Cybersecurity
Time to start taking cybersecurity more seriously
Cyberattacks across the world have drastically increased, while most of them don’t dominate headlines – such as the Adobe or Equifax breaches – hackers have targeted companies of all sizes seeing that business digitization is on the rise due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the world transforming into a data-fueled reality, the risks become larger, and more important to protect.
Global spending on cybersecurity products, services, and solutions will likely reach $1 trillion by 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures; this indicates that online protection, which was mainly reserved by the biggest of companies, is beginning to hit the mainstream, especially by small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
One of the main creditors to this trend is the huge rise of people relying on digital services, such as working remotely, online shopping, and generally being more digitally connected during worldwide lockdowns.
Hackers & the pandemic gold mine
In the U.S., during the pandemic the FBI’s Cyber Division reported 4,000 complaints of cyberattacks per day, which represents a 400 percent increase during pre-coronavirus times.
But the attacks are not only directed toward businesses.
“The world is witnessing an alarming rate of cyberattacks aimed at major corporations, governments, and critical infrastructure, targeting all types of businesses, including critical medical organizations,” a report by Interpol highlighted.
In parallel, Microsoft reported that COVID-19 themed attacks – mainly using phishing or social engineering attacks – have jumped to 20,000 to 30,000 attacks a day in the U.S. alone.
According to a recent survey published by PwC, 65 percent of organizations in the UK alone have reported that they’ve either been breached or exposed to a cyberattack.
Meanwhile, only 42 percent said they were “well prepared” for moving to remote working, compared to 45 percent who were “somewhat prepared” and 13 percent who were not prepared at all – leaving more than half of all firms at least moderately under threat.
PwC surveyed almost 3,249 business and technology executives across the world, including 265 in the UK, which saw Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud service providers top the list of ‘very likely’ threat vectors in the coming 12 months, accounted by 33 percent of companies.
“Cyber-attacks on cloud services were found to be the most likely threats to have a significantly negative impact – as noted by 24 percent of those polled,” PwC highlighted.
Strengthening the frontline
The UK witnessed the most brutal of attacks, as British respondents cited 58 percent of their attacks being on cloud services, followed by 52 percent done by disruptionware attacks on critical business services, and finally 50 percent using ransomware.
This large number of cyberattacks has pushed British-based businesses and execs to upgrade their security systems since “around 40 percent of executives in the global survey planned to increase resilience testing to ensure that, if a disruptive cyber event occurs, their critical business functions will stay up and running – but 96 percent of UK respondents said that they will shift their cybersecurity strategy due to COVID-19,” the survey added.
Businesses across the board have taken note of this, which is why cyber budgets will look to drastically increase as the new year approaches.
This has been confirmed by PwC, as 55 percent of its survey respondents echoed the above statement, regardless of 64 percent of execs forecast a decline in business revenues.
While companies are prepping to foot a cybersecurity bill, a quarter of respondents have stated that they will downsize their spending, leaving cyber teams doing more with less resources in hand, as 13 percent of companies will have to make do with the same budget.
“It’s surprising that so many organizations lack confidence in their cyber security spend. It shows businesses need to improve their understanding of cyber threats and the vulnerabilities they exploit, while changing the way they think about cyber risk, so it becomes an intrinsic part of every business decision,” Richard Horne, Cyber Security Chair at PwC said.
Can AI champion cybersecurity?
As technological advancements keep moving forward at a rocketing pace, cyberattacks become more and more sophisticated; while the current protection tactics have proven to be effective against certain scenarios, the fear lies with the unknown.
Which is why many cybersecurity firms have begun using artificial intelligence (AI) as a means to close the gap between the sophisticated cybercriminals and the forcefield that keeps them out.
AI systems have the ability to detect new forms of attacks and breaches and react to them accordingly; this would not only change the security’s approach of being reactionary, but would allow experts to study these techniques to develop solutions that would counter them.
One example of how AI is used in the rapidly changing pandemic and post-pandemic landscape is in recognition of uncategorized or unlabeled websites with illicit intentions that are related to the usual triggers, such as fear.
According to MarkMonitor, there are more than 100,000 COVID-19-registered domains.
