An IT Support Blog from London

Another year is ahead of us and yet IT security threats are in no way letting up. Instead, the next months will continue to be challenging as data protection remains a major concern for enterprises. The rapid adoption of all things digital has also exponentially increased the threat surface through which cyber criminals can attack.

But which present the biggest cyber security dangers for this year? Will there be new threats or will the old ones simply evolve to pose greater difficulties? In this blog post, we take a closer look at the top 5 challenges that security experts believe could put business organisations at biggest risk this year.

Ransomware attacks are incredibly prevalent – and can also be very damaging. Successful attacks occur all the time – this year alone, a major infrastructure company in the US was hit with an attack that came with a US$ 4.4m demand for ransom. Closer to home, Doncaster-based One Call Insurance found itself unable to service customer requests after a computer system blackout due to ransomware.

As a business, you need to invest in internet security to protect your systems against ransomware – but at the same time, also assume the worst-case scenario: that a successful attack can occur. Responding rapidly and effectively is critical – the better your response, the lower the cumulative cost of the ransomware attack – and the less disruption your clients or customers will experience.

The world continues to grapple with the long term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and organisations are compelled to sustain remote working arrangements for their employees. In the haste to quickly adapt to the new and evolving work environment however, it appears that one essential concern has taken a back seat: security.

IT company Hewlett-Packard recently released Blurred Lines & Blindspots—a comprehensive global study assessing organisational cyber risk in today’s remote working era, and in it, a number of worrying, albeit unsurprising, findings were revealed. Of the over 8,000 office workers surveyed:

As organisations gradually shift to the new normal, we see corresponding changes in the cybersecurity threat landscape that warrants adjustments in how businesses should frame their security strategy. While some of the older threats certainly still remain, there are a couple of new entrants that have only emerged as a byproduct of the new work environment.

Readers of this blog will be intimately familiar with the way technology delivery has changed over the years. Locally-hosted server racks are history. Instead, companies rely on cloud vendors large and small to deliver essential business services via web apps – or software as a service (SaaS).

Web apps, however, bring a whole new challenge to cyber security solutions. In this article, we outline why web app security matters and what your company can do to ensure that the web apps it uses remain secure.

Globally, more and more SMEs are now integrating mobile payments into their payment options because of the ease of acceptance, and are improving sales and offering convenience to customers. This does not mean, however, that there are no downsides to adopting this technology into your business.

In this post, we go over the various factors that should help you evaluate the suitability of using the mobile payment system. But first, let’s have a clear understanding of what it is.

Enterprises are well aware of threat attacks that pose a huge challenge to IT security, perpetrated by technical hackers who infiltrate computer systems to steal protected data. The truth is, however, that many of the most effective cyber-attacks are not directly inflicted upon hardware or software, but instead, are targeted on people.

Data breaches can be very costly. Costs can include the usual financial consequences such as response and remediation, customer breach notification, litigation expenses, and regulatory fines, but can also include less obvious consequences such as the cost of business disruptions, loss of customer trust, and higher insurance premiums.

Clearly, it’s imperative for businesses to find ways to avoid a data breach, and here is how it can be done.

An organisation’s primary and immediate line of defense against malware is typically the antivirus software installed in each of their users’ endpoint devices. It works in the background, checks data being received for known malware signatures, and warns users of possible threats. Antivirus software does contribute greatly to an organisation’s online security, but it is not enough to mitigate all malware threats when you consider how advanced these threats have become.

Social media is the new black and everybody wants to be part of it. Posting one’s activities, sharing one’s thoughts, and reacting to other people’s posts have simply become part of our daily lives.

But to those who know what they’re looking for, this social media content can lead to a goldmine of information. It is through this goldmine—terabytes upon terabytes of data, that cyber criminals flourish, using such data to attack individuals and even companies.

How exactly can cyber criminals use social media to compromise online security and attack business organisations? Let’s discuss their methods.