The cost of cyber attacks on businesses around the world is expected to reach the record-breaking cost of $ 6 trillion by the end of this year. The threats on the web are more disconcerting than ever due to the high overload of industries, offering services and managing their data online from home, instead of using the well-trodden model of secured networks in a traditional office environment. Since the start of the global pandemic, hackers have seized the potential of this trend by developing new and more inventive cyber attacks that put most, if not all, remotely operating organizations at substantial risk of data breach and detrimental financial loss.
Cybercrime has been a threat to a handful of industries since the early days of the internet. Now the landscape looks vastly different. With the advent of digitalization and remote working, in most sectors after COVID-19, the vulnerability from cyber attacks is literally everywhere. Companies should be more proactive with protecting their assets and information online by identifying those risks and finding effective solutions to tackle these challenges before the damage has been done. Cloud-hosted services like Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) are one sustainable alternative, which we will discuss in the later sections of this article.
Industries That Are Most Vulnerable To Cyber Attacks:
Financial Institutions
Not surprisingly, financial institutions always come first on the list of industries at risk of cyber attacks. The most common concerns of the industry are typically data theft and stealing of sensitive financial information via server attacks. Over the past year, nearly 400,000 sensitive files in financial services were reported as exposed by hackers. This is a lot more than any other industry operating remotely. The increasing use of mobile banking apps has also stirred the hackers’ community by making new opportunities for them to steal sensitive information and compromise the accounts of people in the general public, as well as remote workers trusting their unprotected devices for their personal banking needs.
Small businesses
Another major victim of cyber attacks this year has been, without a doubt, small businesses and start-up companies. A lot of organizations that were lacking the resources to invest in VDI, or knew little about DaaS, rushed their way onto the online space just with a fleet of PCs and some VPNs. That was also seen as a great opportunity by malicious actors to target those workers and their compromised networks. The most common cyber attacks directed at smaller businesses were largely phishing and malware. They would often send a harmful link or a file via the email address and get access to the sensitive information stored on the device of the employee. This put plenty of workers and companies at risk of losing their positions in a competitive marketplace, together with larger, more secured organizations, where the risks are lesser.
Healthcare
Without a doubt, the healthcare sector has suffered a lot this year for many reasons. One of them is cyber attacks, leading up to security breaches experienced by hospitals and healthcare units as a result of ransomed data or malicious code. Over 90% of the sector in the UShas suffered at least one cyber attack in the last year, which ended up becoming a breach or a leak. The healthcare sector was also pressed to make a very fast transition online with making their appointments and completing billing remotely. Lacking a solid cyber security plan in place led to a number of ransomware incidents that blocked practitioners from accessing their data or services. The effect took a toll not only on the financial side of things but also on the medical processes, which were slowed down whilst putting patients’ lives at risk.
How Industries Can Protect Their Assets From Cyber Attacks?
The first step to protecting your data and business assets from cyber attacks is identifying your vulnerabilities and the threats in your industry. Every business operating remotely will become subjected to a malicious attempt at some point in its lifetime. This is why is important to educate your employees about cybercrime and ways to prevent information from getting into the wrong hands before it’s too late.
The next step would be to find cost-effective alternatives which could provide you with secure systems and reliable service online. Cloud desktop solutions like DaaS are ideal for small, mid, and large size businesses which need to rely on rigorous security of their data at all times. Virtual desktop providers like we-IT are responsible to keep your assets safe while you operate on the cloud from any corner of the world.
To find out more about our cloud desktop solutions for your industry, get in touch with our team and we will get back to you shortly!
