5 Cyber Security Trends for Sharper Threat and Wormable Attacks Prevention

Single Cyber Attack Fretting the Sensitive Enterprise Data

The overwhelming digital innovation in recent years has broadened the practices that IT companies are following especially in applications development. The most common assumption related to application development security is that it starts from the initial phase of development which is true but the other side of it is “it never stops”.

In a recent incident computer giant, Acer was hit by a ransomware attack in March 2021 and demanded $ 50 million which is the largest known ransom in a security attack to date. The ransomware attack has grown which claims a new victim every 5 seconds in 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures (world’s leading researcher in global cyber economy). So the companies must foresee new practices as cyber security trends that would safeguard their future practices of development without compromising the customer experience.

With the rise in blockchain, cryptocurrency users saw cryptojacking, a new cyberattack activity where criminals hijack third-party home or work computers to “mine” cryptocurrency; proving that even the strongest security measures like crypto hash algorithm-1 (SHA-1) can be intervened by attackers. So consistent security practices are a must.

What are the Best Security Practices for Companies?

In recent years there has been a rise in security threats and developers need to be more aware of the status of application security and cybersecurity trends. They need to take both the development process and security measures hand-on-hand. So following practices must be included:

1. Regular Testing: To avoid frequent attack threats, developers must do regular testing. After an attack has been done and then adopting measures can heavily hit the company in terms of economy as well as data. So implying emulators, threat modeling or penetration testing (pen testing) are some security measures at the initial stage.
2. Secure Codes: When it comes to cyber-attack, both companies and developers must choose secure codes as attackers find it easy to attack when the code is weak or it’s a public code. To prevent break-ins they must write their code and enhance the toughness level in codes.
3. But the level of attacks and the vulnerable areas of attack can vary in application development and unawareness about the same can make them heavily prone to attacks. Before practicing any security measures developers and testers should be aware of what threats they can get.

Enterprises Need to be Aware of These Attacks & Their Preventions

By becoming aware at each level of the development process companies can avoid security threats and potentially lessen the damage that could be caused.

1. SQL Injections: When attackers make changes to queries, modify or delete data in an application then an SQL injection has been made. The best practice to prevent such an attack is to perform penetration testing, which tests the vulnerabilities in infrastructure i.e., in OS, improper configurations, or end-user behavior.
2. Cross-Site Scripting: One of the popular vulnerabilities is cross-site scripting or XSS that injects malicious codes into running applications and can affect the client-side by affecting their device with malware and stealing sensitive information. Implementing CSP (Content Security Policy) should be in the policy of security measures which adds a layer of protection against XSS and other code injection attacks.
3. The state of network and infrastructure security can be significantly improved by reducing the severity of vulnerabilities that are created. The most important approach is to follow the principles of secure application and software development and to ensure that developers have sufficient security expertise.

5 Cyber Security Trends to Secure Infrastructure and System

To fend off the cyber intrusion attempts, organizations must find ways to use security solutions in their security operations, threat analysis and provide a faster and more effective response to a wide range of threats with minimal human intervention.

1. XDR (Extended Detection & Response): XDR is the cybersecurity tool that monitors and mitigates cyber threats. XDR is mainly a SaaS-based, vendor-specific, security threat detection and incident response tool that natively integrates multiple security products into a cohesive security operating system that unifies all licensed components.
   Microsoft 365 Defender, provides XDR for small-medium-sized businesses for Windows. It depends heavily on AI to check security issues and self-healing capabilities for automation.
2. Cloud Data Protection: The work-from-home scenario has largely created a need for data protection for employees who rely on cloud services like Zoom and Slack. The organizations relying on the cloud are more prone to data breaches, leaks, insecure APIs, misconfigured storage, etc. Access control, encryption, secure deletion, and data masking are all data protection methods in the cloud.
   Different cloud providers provide security differently. Some rely on AI tools to protect data and auto-patching.
   IBM Cloud Security by IBM is one of the most recognized data security portfolio vendors and it is highly recognized because of its market approach, innovation roadmap, partner ecosystem, and data intelligence.
3. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Companies are now more inclined towards zero-trust network access (ZTNA) which is observed as a more secure option for controlling remote access to servers and soon will phase out VPN. ZTNA service makes applications non-discoverable, reduces the total attack surface of the network, and severely limits server to server threats with the use of micro-segmentation.
4. As the IT environment in organizations becomes more complex, it is important for data security teams to select the right processes and tools to defend against potential cyber threats. It is imperative to have backups of important data on portable hard drives. With the rise in cybercrimes worldwide, vendors/suppliers / third parties should also be instructed to regularly check their network for possible vulnerabilities and security threats.

Trends in cybersecurity can be adopted according to industries and their practices. Know more about the cybersecurity trends here.

Making Certain the Cyber Espionage isn’t Threatening Your Future

Gone are the days when installing firewalls for network security was enough. Along with the developmental process, technology has also transformed security operations with a growing number of innovative products and services.

The new approach to troubleshooting and ensuring the uninterrupted end-user experience is securing data since the highly vulnerable factor these days is “Data” which has become a highly valuable commodity for hackers. The threats can be serious for businesses and consumers when there’s slight ignorance in adopting security practices and businesses that suffer a cyber breach will also generally incur costs associated with repairing affected systems, networks, and devices. Organizations should consider things like data privacy, record retention and destruction, encryption in transit, and network segmentation to assess where they can strengthen their data privacy. With a more realistic understanding of the potential impact of a cyberattack, leaders can invest in risk management to be safer, more vigilant, and resilient.

Practices for protecting against cyber threats must also include basic but important countermeasures such as system patches. When a technology vendor discovers (or receives notification) of a security threat in their product, they usually write code to fix the problem.

Companies must adopt a proactive approach and cybersecurity trends along with developing and advancing in technology, to secure from these threats and must focus more on protecting data. Companies should align efforts to identify and protect the data assets that are most valuable to the business at the moment.