Most users are unaware of the cyber-attacks lurking on the web, partly because online security prevention cannot be shown practically. Maintaining the cyber security should be our utmost priority.
Cyber criminals not only target businesses but also focuses on government officials, popular people, small organizations, and users.
Managing online security is difficult, yet significant in this day and age. A cyber attacker can easily access your private pictures, personal details and other data you wouldn’t like to share with strangers. They can steal your information and utilize it for multi-purpose. If the hackers find your personal data, they may coerce you to pay a handsome ransom.
When a hacker browses your computer, smartphone, or cloud account, the result might be strangely devastating. You may never come to know if the hacker has leaked your private data with any organization. It is also possible that the company uses your personal information to fulfil their marketing goals. In such cases, it is extremely important to be cautious in advance and safeguard your IoT (Internet of Things) gadgets.
What Are the Most Common IT Security Threats?
Cyber criminals use various methods to steal your personal information. You need to be aware of these threats and be extra vigilant whenever you browse online.
Malware
If you ever notice an antivirus pop-up alert on your computer screen, or accidentally click a malicious attachment, then you may have a close encounter with malware. Malware refers to different kinds of malicious software like virus and ransomware.
Malware is short for “malicious software” Wikipedia describes malware as a term meaning “variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code”. Malware could be computer viruses, worms, dishonest spyware, and malicious rootkits—all of which are defined below. Once your computer gets affected, it can lead to all types of havoc right from accessing computer to monitoring every action. It sends confidential data from your computer to cyber criminals without leaving any hint.
Denial of Services (DoS)
Denial of Service attack comes into existence when you flood a website with a huge traffic than it can handle. This overloads the server and makes it nearly impossible for the website display content to visitors who are trying to browse it.
But usually, website traffic overload is malicious where an attacker overwhelms the targeted website to block its access for all visitors. Sometimes DoS attacks are executed by multiple computers at the same time. This kind of scenario is generally known as Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack. It is really complicated to identify and overcome DDoS attack as the attackers simultaneously strike through numerous IP addresses.
Phishing
Phishing refers specifically to the spam emails that are crafted and personalized to appear as if they are genuine emails.
Because cyber criminals know that no one opens such random attachments or click on any link shown in email. Attackers often use phishing strategies or pretend to be someone else to get you in action to install malicious software or reveal sensitive information. Chances are very less that you open a random email. The action completely depends on your curiosity and impulse.
Trojan
You may unknowingly infect your PC with Trojan horse software by downloading a malicious application. Once introduced to your computer, a Trojan horse can harm your PC in various ways such as saving your passwords by logging keystrokes, stealing your webcam access, or even monitor move in detail. Trojan usually survives due to ignorance while enables it to gather information or set up holes in your security.
Methods to Prevent Security Attacks
Securing your data from an unauthorized access is essential.
Standardize Software
Take support of standardizing software to protect your PC. Make sure that users cannot install any software onto the system without approval. Some software on your network has huge security vulnerability. Ensure that all computer configurations are same including:
- Operating System
- Browser
- Media Player
- Plugins
Standardization makes the process of system updates hassle-free. This method increases the security, reduces the risk of non-compliance, boost productivity with better collaboration.
Keep All Software Updated
A basic and ideal method of staying secure is to ensure that you run software updates such as OS upgrade and browser update whenever a new version of software is released. Attentively check that the security patches are installed as soon as possible, these updated versions usually include fixes for security vulnerabilities.
Updating PC software to the latest version improves user experience, squashes bugs, adds new features and addresses security flaws.
Encryption
Encryption is the easiest and effective method to change data into an unreadable format preventing your sensitive data from an unauthorized access. This is the most trusted method to keep your data secure whether the data is stored in a database or in transit between users, browsers, and clouds.
If in any case your computer gets hacked, the hacker will have trouble stealing any data without an encryption key.
Take Data Backup
Having a complete backup of PC data assures that you can revert to normal in no time. The thumb rule is: take backup every time when you make changes to your computer like installing a new software or modifying its settings, or at least once per week. You can store the backup files on cloud or hard drive. To never be exposed as vulnerable to cyber-attacks, it is important to regularly test your backup.
Password Security Practices
Poor passwords can be easily guessed. Most security experts warn not to use the same password for all your accounts. Always be smart with passwords and use different passwords for every account. Include numbers, symbols, special characters and other factors in your password to keep your PC protected. Keep changing the password frequently to avoid any future security attack.
Hackers are becoming more persistent day by day. The unique key of staying ahead is to keep yourself informed and use the above mentioned tactics to keep your PC secure.