Security

IT attack vectors are exploited by criminals to gain unauthorized access to the IT environment, potentially damaging a victim (organization or individual) through stolen data, downtime, identity theft, reputational damage, and more. Over the last several years, the traditional IT perimeter has been said to dissolve due to the impact of largescale trends—namely increasingly mobile workforces and cloud technologies. At the same time, threats against software, systems, infrastructure, and data are constantly evolving.

Specific issues that cyber security measures can help protect against include:

Cyber-attacks: Brute force, targeted, and denial of service attacks that take your business offline or provide unauthorized access to your systems and data
Data breaches: Exposure of sensitive business, customer, and supplier data
Identity theft: Compromised customer data that results in the theft of logins, passwords, and other sensitive, personally identifiable data

Cyber security helps your organization stay ahead of cyber threats by providing a toolbox of approaches, tactics, and software to identify and protect against threats.

A comprehensive cyber security strategy, supported by strong policies, processes, practices, and tools can significantly reduce the risk that an organization or individual will be targeted or damaged by cyber-attacks.

Cyber Security and How it is Evolving

Cyber security is an “arms race” between IT security teams and cyber criminals, who want to exploit company systems and steal data. Here are some key areas to bear in mind when evaluating cyber security strategies, policies, and tools:

There are a numerous data breaches, hacks, and new malware every year. Data breach tracking service, Have I Been Pwned? lists almost 300 breaches impacting over 5 billion accounts, as of mid-2018.
External attackers and malicious insiders are often a step ahead. You will need software, tools, and techniques that are continually updated so you can identify and resolve threats in a timely way.
Security tools can be updated quickly to keep up. Good security software can be rapidly updated to find and resolve threats almost as soon as they become known. Additionally, heuristic detection, machine learning, and algorithms can help to identify and resolve even the newest types of attack.
The attack surface is expanding. The growth in cloud services and hosting, DevOps, internet of things (IoT) devices, mobility, and more means that security tools must emerge or evolve to handle new use cases and increasingly complex environments. This means a robust, comprehensive approach that protects company assets and access, wherever they are.
The need for a proactive approach. Modern security teams and software are actively managing security risks. This involves using vulnerability assessments, penetration tests, and more to find and fix gaps in the environment.

Common Cyber Threat Vectors

Cyber security teams need to deal with a wide range of risks and threats. Here are some of the most common cyber threat vectors.

Credential Theft & Password Cracking: These attacks involve either the guessing or stealing of credentials (passwords, tokens, SSH keys, DevOps secrets) to gain illicit access to accounts, assets, or data
Malware: Viruses, worms, and trojans that find their way into IT systems and replicate across the networks. These may often be combined with keyloggers, or other malicious software to steal access details and other data.
Ransomware: A special type of encrypted attack malware that locks up and encrypts files, demanding a ransom (often in Bitcoin) in exchange for removing the encryption and restoring access for the system owner.
Social Engineering: Criminals use confidence tricks and other techniques to get employees to let their guard down and share sensitive information, such as logins and passwords.
Phishing: Use of fraudulent emails and other messages to convince people to install malware or otherwise reveal sensitive information about business systems.
Vulnerability Attacks: Unpatched software and systems create vulnerabilities that criminals exploit through targeted attacks.
Privileged Attacks: Unauthorized use or abuse of system, machine, or user privileges, including privilege escalation
Sabotage: Denial of service (DoS) and other attacks designed to take down business assets like websites or publicly available applications and services.