Small business owners are just as vulnerable as large corporations when it comes to a security breach. Aside from personal information, hackers are also interested in your apps, software keys and passwords. Even though cyber criminals are constantly coming up with new techniques to exploit a company’s credentials, here are a few common attacks:

Inside Attack: A person with administrative privileges purposely misuses his/her credentials to steal company information.

Malware: Any kind of malicious software that allows a hacker to gain unauthorized access to a company’s private information.

Phishing: The collecting of sensitive information like login credentials and credit card information. This occurs when someone visits a site that appears legitimate, but is actually a fraudulent page or “spoof” of a legitimate page.

Ransomware: This type of malware allows a cybercriminal to demand private information, money or other form of payment before agreeing to unlock the computer affected. Ransomware is gaining popularity with hackers and is one of the fastest growing types of security breaches.

APT: Advanced Persistent Threats are a series of attacks that break into a company’s network in stages. This is done to avoid detection. There are 5 steps to this type of attack:

Reconnaissance - using of information from determining factors to understand the target

Incursion - the break in and delivery of malware

Discovery – avoiding detection, hackers tread carefully while searching for the desired information and creating a plan to obtain it

Capture – attackers follow their plan and extract information or disrupt operations carefully over an extended period

Exfiltration – data collected is sent back to a basecamp for review and then exploited

Did you find this information helpful or interesting? I’d love to know what you think! ~Moderator Mel