Cybersecurity
Services and Solutions

How Much Does A Cyber Attack Cost?

Cyber crimes are increasing in frequency and cost to businesses globally. In 2021, Cybercrimes were estimated to cumulatively cost over $6 trillion in 2021, with that number expected to increase to $10 trillion by 2025. Cyber crimes harm more than your budget however – often times hitting your brand reputation, customer trust, and work efficiency long after the cyber attack is over. If your business handles sensitive data or customer information, would your customers be happy to find their information vulnerable because of inadequate security practices?

Ultimately, cybersecurity is often considered the ultimate insurance policy for cyber attacks. Investing in cybersecurity tools and practices ensures your business is protected from what could be millions in lost revenue, productivity, and customer trust.

What Cyber Threats Are Out There?

In the last few years, the cyber threat landscape has constantly evolved, making effective cybersecurity more needed than ever. We’ve seen a major shift to ransomware and phishing campaigns targeting businesses of all sizes, and new threats have emerged since even a few years ago. Some common cyber threats to watch out for include:

• Phishing: Phishing attacks involve deceptive emails or websites that trick users into revealing sensitive information, such as login credentials and financial data. Training your employees to look for illegitimate emails from attackers using phishing campaigns can better protect your business and data.
• Ransomware: Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts your data and demands a ransom for the decryption key. Paying the ransom is not recommended as it does not guarantee the safe return of your data or deletion of stolen data from the attackers. This attack type has had a major uptick in popularity due to the long-lasting damage it can cause.
• Social Engineering: Social engineering attacks have become more common since COVID-19. Attackers use psychological manipulation to deceive individuals into revealing confidential information or performing actions that compromise security. This can be in the form of an attacker calling an IT help desk for a password reset, or reaching out to business employees to gain insider knowledge or information that may be sensitive.
• AI and Machine Learning Threats: As AI and machine learning become more prevalent, attackers are finding new ways to exploit these technologies, including using AI for enhanced phishing attacks and social engineering. Many oversees attackers have begun to use AI and AI-powered software to deliver more effective cyber attack campaigns targeted at employees.
• Zero-Day Exploits: These are vulnerabilities in software or hardware that are unknown to the vendor. Hackers can exploit these before a patch or fix is available. For this reason, it is incredibly important to keep updated on security threats in the systems you use and continue patching with security updates on a regular basis. Utilizing outdated and unsupported technology, such as an end-of-life network switch or discontinued operating system (Like Windows 7 or Mac OS X).
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: DDoS attacks flood a target system with automated and most times illegitimate traffic, causing it to become overwhelmed and unavailable to users. These attacks are often used for extortion or disruption.
• Malware: Malicious software, including viruses, worms, Trojans, and ransomware, can infect your devices and steal your data or disrupt your operations.
• Brute Force Attacks: While becoming less common, brute force attacks still pose a significant risk to systems that do not have protections in place against this type of attack. Attackers attempt to gain access to systems by repeatedly trying different combinations of usernames and passwords until they find the correct ones.

How Can I Protect My Business?

Understanding the cyber threats that plague businesses today is a start. Purchasing and implementing proper cybersecurity software, employee training, and keeping systems updated is all part of a plan to keep your business secure. Here at Dark Blue Technologies, we provide businesses with a variety of tools to stay protected. For protecting against traditional threats like malware, ransomware, and threats to endpoints, we deploy effective endpoint protection that monitors and keeps systems up to date. For protection against phishing, we provide services that start at security awareness training and end with monitored phishing campaigns that test employees and see where training and information may be needed further.