Navigate the Top Cyber Threats with Mitigation Strategies
In this newsletter, we aim to provide valuable insights into the top cybersecurity threats that are relevant for individuals, startups, small businesses, and large enterprises alike.
The cyber attack surface constantly expands as the world increasingly embraces technological reliance. Within 2024, various cyber threats have risen rapidly across many industries that pose significant risks to businesses and organizations. That's why knowing the latest tactics, techniques, and procedures threat actors utilize to exploit vulnerabilities and how to counter these potential threats is imperative.
?4 Top Cybersecurity Concerns for Businesses in 2024
Here is a list of the most pressing cybersecurity threats that most enterprises face.
1) Social Engineering:
In Social engineering, the attacker gains targets' trust and manipulates their psychology to gain confidential information. It's all about extracting sensitive information, typically by encouraging them to visit a malicious website or install malicious software that can strip sensitive data from the device. For example, an attacker can build a report and impersonate a trusted source like tech support or an IT administrator on the phone or email to trick victims, persuade them to share sensitive information, and use it to get unauthorized access.
Malicious links, infected attachments, and lookalike addresses are some common phishing attack techniques. Generally, phishing emails contain malicious links, which lead to phishing sites. Phishing emails might also include malware-based attached files. To fool the target, threat actors can also use lookalike addresses to look legitimate and realistic in order to trick the recipient.?
?Imagine another scenario in which a potential victim received an email from a senior manager's email address (Whose email account has been spoofed) asking the victim to install certain malicious software—a more sophisticated way to gain victims’ trust and steal their data.?
Different types of social engineering attacks include Phishing, Watering hole attacks, business email compromise, and USB baiting. One of the most common types of social engineering attacks is phishing. APWG, an eCrime research institution, published a Phishing Activity Trends Report on 14 May 2024. APWG founding member OpSec Security said,?
"Social media platforms were the most frequently attacked sector, representing 37.4 per cent of all phishing attacks."
APWG reported 963,994 phishing attacks in the first quarter (from January to March) 2024. Although this is the lowest quarterly since the four quarters of 2021 and far below the attacks reported in the first quarter of 2023 because 1,624,144 attacks were observed in Q1 2023. According to APWG's historical observations, it was a record quarter.
The number of phishing reports received was the lowest, but the number of unique email campaigns was 64 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2024. The statistics suggest that phishers bypass email filtering by diversifying their email subject lines.
Phishing attacks summary within the previous year.
Preventing Measures:
To fail social engineering attempts, some useful procedures consist of:
Security awareness training: Organizations can arrange security awareness sessions to help employees understand how social engineering works, how to recognize an attack, and how to prevent one. Some of the topics that can be covered during the awareness session are:
2) Ransomware:
A ransomware attack is a significant threat. It's a type of malicious software or malware that encrypts and blocks a victim's access to files or computer systems until paying ransom to the attacker. Sometimes, attackers threaten the victim to publish their sensitive data if payment is not made. Hackers target every type of business, whether the company is a small or a large enterprise. In 2024, ransomware is one of the most recurring forms of cybercrimes. Ransomware attacks not only lead to financial loss but also these attacks can disrupt operations.?
Sophos published a report conducted across 14 countries on The Stats of Ransomware in 2024 .?
In this report, statistics regarding the distribution of ransom payments from 2022 to 2024 show that sums between $1,000,000 and $5 million or more are being paid in 2024. Which is the highest payment as compared to 2022 and 2023. Keep this in mind! We are about to reach the middle of 2024. Imagine how dangerous ransomware attacks are financially.
Preventing Measures:
Organizations need to implement data backups to stay protected from data loss. In addition, educating the employees with training sessions is a necessary security measure to detect and block ransomware threats.
Here are some measures to prevent the ransomware risk:
Data backups: Organizations should ensure to take regular data backups to prevent data loss in case of any ransomware attack.
Patching: Keeping organizations' systems up-to-date with the latest security patches is a good practice to avoid ransomware attacks.?
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Training: Organizations can arrange training sessions to educate their employees on recognizing suspicious links and phishing emails.
Endpoint Protection: Deployment of endpoint protection solutions can help organizations detect and block ransomware.
3) Crime-as-a-service?
The emergence of Crime-as-a-Service is a growing threat these days. It involves outsourcing cybercriminal services, tools, and expertise. It is like a virtual black market, allowing threat actors to outsource their technical operations to other cybercriminals. The Dark Marketplace keeps illicit offerings. Some of the key services and tools readily available are:
All these services have a subscription model. Cybercriminals can subscribe and pay fees regularly to access the expertise, tools, and services they need. To face this dangerous threat landscape, businesses must take proactive measures for robust cyber defense. Some preventive steps are here:
Implement Robust Security controls:
Businesses should adopt a layered security approach and consider implementing and validating their security controls against CIS's top 20 controls.?
Continuous Monitoring: 24/7 cyber vigilance is necessary to identify suspicious or unusual behaviour on the network.?
Engage with Law Enforcement: Organizations must build strong connections with law enforcement agencies to stay informed about evolving cyber threats. In case of any incident, immediate incident reporting can assist the cybercrime task force and law enforcement agencies in tracking down malicious actors who are involved in CaaS movements.
4) Cloud-based attacks
Cloud-based attacks are a growing concern as businesses increasingly migrate their operations and data to cloud environments. The attackers exploit vulnerabilities in cloud services, targeting the shared infrastructure, misconfigurations, and insufficient security practices. Despite cloud providers' advanced security measures, cloud environments' most complex and dynamic nature presents unique challenges.?
Fortunately, many important strategies exist to establish a robust cloud security defense.
Data backups and disaster recovery plan:?
Various factors could be involved in data loss or system downtime, like hardware failure or cyberattacks. We can get a safer environment with strong recovery plans and regular backups.?
Stay compliant and prioritize Audit:
Following laws and industry regulations helps organizations keep their data safe and maintain trust with their customers.?
To summarize, it is important for every business to recognize that no system in the world is 100% safe. Additionally, any controls we deploy to handle a threat are not enough. Security is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring. Investing in cybersecurity is not a burden on finance; it enables your business to grow securely and helps your organization prevent and mitigate risk.
One of the most effective ways to overcome emerging security challenges is by automating the process of threat identification and response.
The SIRP SOAR platform makes it easy for security teams to automate various use cases including phishing detection and response. SIRP integrates with email security tools and analyses email content and language patterns to identify suspicious content. SIRP can automate the entire process with playbooks to respond to suspected phishing attempts.
SIRP provides OOTB integrations with over 200 security products, allowing you to bring together your entire technology stack under one platform and automate anything with just one click.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us for further assistance. We are available to help you in navigating the evolving cybersecurity landscape
Stay tuned for our upcoming articles, newsletters, and whitepapers, which will equip you with knowledge and the right set of tools to safeguard your business.
Stay safe and sound, and stay informed with SIRP !
Best Regards