Cybersecurity Threats for Businesses in 2021 & How to Prevent Them
We live in a world that works, plays, and heavily relies on the internet for day-to-day tasks. Whether it’s connecting with coworkers from your home office during the day to hosting a virtual happy hour with your family or friends at night. We shop for groceries and goods, stream movies and TV shows, and even look for love with the latest dating apps. While the Internet keeps us connected and improves efficiency, it also comes with numerous threats. Over the last year, cybercriminals stayed busy creating more sophisticated attacks taking advantage of the fear and uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
So as a business owner, what should you be prepared for in 2021? Here are three cybersecurity threats that will most likely have the biggest impact on businesses in the coming year.
Continued Pandemic-Related Phishing Scams
Cybercriminals will continue to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a theme for phishing scams. There have been numerous reports of coronavirus vaccine-related phishing emails. These phishing emails impersonate a well-known brand or organization and direct users to follow a link to a website advertising access to vaccines, offering vaccinations in exchange for a payment, and even impersonating health care professionals requesting personal information to check eligibility for a vaccine. Attackers can also obtain access to a business email account and impersonate someone within your organization or one of your business partners. These types of email attacks will appear as a coworker needing an urgent favor while getting a vaccine or even a member of your HR team advising that your business has secured vaccines for their employees.
At Grand Technology Solutions, we can help protect your business from these types of cyberattacks with GTS PhishGuard. This ultra-focused program targets phishing scams, going so far as to pull emails out of your team’s inboxes if a message is identified as a threat. For more information, check out our previous blog on the topic.
Double-Extortion Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware is the third most prevalent type of malware used in data breaches. This ransomware attack is an emerging tactic many cybercriminals will continue to use in 2021. In a double-extortion ransomware attack, the hackers demand a ransom to not just decrypt the stolen data but to refrain from releasing it publicly. If the ransom is not paid within a certain time, the criminals claim they will publish the data for all to see or give it to a possible competitor.
While it is still vital that you have a reliable backup solution in place, unfortunately, with this type of attack even if you restore the data from backups, there is still a ransom to prevent data from being shared publicly. Keep in mind promises from criminals don’t have much value. That is why you should under no circumstances pay the demanded ransom. Instead, be proactive and always invest in trusted antivirus and antimalware programs and keep them updated and running. At Grand Technology Solutions, we offer remote monitoring and management subscriptions that keep your security up to date and monitor all activity for potential breaches or issues 24/7/365. There is no better protection from ransomware than having your data backed up regularly.
Work-From-Home Threats
Working from home became the new normal in 2020, and most businesses will continue to have employees work remotely in 2021. This means potentially using devices that aren’t managed and secured by a corporate IT department. This can give hackers roads into the network that bypass previous security measures. If there is sensitive company being stored on these devices, secure remote connections and multifactor authentication are critical to maintaining security.
The work from home era has also required a migration of business-critical data to secure cloud platforms. With the reliance on cloud platforms, it is crucial for business owners to find a cloud-savvy partner to help you choose the right approach to ensure cloud security matches your goals and helps establish compliance with industry regulations.
The experts at Grand Technology Solutions can help you raise your cybersecurity awareness and provide you with tools and techniques you’ll need to protect your business from cyber threats in 2021 and beyond. Contact us today at (904) 606-6011 or email info@helpgts.com to learn more.
