What are the top cybersecurity risks for an IT & Information Security department?
What are the top cybersecurity risks for an IT & Information Security department?
Information security has become one of the most important aspects of IT. After all, you can have the best devices and newest software in place, but if your data isn’t safe, then it doesn’t matter how well your hardware and software perform. On the other hand, if you have strong cybersecurity measures in place, then you don’t need to worry about losing business to the competition because you can trust them with your data.
Digital advertising fraud
Eighty-five percent of digital advertising is fraudulent, with criminals reaping about $8.2 billion a year. As bad as that is, it's going to get much worse. Blockchain technology, in tandem with artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), will usher in a new era of digital advertising fraud and make it more difficult to identify perpetrators. Since AI/ML systems can process massive amounts of data faster than humans, they're ideal tools for cybercriminals looking to optimize their efforts by executing more targeted attacks at greater speeds using different kinds of malware and security breaches. Machine learning allows them to do all that while staying under the radar so they can keep stealing money without being detected.
Targeted phishing attacks
Phishing attacks send emails to victims that appear to be from a known source, asking them to update passwords or other sensitive information. Since people typically don't monitor emails that they don't recognize, they could easily fall victim to one of these scams. To make your network more secure, train your employees on how phishing attacks work and what indicators to look out for. Also, make sure you have programs in place such as strong firewall systems and malware protection software that can help prevent these types of attacks.
Payment card data breaches
Unlike almost every other industry, retailers and e-commerce businesses are held to a higher standard: they have to adhere to strict data security measures or pay a steep price. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is specifically designed to ensure cardholder data is secure in order to reduce credit card fraud. After breaches such as those at Target and Home Depot, major retailers have had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines -- that's on top of paying for extensive forensics work and reissuing millions of cards.
Cyber attacks on internet-connected vehicles
Although cars, trucks, and other vehicles are becoming increasingly computerized and connected, they don't always come with strong security measures. This is partly because vehicle manufacturers don't want to slow down their production lines, but it's also because cyberattacks on vehicles have traditionally been a low-risk proposition. Cybersecurity experts have warned about potential problems with internet-connected vehicles for years, but few incidents have occurred. However, that may be about to change.
Ransomware in Healthcare
Ransomware is a type of malware (malicious software) that encrypts a user's data and then demands money in order to unlock it. Ransomware is becoming a significant problem for healthcare providers who manage patient data. Hackers target hospitals because they know these organizations have very sensitive information (such as medical histories, credit card numbers, and social security numbers). The hackers can sell or use that data to commit fraud. Other ways ransomware can infect healthcare facilities include phishing emails and unsafe websites. Threat protection solutions such as IBM QRadar® with advanced threat detection technologies, IPS, and other types of anomaly detection systems will protect against malicious code like ransomware by detecting specific indicators based on pattern recognition of previous attacks.
Cyber threats to industrial control systems (ICS)
Cybersecurity attacks have targeted healthcare, financial and retail organizations, but industrial control systems (ICS) present a unique opportunity for cybercriminals to cause physical damage. These industrial-strength computers manage everything from a home’s thermostat settings to a nuclear power plant’s cooling mechanisms. An attack that shuts down such critical processes can lead to serious damage or even human life loss. Such attacks have already occurred in several high-profile cases over recent years; one involved Stuxnet, a worm first discovered in 2010 targeting ICS used in Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.
Rise in cyber extortion as hackers take down critical services like GPS and internet access
According to research from threat intelligence company Invincea, hackers made over $100 million in profits by developing and spreading ad injection software through Google's AdSense. The software installs a cryptocurrency miner on user machines that uses their computing power to generate money while they visit their favorite sites. Their research found it was being installed on 438,000 machines daily. To make matters worse, even if you have uninstalled or deleted an infection from your machine, as soon as you visit one of these pages again without malware protection enabled (on your new browser), you will be reinfected within minutes with a fresh load of crypto miners.
Hackers make huge profits from ad injection software through Google ads
It’s estimated that hackers make huge profits from ad injection software through Google ads. In fact, a few years ago, a Moscow-based hacker sold a malware kit on a Russian cybercrime forum for $50 and earned $80,000 to $90,000 monthly in revenue. Most of these money-grabbing tactics involve hacking into websites or blogs and placing black hat search engine optimization (SEO) links so that Google thinks your site is relevant to certain queries and posts advertisements on it. These hackers then siphon off 30% of whatever revenue is generated by those ads.
