It’s critical for business owners like you to be familiar with the many network security threats that exist. These threats can do serious damage to your company, including costing you money, compromising confidential data, and even shutting down your business.
In this blog post, we will discuss three of the most important network security threats that your Portland business should watch out for.
Social engineering
Social engineering attacks are on the rise, and they’re becoming increasingly hard to detect. In general, these attacks involve cybercriminals deceiving or manipulating people into disclosing sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers.
The three most common types of social engineering attacks are phishing, vishing, and smishing. Phishing attacks are usually carried out via email, and they often involve hackers impersonating a legitimate company in order to get victims to click on a malicious link or attachment. Vishing and smishing attacks are similar to phishing attacks, but they are carried out over the phone or via text message, respectively.
One way to protect your business from social engineering attacks is to educate your employees about the dangers of these types of attacks and what they should be on the lookout for. You should also have a policy in place for handling suspicious emails, phone calls, or text messages.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a kind of malware that encrypts a user’s files and demands payment of a ransom to restore access to them. This can be a major problem for businesses, as it can lead to the loss of important data.
Some ways that ransomware can infect your system are via malicious email attachments, suspicious websites, and infected removable media. Once it’s on your system, it can spread quickly to other computers on your network.
It’s essential to have a solid backup plan in place to prevent your business from falling victim to ransomware. This way, even if your files do get encrypted, you’ll still have a copy that you can restore from. Having reliable IT support is also crucial, as they can help you to identify and remove ransomware quickly.
Unpatched software
Hackers often use security holes in software applications to gain access to networks and systems and steal data. These vulnerabilities are usually fixed in new versions, or patches, of the software. However, if you’re not running the most recent version of an application, then you may be at risk.
Keeping all your software updated is one way to protect your business from unpatched vulnerabilities. Your IT support staff or partner can usually set your software applications to update automatically or they can also manually check for updates.
Another way to protect your business is to use security software that can detect and block attacks that exploit known vulnerabilities. This type of software is known as an intrusion prevention system.
These are just a few of the most important network security threats that your business should be aware of. By taking steps to prepare and protect your business, you can help to keep it safe from these and other cybersecurity threats.
Reliable Portland IT support can be a valuable resource when it comes to securing your business, so don’t hesitate to reach out to experts if you need help.
