Healthcare organizations continue to be the most exposed industry to cyber attacks this year. Data breaches and ransomware attacks last year alone cost the industry an estimated $4 billion, with the industry accounting for more than four in ten breaches as well.
What Are the Biggest Cyber Security Threats in 2019?
- 1) Social Hacking. “Employees are still falling victim to social attacks.
- 2) Ransomware. Businesses of all sizes are being increasingly targeted in Ransomware attacks.
- 3) Use Active Cyber Security Monitoring.
- 5) Unpatched Vulnerabilities/Poor Updating.
- 6) Distributed denial of service (DDoS) Attacks.
A Clark School study at the University of Maryland is one of the first to quantify the near-constant rate of hacker attacks of computers with Internet access— every 39 seconds on average, affecting one in three Americans every year —and the non-secure usernames and passwords we use that give attackers more chance of
Deloitte estimated even a low-end cyber attack costing just $34 per month could return $25,000, while the more expensive and sophisticated attacks costing a few thousand dollars could return as much as $1 million per month. Meanwhile, IBM estimates the average cost to a business of a data breach is $3.86 million.
Social engineering: Today, 'social engineering' is one of the most prevalent social media threats and also the most popular tactic for cyber criminals. Social media platforms allow attackers to find personal information that can be used to target specific individuals.
NSA Data Center Experiencing 300 Million Hacking Attempts Per Day – The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.
Overall: We estimate that malicious cyber activity cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion in 2016.
There is an estimated cyber attack every 39 seconds. Since 2013, there have been 3.8 million records stolen every single day. The average cost of a data breach is estimated to exceed $150 million by 2020.
USB drops (to tempt people who find them into inserting them into computers to install malware or otherwise steal data) Forklift theft of cashpoints and servers (not common, but it does happen) Theft of devices (like laptops and mobile phones) Theft of biometrics (lifting or photographing finger prints etc)
Phishing Example: "Dear Email User" Expired Password Ploy
An example of a common phishing ploy - a notice that your email password will expire, with a link to change the password that leads to a malicious website.Extract Value — Using the information and knowledge they gain over time, or even using the compromised email account itself (à la an account takeover, or ATO) the attacker can launch spear phishing attacks.
Based on the phishing channel, the types of phishing attacks can be classified into the following categories:
- Vishing. Vishing refers to phishing done over phone calls.
- Smishing. SMS phishing or SMiShing is one of the easiest types of phishing attacks.
- Search Engine Phishing.
- Spear Phishing.
- Whaling.
Install anti-phishing software
Anti-phishing software is a great way to get extra protection. Again, major email providers have decent spam filtering capabilities, but often, it's not enough. If you find your inbox is constantly filling up with phishing emails, this phishing protection software can help.The single biggest cyber threat to any organization is that organization's own employees. According to data cited by Securitymagazine.com, “Employees are still falling victim to social attacks.
In 2014, 71 percent of all phishing attacks targeted entities in the United States, and in 2016 this figure has grown to 81 percent. Since 2014, the total number of annual phishing attacks against U.S. targets has more than doubled.
Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques being used to deceive users. Users are often lured by communications purporting to be from trusted parties such as social web sites, auction sites, banks, online payment processors or IT administrators.
Spear-phishing attacks target a specific victim, and messages are modified to specifically address that victim, purportedly coming from an entity that they are familiar with and containing personal information. Spear-phishing requires more thought and time to achieve than phishing.
How to Protect Yourself against Spear Phishing
- Keep your systems up-to-date with the latest security patches.
- Encrypt any sensitive company information you have.
- Use DMARC technology.
- Implement multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
- Make cybersecurity a company focus.
Phishing campaigns don't target victims individually—they're sent to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of recipients. Spear phishing, in contrast, is highly targeted and targets a single individual. Hackers do this by pretending to know you. It's personal. A spear phishing attacker is after something in particular.
Social engineering is the art of manipulating, influencing, or deceiving you in order to gain control over your computer system. The hacker might use the phone, email, snail mail or direct contact to gain illegal access.
Clone Phishing: A type of phishing attack whereby a legitimate, and previously delivered, email containing an attachment or link has had its content and recipient address(es) taken and used to create an almost identical or cloned email.
As a result, Cyber Security was identified as a Tier 1 threat in the 2010 National Security Strategy, alongside Terrorism, War and Natural Disasters.
The following may be indicators that an email is a phishing attempt rather than an authentic communication from the company it appears to be. Emails with generic greetings. Phishing emails often include generic greetings, such as “Hello Bank One Customer” rather than using the recipient's actual name.
The 5 most common types of phishing attack
- Email phishing. Most phishing attacks are sent by email.
- Spear phishing. There are two other, more sophisticated, types of phishing involving email.
- Whaling. Whaling attacks are even more targeted, taking aim at senior executives.
- Smishing and vishing.
- Angler phishing.
According to a survey commissioned by Cloudmark, C-suite executives are often the victims of phishing attempts: 27% of the 300 respondents surveyed in the study revealed their CEOs were targeted, while CFO attacks accounted for 17% of the cases.
Phishing is a type of social engineering attack often used to steal user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers. It occurs when an attacker, masquerading as a trusted entity, dupes a victim into opening an email, instant message, or text message.
The most common form of phishing is the general, mass-mailed type, where someone sends an email pretending to be someone else and tries to trick the recipient in doing something, usually logging into a website or downloading malware.
Luckily, there's several options that you have that can help you bolster your chances of staying protected from phishing scams.
- Email filters. Using an email filter alone won't guarantee that you don't receive any malicious emails, but it certainly helps.
- Antivirus software.
- VPNs.
- Educate your employees.
If you mistakenly clicked on a spam link and suspect that your computer is infected, you should: Disconnect your device – Take off your device immediately from all sources of internet. This prevents any potential malware from spreading to other devices that are connected to the network.
Whale phishing is a term used to describe a phishing attack that is specifically aimed at wealthy, powerful, or prominent individuals. Because of their status, if such a user becomes the victim of a phishing attack he can be considered a “big phish,” or, alternately, a "whale."