“Our AI analysis of uncategorized websites that were accessed by people over a period of 50 days shows that between 20 percent – 35 percent of websites contain content which, while not directly dangerous, is at least misleading or shows signs of possible illicit intent,” writes Leonardas Marozas, Security Research Lab Manager at CUJO AI, a U.S.-based software company.
He added that while threat intelligence is a source of confirmation for a cyber threat actor, AI usage will foresee potential malicious activities before they are known or registered in knowledge bases.
With the business world becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of remote working, AI has the potential to overcome and help solve a myriad of challenges on the security front.
Alternatives to weather the storm
As the conversation of cybersecurity in businesses continues and will likely intensify, there are numerous ways that companies can help their employees become more aware and secure of their behavior online.
The Center for Internet Security published a resource guide on how employees can keep themselves safe as they continue their work schedules from the comfort of their own homes.
Securing employee home networks
While conducting business through a VPN can add a layer of security, there are simple steps employees can take to secure their home networks. Employees need to know what devices they are using while working from home.
Once they’ve identified the devices they’re using, have them download the instruction manuals from the respective manufacturer websites. These instruction manuals will give them step-by-step instructions on how to enable security settings like these:
- Practice smart password management and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible.
- Enable automatic updates for all routers and modems. If equipment is outdated and can no longer be updated, it should be replaced.
- Turn off WPS and UPnP.
- Turn on WPA2 or WP3.
- Configure the router or modem’s firewall with a unique password and enable the firewall.
Employee personal device security
Some employees may be using personal equipment instead of, or alongside, company-issued hardware. Here are some steps employees should take to secure their personal devices, especially when they’re using them for work purposes:
- Patching – Patching systems to remedy known vulnerabilities continues to be essential. Your organization’s plan for doing so may need some adjustment with a largely remote workforce.
- Home Computers – Recommend that employees implement security on these devices including installing anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware, and apply security settings in web browsers.
- Printers – Employees should look up printer security for their printer make and model to ensure security of the device and network connection. If printing, use an appropriate shredder based on company best practices.
- USB Devices –Staff should use only company-approved USB devices.
- Storage – Designate how and where an employee can store sensitive information. Use hard drive encryption on work laptops or external hard drives.
- Access by Others – People who work from home during the occasional weekday usually don’t have a full house, but they might now. Ask employees to keep work devices for professional use only and lock their devices when they step away from them. Innocent activity on a work computer could lead to a breach. This is also a good opportunity to educate family on cybersecurity.
While online security threats keep rising and advancing, business and government leaders need to keep cybersecurity as a top priority to ensure that healthcare, supply chains, military operations, and other vital systems are not compromised.
When it comes to ensuring the highest levels of cybersecurity for any establishment, password management in network security is one of the most paramount factors in guaranteeing security. As one of the essential cybersecurity measures, password management is a critical element for any online activity, whether for software or hardware. Everything is protected with a password.
What is Password Manager and How does it Work?
To those not familiar with the concept, password management’s significance exceeds the creation of a strong password to protect your data or account. It is a cybersecurity system. A system that manages any saved login credentials, all while guaranteeing a safeguarded relocation of data from one device to another. When coming up with a valid password, a few factors must be taken into account, such as the potential of being exposed to high risks and identity theft.
For any establishment, the correct password manager helps to monitor any activity and amounts of logins for servers people work on. As a software application, it is developed for storing and managing online credentials. With the increased available platforms and programs requiring safety credentials, the risk of losing or forgetting a password has never been higher. User password management, such as Google password manager, helps users with a handful of passwords for essential web applications.
By providing the needed digital space to generate and store any, and all passwords in one location, password management in network security keeps any data safe and secure in various ways, including biometrics data.
Why Use Password Manager?
Through the encryption of users’ logins, a reliable password manager protects your credentials and cannot be accessed until the master password is submitted. In this case, no password is stored on the device itself or even on the manager’s servers. While some might think that storing all of your important passwords in one place might be hazardous, the truth is, password managers are the safest bet to safeguard all your passwords, as the chances of a password manager being breached are extremely low and almost very unlikely to happen.
