Staying Secure: A Deep Dive into Modern Cyber Threats and Defenses

October 17, 2024 · 9 min read
Table of Contents
Organizations have rapidly adapted to embrace new technology that helps them move faster and be more agile. Many orgs have embraced digital transformation, building massive cloud infrastructure on top of their existing on-premises technology, allowing them to scale without massive initial overhead. With this, teams have moved to DevOps to rapidly design, develop, and release code, shortening the time from inception of code to production.
On top of this, the very core of business operations has evolved. Staff is no longer constrained to office environments, taking their work anywhere, be it at home or from a coffee shop down the street. They conduct business on mobile devices, allowing them to be available at all times which improves their availability, but also increases the ways in which cybercriminals can strike.
Detailed Analysis of Top Emerging Threats
Many of these changes in business operations have driven cybercriminals to improve their operations. New technology and development processes have increased organizational attack surfaces, allowing new and innovative ways for attackers to strike at them. By understanding these new threats, organizations can better develop effective defense strategies to protect their assets.
Ransomware Evolution
Ransomware volume has skyrocketed, with almost 500 million attacks in 2023 alone. Cybercriminals’ tactics have evolved significantly to get more value from each attack. Traditional methods focused on data encryption and charging ransom to unlock data. Modern attacks incorporate data theft, looking to also get a payout for not sharing the stolen data.
Attackers now exfiltrate sensitive information first and encrypt data afterward, enabling multiple extortion methods. Even if ransoms go unpaid, the threats persist. Physical operations face increasing risks, and healthcare and manufacturing are particularly vulnerable. Disruptions in these sectors carry real-world dangers.
Supply Chain Attacks
Supply chain vulnerabilities pose widespread risks. A single compromised supplier endangers multiple businesses. These attacks exploit interconnected systems, abusing the trust in one system to compromise others. The SolarWinds incident is one example of this threat. Malicious code infiltrated software updates, and thousands of businesses suffered consequences. Another example, from June this year, is the Polyfill supply chain attack.
AI-Powered Attacks
AI enhances cybercriminal capabilities significantly, and enables sophisticated, automated attacks. For instance, phishing campaigns can become highly personalized. Social media data fuels deceptive messaging, AI identifies system vulnerabilities autonomously, and when all is put together it crafts convincing social engineering tactics.
IoT Threats
IoT devices introduce numerous security challenges. Many lack robust protection features, making them easy targets for cyberattacks. When compromised, these devices allow cybercriminals to infiltrate business networks easily, facilitating data breaches with operational disruptions often following. Scale compounds these risks significantly, with many organizations using numerous IoT devices across their organization to control everything from door access to internal climate. A single compromised device can lead to widespread damage, with the average breach due to IoT costing $330k.
Cloud Security Threats
Cloud migration introduces new security landscapes. As businesses embrace the cloud’s scalability, they create unique challenges that never existed before. With so many new instances and cloud technologies being used simultaneously, tracking and limiting access is hard, making it easy for misuse to go undetected. According to recent research by IBM, this is why 45% of recent breaches are attributed to the cloud.
The shared responsibility model complicates matters. Providers secure infrastructure, not data, and businesses are left with the responsibility to protect everything else, including their data. Stringent security controls are essential, but many organizations don’t have the expertise to do it right, leaving many organizational cloud environments misconfigured, creating easy access for cybercriminals.
Impact on Business Operations
The most obvious costs of any attack that most people think about are the direct financial losses. These include immediate expenses related to incident management. Ransom payments drain resources quickly, forensic analysis incurs significant costs, legal fees accumulate rapidly, and regulatory fines compound financial burdens.
However, indirect costs can be even more consequential and long-lasting. These include increased premiums for cybersecurity insurance, a decline in shareholder value due to lost confidence, and significant capital investments required to upgrade security infrastructure and systems to prevent future attacks. Such indirect costs can strain financial resources and impact a business’s health.
Cyberattacks disrupt essential functions, and can lead to operational downtime—which cripples businesses severely. Here are some examples of how a cyberattack can impact an organizations’ operations:
- Ransomware locks users out of systems;
- Supply chains face significant disruptions;
- Production lines grind to a halt;
- Service delays become inevitable;
- Delivery schedules suffer setbacks;
Additionally, disruptions like these will damage the organization reputation, which will impact on long-term relationships with customers and the trust they have on the company.
These attacks also force businesses to reallocate or divert resources from regular tasks to address the immediate impacts of the breach. This diversion can lead to delayed projects, missed deadlines, and further financial losses as the business’s everyday operations are disrupted.
Intellectual property theft through cyber espionage poses a severe threat, leading to the loss of competitive edge. The theft of patents, trade secrets, and proprietary technologies can have dire financial repercussions and erode a company’s competitive position in the market. Thus, this loss extends beyond immediate financial implications, affecting long-term innovation and market standing.
Preventive Measures and Best Practices
All organizations are different, and security needs to be crafted specifically to meet their needs, but there are many universal best practices, no matter what the organization. Here are some best practices and preventative measures that will help any business improve their security posture:
- Automated Vulnerability Scanning: Regular scanning tools protect APIs effectively, and safeguard web applications diligently. By identifying vulnerabilities swiftly, these tools allow the prevention of potential exploits, and attackers lose opportunities for breaches. With continuous monitoring, systems maintain a strong security posture, and organizations ensure an ongoing protection. Thus, security remains robust over time.
- Integration with CI/CD Pipelines: Implementing security measures directly into continuous integration and deployment pipelines ensures that security checks are automatic and ingrained in the development process. It reduces the risk of deploying vulnerable code.
- Regular Risk Assessments: Conducting systematic evaluations of a business’s cyber threats helps prioritize security efforts based on potential impacts, ensuring resources are allocated effectively.
- Employee Cybersecurity Training: Staff can often be the weakest link. By educating staff about common cyber threats and security best practices, organizations can significantly reduce risks associated with human error, one of the most common security vulnerabilities.
- Strong Cybersecurity Policies: Developing and enforcing policies that dictate secure practices across the organization helps maintain a baseline security standard and respond effectively to identified threats.
- Patch Management: Keeping software up-to-date with the latest patches is crucial in protecting against known vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit.
These best practices are not all-encompassing but are a good starting point for building a security program. By taking these first steps, any organization can harden themselves against cybercriminals.
Building a Safe Foundation
Despite the rapid growth of threats, organizations can do more than simply wait to become a target. By addressing their growing attack surface, businesses of all sizes can better manage their vulnerabilities and reduce the potential of becoming the next target.
Knowing the different threats helps organizations take a more proactive approach to their security. This information helps drive more effective controls that can be implemented well before an attacker strikes and does damage. By building security that addresses known threats, security dollars are better invested, helping stretch limited budgets further while getting the most value for what is spent.
Cybersecurity is never a one-and-done process. It’s a commitment. Recognizing that commitment and staying informed is how organizations stay ahead of threats. Contact Probely for a demo today to see how you can discover and test the security of all your APIs and web apps.