12 Days of Cybersecurity Risks

Top Cybersecurity Risks

On our social media, we counted down to the end of the year with a list of the twelve most common cybersecurity risks. It’s critically important for you and your staff to have an awareness of these potential pitfalls. Up to 95% of successful cybersecurity breaches are due to human error. Here’s a summary of the risks along with their frequency, impact and potential mitigating precautions.

Regulatory Compliance Issues

• Definition: Failing to meet data protection and privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA).
• Frequency & Impact: Hundreds to thousands of penalties are issued annually and untold reputational damage.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Conduct regular audits.
  • Implement clear data governance policies.
  • Maintain comprehensive documentation.
  • Utilize and configure DLP (Data Loss Prevention) systems to identify and block the transmission of sensitive data

Supply Chain Attacks

• Definition: Compromising a supplier or third-party vendor to infiltrate larger organizations.
• Frequency & Impact: Thousands reported annually, with increasing frequency. These lead to significant disruptions and trust issues due to compromised vendor relationships.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Assess vendors’ security postures regularly.
  • Include cybersecurity clauses in contracts.
  • Continuously monitor third-party access and activities.
  • Conduct regular Vendor Risk Analysis and obtain documentation supporting vendors organizational controls.

Zero-Day Exploits

• Definition: Exploitation of software vulnerabilities before a vendor can issue a fix.
• Frequency & Impact: Dozens of zero-days discovered each year, which are highly impactful due to the difficulty of detection and exploitation.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Prompt patch management.
  • Use of threat intelligence feeds.
  • Application whitelisting to restrict unapproved software.

 

Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks

• Definition: Overwhelming a network or system to render it unavailable to users.
• Frequency & Impact: Over 10 million incidents annually create disruption of critical services and financial losses.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Use intrusion detection systems (IDS).
  • Employ Content Delivery Networks (CDN) for traffic absorption.
  • Configure rate-limiting rules to control traffic flow.

Cloud Security Risks

• Definition: Misconfigurations, lack of encryption, or shared responsibility misunderstandings in cloud services.
• Frequency & Impact: Cloud misconfigurations cause thousands of breaches annually, with hundreds of millions of records exposed yearly.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Use Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB).
  • Encrypt data before uploading.
  • Conduct regular security audits of cloud systems to assess cybersecurity risks.

Insider Threats

• Definition: Malicious or negligent actions by employees or contractors that compromise security.
• Frequency & Impact: Around 25% of breaches involve insider threats, with hundreds of significant cases annually. Such cases are costly and difficult to detect due to trust within organizations.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Behavioral monitoring.
  • Access control and audits.
  • Separation of duties to prevent single points of failure.
  • Understand shared responsibilities with cloud providers.

Unsecured Devices

• Definition: Devices such as IoT, laptops, and smartphones without adequate security measures.
• Frequency & Impact: Thousands of incidents occur yearly, exacerbated by billions of IoT devices.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Use Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools.
  • Deploy endpoint protection tools.
  • Configure devices with minimal services and restrict access.

Data Breaches

• Definition: Unauthorized access to sensitive data, exposing it to potential misuse.
• Frequency & Impact: Over 4,000 publicly disclosed breaches annually, with billions of records exposed, causing severe financial and reputational losses.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Encrypt data in transit and at rest.
  • Enforce role-based access control (least privilege).
  • Develop and test incident response plans.

Social Engineering

• Definition: Manipulating individuals into divulging confidential information through deception.
• Frequency & Impact: Linked to over 90% of successful cyberattacks, with tens of thousands of cases annually. This affects organizations and individuals, often leading to broader breaches.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Train employees to recognize tactics like urgent requests.
  • Implement identity verification protocols.
  • Foster a culture of reporting suspicious interactions.

Weak Passwords

• Definition: Use of easily guessable or reused passwords, making systems vulnerable.
• Frequency & Impact: Over 65% of users reuse passwords, leading to frequent account takeovers. These are a major contributor to data breaches and account hijacking.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Enforce strong password policies.
  • Encourage the use of password managers.
  • Protect accounts with multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Malware

• Definition: Malicious software like viruses, ransomware, and spyware that disrupt or compromise systems.
• Frequency & Impact: Over 500,000 new malware samples are detected daily. Billions of infections have occurred globally, causing widespread damage.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Deploy antivirus and antimalware tools.
  • Keep systems and software updated.
  • Segment networks to contain potential infections.

Phishing Attacks

• Definition: Deceptive emails or messages that trick users into revealing sensitive information.
• Frequency & Impact: Tens of billions of phishing emails are sent annually. Over 80% of organizations encounter phishing attempts each year.
• Mitigating Strategies:
  • Conduct security awareness training.
  • Use advanced spam filters.
  • Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Your Business Network and Cybersecurity Risks

If you have any questions regarding your organization’s ability to thwart these opportunities for attack, we encourage a conversation with one of our experienced account managers. We want to assist you in starting off the new year on the best cyber-secure footing possible. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.