Without getting into all the technical terms as to why password managers are the safest option, these applications can be perceived as the lesser evil. While users will still need to create one master password – preferably to be long and a bit complicated – it will guarantee the protection of any login credential for any account or credit card information.
The ideal password managers to download are backed by two-factor authenticators, where users are asked for a one-time code alongside the password whenever a new login into a new device takes place.
Password Management Best Practices in Network Security
In terms of obtaining the highest level of protection for network security, few practices are applicable to almost anyone to ensure the highest level of user password management.
1. Training
Training the team and raising awareness of potential password threats is one of the most important things to consider. Team members working on network security have to understand the risk of cybersecurity and the importance of implementing the right measure to protect and secure any account credential.
2. Enforcement of Reliable and Strong Passwords
Enforcing the creation of strong passwords and establishing they follow the best practices for network security to protect the network and its data while respecting the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of the network’s computer systems.
This includes performing a thorough network audit, deploying network and security devices, disabling file sharing features, updating antivirus and anti-malware software, securing all routers, using a private IP address, and finally establishing a network security maintenance system.
3. Multi-factor Authentication
Endorsing your password management with two-factor authentication is like adding another solid layer of protection to your accounts and their passwords. Multi-factor authentication ensures that only people responsible for the network have access to its sensitive data.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Cybersecurity space to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.
We are all well aware of the troubles opening a fishy link can lead us to. Luring users to click on a given link has been of one the well-known techniques to get access to the device, install virus and malware or even go as far as creating a full ransomware attack. To protect your computer and private information, there are multiple techniques to check links without opening them. What is important though is never to open the link if it is suspicious.
Visually Inspect the Link
When you are not dealing with a shortened URL, the best way to go thoroughly through the link to see if there is any spelling mistake. Attackers usually tend to change a minimum number of letters so that you are unable to tell the difference. For instance, things like www.goagle.com instead of www.google.com should catch your attention with the second ‘o’ of Google replaced with an ‘a’.
Verify that Links in an Email Come from a Credible Source
Emails are the best sources for phishing attacks. These kinds of attacks are used to steal some sensitive information such as passwords and credit card information. The best way to avoid these kinds of attacks is to authenticate the sender. For that purpose, do not only check the name of the sender, you need to double-check the email the sender is using. In general, attackers use credible sender names with emails which do not correspond to the promoted identity. Next time you get an email from your bank like “XBank”, check that the sender email is person@Xbank.com rather than person@anyothermailclient.com.
Use Link Checker or Link Scanner
Many websites actually provide link checking or link scanning features. This is a very neat technique to simple check the link before clicking on it.
VirusTotal
www.virustotal.com is an excellent website for this task. This online tool practically does the job of an anti-virus. When you go to the website, you have the possibility to analyze files and URL for malware or any other security breach. Once you submit your file or enter the URL, the website will use different tools and software, then provide you with a detailed output from each of these tools. If you are unsure if a given software is credible enough, you can compare it to the output of other platforms on a single website.
Use a Short URL Expander
Sometimes attackers try to shorten URLs to hide any malicious intention. Analyzing shortened URL is not straightforward. To overcome this problem, copy the provided URL without opening it and use specific websites that actually expand the provided URLs. Then, you can analyze the original URL for possible security breaches. Many websites are there to do this task. Just search for “short URL expander” on your search engine and use the top provided websites.
Upgrade your Anti-Virus with Internet Security Features
Anti-virus software is commonly used to protect personal computers from viruses and other malware. While these are available for free, you can easily upgrade them to include internet security features for a small monthly fee. This will bring major improvement to your internet browsing experience including custom-made safe browsing tools.
Use Google Transparency Report
Google provide a nice tool to check for the safety of websites. To do so, visit https://transparencyreport.google.com and enter the URL in question. The Google source will then provide you with a safety report of that website.
Simply Hover Over the Link
The nicest solution is kept to the end. When you hover over a link in your email client or web browser, a small square appears including all the information related to the chosen URL. These details can be used to give a preliminary indication whether to trust the source.
Final Thoughts
Suspicious links are everywhere! To make sure they don’t catch you by surprise, follow the highlighted and you’ll be safe to go.
“Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Cybersecurity space to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.”
Cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) are two very trending topics at the moment. AI has been the pivotal elements modifying business strategies, improving decision-making processes, and triggering automation in every industry in the world. The latest sentience debate is a clear indicator on serious and advanced AI is becoming nowadays. Cybersecurity is the other important element of today’s technological world. With an increasing reliance on data and the move to online services that require an individual’s biometrics, security essential in preventing data thefts and associated cybercrimes. AI has undeniably improved cybersecurity practices by allowing a real-time analysis of internet traffic to discover possible threats at the earliest and take defensive actions. This important learning process hides however several disadvantages of AI in cybersecurity.
What Are the Downsides to AI in Cybersecurity?
The touted advantages of AI in cybersecurity are real and very useful. However, the increasing adoption of AI solutions for security is actually causing problems at different levels.
Hackers Use AI as Well
When it comes to maturity in technology, hackers are the best at it. These individuals sitting behind computer screens logging data and doing advanced analytics to identify any loophole or vulnerability they can use to their benefits. The use of AI as far as cybersecurity is concerned is a double-edged sword. It is actually a race of who can develop a better algorithm that caters better to the data which is circulating online. In this sense, the use of AI is a big threat to security.
Another issue is that while a company is analyzing and learning from data to discover threats, a hacker is concurrently analyzing the company’s cyber-defense mechanisms and policies to find “open doors’ that will take it into the system to complete the intended attack.
Data Confidentiality
AI algorithms are associated with the analysis with large volumes of data, a key requirement for the developed algorithms to produce accurate outputs. The data a company deals with contains normal traffic related to daily transactions and activities, but also sensitive information related to the clients including their biometrics and personal information. What happens to our data when it goes to the AI-agent though is another thing. Protecting the data is key when AI is used for cybersecurity reasons. The secrecy of the clients’ data should not be compromised for any reason.
Increasing Need for Data
The field of cybersecurity is constantly evolving with ingenious attacks and threats emerging every now and then. Browser-in-the-browser attacks and increasingly advanced ransomware attacks have been notable examples in 2022. In order to discover attacks at a later stage, the AI algorithm needs to have data to do the proper training. The increasingly dynamic environment with threats emerging and evolving will lead to a surge in the required volumes of data, which can potentially not be readily available to have a fast response to the attack itself. Whether it is the ability of AI to keep track of the exponential growth in data or the availability of data for the AI-algorithm to produce results is a big disadvantage of this approach for cybersecurity
Will Cybersecurity be Replaced by AI?
With the drive towards more and more automation, it is questionable whether this can be applied as well for cybersecurity practices. AI can certainly assist in processing and learning from data and produce insights. However, the real decision maker in such as sensitive area where no errors can be tolerated is the cybersecurity expert himself. The only way for AI to replace cybersecurity is when it becomes sentient or developed enough to think and act like humans do. There is still a long way for that to concretize.
Explainable or interpretable AI is a key intermediate step in reaching this target. First, we need to understand how AI produces results. Proper cybersecurity practices require a reduction in bias while optimizing the performance of the algorithm.
How Will AI Affect Cybersecurity Jobs?
The adoption of AI will certainly cause major shifts in the cybersecurity job market as in the case in other industries, but probably at a smaller scale. The level of skill and experience needed to thwart cyberattacks will safeguard the need for security experts to provide the final decision regarding suspicious data patterns.
On the other hand, the incorporation of AI will call for new skilled workers that can manage and optimize the performance of the algorithms. Another alternative would be for existing workforce to be upskilled and retrained to handle the new analysis tools.
Summary
As data is becoming the basic unit for decision making, AI has invaded all industries and businesses, including cybersecurity. Companies are starting to incorporate learning algorithms to their offered services in order to have a more intelligent management of the different security threats. However, the role of AI in cybersecurity should be considered with enough judgment. The addition of AI would increase the complexity in the data management process, notably in terms of data privacy and the continuous need for more data.
“Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence space to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.”
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Ian Terblanche, Global Strategic Sales & Channel Director at Sigfox
