Is your data Secure?
A cyber or cyber-security threat is a malicious act that seeks to damage data, steal data, or disrupt digital life in general. Cyber attacks include threats like computer viruses, data breaches, and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.
Cyber-security threats come in three broad categories of intent. Attackers are after:
- Financial gain
- Disruption
- Espionage
ISM offer Security Solutions that can protect you from all of these threats:
- Malware. Software that performs a malicious task on a target device or network, e.g. corrupting data or taking over a system.
- Spear Phishing. A more sophisticated form of phishing where the attacker learns about the victim and impersonates someone he or she knows and trusts.
- “Man in the Middle” (MitM) attack. Where an attacker establishes a position between the sender and recipient of electronic messages and intercepts them, perhaps changing them in transit. The sender and recipient believe they are communicating directly with one another. A MitM attack might be used in the military to confuse an enemy.
- Trojans. Named after the Trojan Horse of ancient Greek history, the Trojan is a type of malware that enters a target system looking like one thing, e.g. a standard piece of software, but then lets out the malicious code once inside the host system.
- Ransomware. An attack that involves encrypting data on the target system and demanding a ransom in exchange for letting the user have access to the data again. These attacks range from low-level nuisances to serious incidents like the locking down of the entire city of Atlanta’s municipal government data in 2018.
- Denial of Service attack or Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDoS). Where an attacker takes over many (perhaps thousands) of devices and uses them to invoke the functions of a target system, e.g. a website, causing it to crash from an overload of demand.
- Attacks on IoT Devices. IoT devices like industrial sensors are vulnerable to multiple types of cyber threats. These include hackers taking over the device to make it part of a DDoS attack and unauthorized access to data being collected by the device. Given their numbers, geographic distribution and frequently out-of-date operating systems, IoT devices are a prime target for malicious actors.
- Data Breaches. A data breach is a theft of data by a malicious actor. Motives for data breaches include crime (i.e. identity theft), a desire to embarrass an institution (e.g. Edward Snowden or the DNC hack) and espionage.
- Malware on Mobile Apps. Mobile devices are vulnerable to malware attacks just like other computing hardware. Attackers may embed malware in app downloads, mobile websites or phishing emails and text messages. Once compromised, a mobile device can give the malicious actor access to personal information, location data, financial accounts and more.