The world is full of cybercriminals. They penetrate complicated data structures of huge credit-monitoring companies like Equifax and snatch personal information from millions of people. They release sensitive customer data from discreet businesses like Ashley Madison to the public. They spy on celebrities through\u00a0webcams, lock down public utility systems like the German railway and steal thousands of gigabytes of information from high-profile government entities like the CIA. \u00a0 Cybercriminals also target small businesses like yours \u2014 and extort them for thousands of dollars.\u00a0Having a dedicated security team equipped with the most up-to-date technology is critical \u2014 but it’s not enough. You\u00a0must stay informed. \u00a0 So, let’s take a look at the five most common ways cybercriminals infiltrate a network.<\/p>\n
Phishing is an age old cyber crime. If you’ve ever recevied an email from a “Nigerian prince” asking for money, you’ve been targeted with a phishing scam. \u00a0 Most phising scams work like this:\u00a0You receive an email from a “high-ranking employee” with whom you\u2019ve been\u00a0working on a project. The email instructs you to click on a link so the sender can access \u201cvital information\u201d for the project. \u00a0 When you click on the link, it rapidly installs malware on your computer which spreads through your network and locks out everyone in the company. \u00a0 While most phishing emails are easy to spot, they’re becoming increasingly sophisticated. As Thomas Peters writes for \u201cNewsweek,\u201d \u201cThe best messages look like they\u2019re trying to protect the company.” \u00a0 For example, one well-meaning system administrator opened a PDF titled, “How to Avoid a Phishing Attack.” It\u00a0 spread malware to the company server! How\u2019s that for irony?<\/p>\n
Social engineering is a type of hacking that uses real people to carry out an attack, rather than intricate lines of code. \u00a0 Social engineers call you pretending they’re someone else and try to get emails, passwords, and other information from you that they can later use for an attack. \u00a0 So what does social engineering look like? Here’s an example: Your IT guy receives a call from the \u201csecretary\u201d of one of your clients. She says she’s experiencing problems with your\u00a0service due to a firewall. \u00a0 Convinced, your IT professional alters the firewall to accommondate the “secretary.” Before you know it, a cybercriminal has access to your entire security system, or lack thereof.<\/p>\n
Despite your best efforts, it doesn’t take much for a cybercriminal to obtain company passwords. \u00a0 Hackers are great at guessing easy passwords, but even clever and complicated ones filled with exclamation points and random numbers are accessible too. \u00a0 You know those “security” questions that allow you to reset a password? Like, “What was the name of your first dog?” or “When is your anniversary?” Cybercriminals can easily find answers to those through social engineering or social media and hack into business critical accounts.<\/p>\n
Fault injection is when sophisticated hackers scan your business\u2019s network or software source code for weak points. \u00a0 Once\u00a0located, hackers target weak points to deliver viruses, redirect website links to malware and crash your system.<\/p>\n
Some hackers hand out USB sticks with malware on them in hopes you’ll stick one into your computer. Be wary of the USB sticks you’re handed at conferences or other industry events.\u00a0Never use a USB stick if you don’t know its origin. \u00a0 So with so many cyberthreats out there, how do you protect yourself?<\/p>\n
Knowing the strategies hackers deploy is only half the battle. Cybercrime techniques are constantly changing \u2014 it\u2019s impossible to keep\u00a0up by yourself. \u00a0 At SugarShot, we want to help. Download the FREE chapter, “I’ve Been Hacked! What Should I Do?<\/a>” from our eBook, Sitting Duck – Why YOUR Business Is A Cybercriminal’s Ideal Target<\/strong>.<\/em> We discuss what to do if you’ve been hacked and how to prevent cyber attacks in the future. \u00a0 If you have any questions about cybersecurity<\/a>, contact SugarShot today!<\/a><\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world is full of cybercriminals. They penetrate complicated data structures of huge credit-monitoring companies like Equifax and snatch personal information from millions of people. They release sensitive customer data from discreet businesses like Ashley Madison to the public.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1,7],"tags":[5,26,16],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","category-msp-advice","category-technology","tag-cyber-security","tag-cyberattack","tag-cybercrime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}