Cyberattacks come in many forms, and their sophistication has grown exponentially. Some attacks can disrupt standard business operations, damage a company’s reputation, or lead to lost clients/customers and cash flow. Some attacks, such as ransomware and phishing, use fake email messages or social media posts to persuade victims to download malware or hand over sensitive information to fraudsters. Others, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) and man-in-the-middle attacks, intercept communications between two parties to steal or manipulate data. And yet other attacks, such as fileless malware, sneak onto systems by exploiting existing programs without writing to the disk, making them more difficult to detect.
Firewalls prevent attackers from accessing your devices or networks by blocking unauthorized traffic. Encryption protects data by converting it into a code that is unreadable to unauthorized users. Password protection tools help protect against attacks such as brute force, which tries thousands of combinations of usernames and passwords to find one that works; and dictionary attack, which uses lists of commonly used words to try and crack a password. Other important cybersecurity measures include implementing multifactor authentication, requiring strong passwords, and limiting access to only what is needed. Lastly, regular training and awareness sessions for employees can help guard against common phishing tactics.
Threat researchers, such as the team at Talos, are a vital part of our cybersecurity ecosystem. They reveal new vulnerabilities, educate the public on how to spot suspicious activity, and strengthen open-source tools to make our online world safer for everyone.