2024 is here! Is your cybersecurity strategy ready? Cyberthreats don’t sit still – they’re ever evolving. So your security strategy needs to evolve, too. These four threats could be plaguing your business in the coming months, but we’ve put together some tips to help you get your cybersecurity plan ready to keep them at bay.
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Next-Level Phishing Attacks Will Target Businesses
Some phishing attacks are more obvious than others, filled with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. However, with advancing tools like ChatGPT and other generative AI resources, phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated and harder to spot. Deepfakes and personalized attacks will be commonplace, and unaware employees are more likely to fall prey to these threats.
How Can You Combat This Trend?
The best way to combat next-level phishing attacks is through training, awareness, and education. Employees need to be able to know how to spot phishing attempts, and who to contact if they need to verify information or report suspected attacks. Breaches are often caused by human error, and cybersecurity awareness training can be offered during onboarding and on an ongoing basis to ensure all employees are up to date on the latest threats of phishing, malware, and ransomware.
Networks Are Less Than Zero Trust
A framework that isn’t zero trust leaves holes for cybercriminals to climb in through. Bad actors may be able to bypass authentication and validation, exploit vulnerabilities, and access secure data, information, and resources. Insider threats, whether accidental or malicious, can pose significant risks as well. Networks could also be giving employees access to data that they don’t need rather than granting minimal access. Due to changing threat landscapes, infiltrating less than zero trust networks will soon be easier than ever.
How Can You Mitigate This Risk?
Companies should embrace zero trust methodologies for their entire infrastructure, and adopt a “Never trust, always verify” mindset. These models acknowledge that threats can come from external and internal sources, no entity can be trusted, and the network’s perimeter is never to be considered secure. All users and devices are continuously verified and assessed. It also ensures that users and devices are only granted the minimum level of access they need to perform their tasks, making it less likely that valuable data falls into the wrong hands.
Ongoing Remote Work Vulnerabilities
Remote and hybrid work are here to stay, but without proper strategies, they open organizations to additional risk. Accessing company data and software from various locations and various devices increases the potential for breaches. In addition, companies without solid remote work plans could find their employees are logging into systems and accessing sensitive data with unsecured devices.
How Can You Combat This Threat?
The answer isn’t necessarily to call everyone back into the office full time. Companies can absolutely embrace remote and hybrid work approaches and increase their security. With managed security services, companies can invest in advanced endpoint security and secure access service edge (SASE) architectures. Employees should also be undergoing regular training so they understand the importance of these processes and are more aware of cyberthreats.
The Cybersecurity Skills Crunch
Cybersecurity jobs have been going unfilled for many years, and this trend will continue into 2024. Companies are finding it difficult to find cybersecurity experts that are up to date on the latest trends. With the increasing number of advanced threats, closing this gap is more important than ever, but many organizations simply don’t know what to look for in a potential expert or are using an obsolete approach to hiring IT experts.
How Can You Address This Trend?
Organizations don’t necessarily have to search for their own internal cybersecurity experts. Rather, working with a cybersecurity and managed IT support team that keeps up with evolving threats, offers security services, and supplies your organization with employee cybersecurity training can help ensure that your network, systems, and team members are prepared for the worst.
At Deerwood Technologies, we understand the importance of staying on top of the latest threats, risks and trends when it comes to cybersecurity. Our experts are equipped to tackle cybersecurity awareness training for your team to eliminate your weakest link and offer managed security services to better protect your entire infrastructure. We can help you stay secure as we close out 2023 and head into 2024.