and IT experts may have enough knowledge on data protection, but regular employees usually don’t. You should always make employees aware of data protection principles and reduce the amount of sensitive data they have access to.

3.   Phishing

Phishing has become one of the top threats to businesses lately, and remote working has only made phishing more likely to be successful. Phishing is a form of social engineering when employees are contacted by hackers who claim to be somebody else. For example, a phishing email might ask an employee to click on a link to reactivate a business account.

These links usually contain malware that aims to harm your company by stealing data or spying on your business. The only way to prevent phishing is by raising awareness, so employees should know to look out for suspicious messages and always think before they act.

4.   IoT attacks

The IoT (internet of things) network keeps on growing. If you’re new to the concept, the internet of things refers to all gadgets connected to the internet. These gadgets might include alarm systems, refrigerators, or health monitors. Any “smart” device that needs to be connected to a network is considered an IoT device.

The problem with these devices is that they can make your entire network vulnerable if they get hacked. To protect your company from an IoT attack, always keep the devices updated. You can also create a second wifi network dedicated to IoT devices so that the data transmitted on your main network isn’t compromised when the IoT network is.

5.   Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware that takes control of a user’s data and demands money to get back access. If the user fails to pay the ransom, they may lose their data for good.

To protect your business from ransomware attacks, keep a proper backup of business data. Whatever data a hacker steals, you should always be able to retrieve it yourself. One of the main ways ransomware enters a device is through phishing, so raising phishing awareness is also important here.

6.   Endpoint attacks

Every business has many different laptops and phones connected to the same network. An endpoint attack is when hackers target these devices to get into the whole business’s network.

Remember that each device connected to the business network presents a security vulnerability, so all of these devices must be protected. To protect your business from endpoint attacks, update the software of all devices, use strong passwords, and raise cybersecurity awareness among device controllers.

7.   Unsecured networks

When someone from your company connects to an unsecured network, a hacker can steal their data if they’re also connected to that network. With remote working, this has become a major risk to business security. One of the best ways to protect a business against attacks through unsecured networks is by downloading a VPN on business devices. A VPN encrypts all data found on a device, decreasing vulnerability to unsecured networks.