With so many new and emerging threats to worry about in today’s cybersecurity landscape, it’s no wonder that some businesses and employees might be operating from a knowledge deficit regarding network security. We’re here to change that with a quick overview of the three biggest overarching threats your business must face and prepare for.

For the purposes of today’s blog, we’re going to assume you have some baseline level of knowledge about threats like viruses and malware, as they are practically ingrained in the zeitgeist as is. The following classifications of security risks utilize these more basic threats in creative and tricky ways.

Phishing and Other Social Engineering Attacks

Why would cybercriminals go through your defenses when they could simply go around them? Hackers will use every trick in the book to infiltrate your network, including convincing your employees to hand over access credentials, click on infected links, and download infected attachments on the Internet. It’s imperative that you train your employees on how to identify these threats.

Ransomware and Other Data Breaches

One of the scariest types of malware out there—ransomware—can cause irreparable damage to an unprepared business. Ransomware will lock down, and in some cases steal, the data on your network, and hackers will demand a ransom in exchange for its safe return. They might also extort you with threats of sharing the data online if you fail to pay up. You should prepare ahead of time with robust data backup and disaster recovery solutions and powerful security measures that can block data breaches of all kinds.

Weak Passwords, Vulnerabilities, and Access Control

The worst thing you can do for your network security is to use weak passwords that are easily guessed. You should encourage employees to utilize complex passwords consisting of 12 or more characters, including letters (both upper and lower case), numbers, and symbols. You should also be sure to patch any known vulnerabilities and update your systems as needed. Finally, control who has access to what information. This can help to segment off potential attacks and limit access to important data should the need arise to partition off information.

Don’t Leave Network Security to Chance

If you are concerned about keeping your business secure from all cyberthreats (and you should be), we recommend contacting IT Solutions Network. Our trusted professional technicians can help you implement solutions designed to take proactive steps toward protecting your network. To learn more, call us at (855) 795-2939.