Since remote working became the new normal, the cyber threat landscape has been evolving at alarming rates. The hacking approaches of bad actors are innumerable and ever-changing to get better exposure over the gaping holes of enterprise cybersecurity for many companies that lack sufficient data protection and monitoring.

The first steps to mitigating the damage of rapidly developing cyber threats are recognizing the problems and finding the right expertise to help your business resist these obstacles as they come. In these next few sections, we are sharing with you some insights into the recent landscape of cybercrime in an attempt to raise awareness and reduce the impact of malicious acts on remotely operating businesses globally.

Human error is still a big issue

 

This year’s cyber security reports have revealed important findings of the incidence of threats and the reasons why human error has attributed so vastly to these unsettling numbers. A big part of the data breaches these days are still caused by inadequate protection of corporate environments because of gaps in online security passwords and avoidable errors like weak passwords and clicking on malicious links shared to employees online. Small mistakes like that can have big financial repercussions on companies, which is why it is so important to reiterate the cyber threats and address the most effective measures to prevent these vulnerabilities from happening.

What are the latest cyber threat trends?

Ransomware

 

Ransomware has been an increasingly growing cyber threat in the online working community around the world since the start of the pandemic. The reason why we’ve seen so much of it in recent years is because of poor endpoint security and an untrained workforce dealing with the malicious threat on a daily basis. Ransomware infects the user desktop quickly if the system is inadequately safeguarded with patches, updates, and lacks proactive prevention and detection security measures. The worst thing about ransomware is that the effect of the threat can be business-wide and the ransom demanded by the cybercriminal to remove the restriction could be substantial.

Phishing

 

Another common approach used by hackers in recent times to compromise business environments and gain unauthorized access to sensitive data was reported to be phishing cybercrime. Malicious actors are typically targetting individual employees and infecting their workstations after inviting them to click on emails embedded with links and files, disguised as legitimate correspondence. Once again, the biggest prerequisite to the high incidence of this cyber threat in 2020 and 2021 has been the lack of cyber security awareness training and insufficient security measures employed by the companies.

Extortion cyber threats

 

In the cyber security reports of this year, we have also seen the increasing rate of extortion threats demanding payment from the company in exchange for the release of their sensitive data. The worst thing about this cyber threat is that the business’ reputation can suffer a whole lot if their customer information ever gets exposed. Most companies that lack appropriate security measures can easily fall victim to extortion hacks, which then creates a lot of fear for the safety of confidential data and potential lawsuits from unhappy customers.

Ways to reduce the impact of cyber threats?

 

The most effective preventive measures need a rigorous security plan for your corporate environment that works to predict and prevent the damage at the same time. It’s important to be familiar with the common cyber threat patterns in your specific industry and train your staff to understand these signs before they’ve become an issue. A remotely operating business also needs multi-layered protection which companies often don’t have the skills, time, and expertise to ensure up to the desired industry standards. In that instance, employing a third-party IT services provider such as we-IT can help your business with more proactive and reactive monitoring of your inputs in addition to timely patching, data encryption, and advanced security measures deployed from the cloud.

Final words

 

In today’s ever-evolving landscape of cyber-threats is becoming increasingly important to be able to adapt to these changes quickly and effectively before they have become an issue. Cloud desktop solutions like DaaS are equipped with the latest security features to makes sure that companies operating on the cloud are safe from all kinds of cyber threats at all times. Even then, creating better employee awareness of the lurking threats is also of central importance to make sure that your corporate environment is sufficiently protected against all the worst outcomes in cyberspace.