MSPNetworks Blog

There are many different varieties of cybercrime that businesses need to be vigilant about. However, most of these varieties can largely be avoided through a few basic practices and behaviors. Here, we’re giving you a few tips to help you prevent attacks from successfully influencing your business, so make sure you share them with your entire team, as well.

1. Reconsider What You Click On

It’s almost automatic for many users to see a link on a website, in their email, and elsewhere. This is something that hackers are very aware of, and often use to their advantage.

Kind of like we just did there (if you clicked on that link).

See how easy it is to fool someone this way? To help avoid this being used to undermine your security, build up the habit of hovering your cursor over a link before clicking on it. This will display the actual destination of a link somewhere on your screen, which you should always check so you will know that it is legitimate. 

2. Use Access Controls

While this may be obvious, you need to make sure that someone who isn’t allowed access to your business’ files or location isn’t able to access them. This means that you need to have all the suggested data security measures and practices in place to protect against the unauthorized access of any of your files, including any hard copies. Keep your physical data locked up, and protect all data with multiple layers of authentication requirements.

3. Keep an Eye Out for Scammers

While we’ve already covered this in part with tip number one, there are other ways to catch attempted cybercrimes that are often used in conjunction with misleading links. Cybercriminals use various methods, referred to as “phishing”, to manipulate their targets into behaving the way the attacker wants. Sometimes it is by using a falsified link, sometimes through scare tactics, and often through a combination of the two. Some phishing attacks are researched extensively to be as effective as possible against a certain target, while others are broader and more generic and meant to catch as many people as possible with minimal work. Make sure your team is informed of these attacks and knows to double-check requests through a different communication method if there is any doubt at all. When in doubt? Pick up the phone and call the sender.

4. Two-Ply Protections

Make sure that you are layering your defenses against cyberthreats. Maintain an updated antivirus solution and utilize a virtual private network when accessing the Internet and activate all onboard protections that your devices offer and use all of the assorted solutions and practices that are available for you to leverage. To discourage cybercrime on a comprehensive scale, you need to take thorough actions and fill in all the small holes that could potentially exist in your security.

MSPNetworks can help with all of this, and more. For answers to any technology questions you may have, or direct assistance in implementing any of this, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

The modern business has to deal with a lot of potential security problems. Today’s threat landscape is filled with people looking to prosper off of your misfortune. As a result, doing what you can to maintain the security of your network and data is essential. Today, we will discuss how maintaining your organizational cybersecurity doesn’t have to be costly or time consuming.The best way we’ve found to go about doing this is by highlighting a few key actions that you can take to keep your network secure and your data safe.

Use Strong Passwords

Like many of these quick tips, this one is a good practice regardless of where you are. Good password management is an extremely important part of the security process. To concoct a good password, you need to first make something that people or computer programs won’t guess. You can do that by using both lower- and upper-case letters, numbers, and symbols.

Another good practice is to create a passphrase of unlike words. This serves two purposes. First, it ensures that you can remember the password; and, secondly it is secure enough where no one can crack the password.

Finally, you will want to create a unique password for every online account and save them in an encrypted password manager. Doing so will not only protect your passwords, it sets up a system where you only have to remember one. 

For additional security, you will want to use two-factor authentication. This is a system that adds an additional layer of security to your online accounts. Once you enter a password into a password manager, you then will get an additional box where you will enter a code. This code can be sent through email or it can be generated through an authentication app. 

Only Use Secure Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi inside your office should be secure, hidden, and encrypted. For those times when working in your office is impossible, the use of a virtual private network (VPN) can keep your uploads and downloads secure. Utilizing public Wi-Fi without a VPN is just asking for problems. 

Some VPNs are better than others. Typically, if your company uses a comprehensive network security suite for your office, it will come with VPN licenses that will be more than enough to protect data transmission when you are working on someone else’s Wi-Fi.

Avoid Unknown Links

Phishing is the number one way that hackers gain access to a network. This is because people click on links and download attachments that they have no business interacting with. Your account has likely been phished many times this year. Most are probably thwarted by your spam blocker, but it only takes one attack to grind productivity to a halt.

If we have one piece of advice, don’t enter personal or company information in an email or instant message unless you are very clear who is on the other end. The threats that line up against your integrated security are substantial ones. Phishing is the number one cause of identity theft and ransomware. Since it runs the entire gamut of negative results, ensuring that you are doing what you can to not be part of the problem is important. 

Cybersecurity can be difficult for a business, but an individual’s role in protecting business and personal networks isn’t. If you would like to learn more about IT security or how to effectively manage risks that come from phishing and other attacks, subscribe to our blog today.

As prevalent as cybersecurity threats unfortunately are today, many users tend to overlook major threats that they just aren’t focused on nearly as much: social engineering attacks. Social engineering attacks are just another means for a cybercriminal to reach their desired ends, and therefore needed to be protected against.

What is Social Engineering?

Social Engineering is the act of manipulating people into providing access credentials to criminals that aren’t supposed to have access to a system. To do this, the social engineer uses his/her influence (real or not) to trick people into supplying the needed information.

The act of social engineering can be approached in multiple ways. Hackers can take advantage of user carelessness, they can come in as a helpful party, they can take advantage of an individual’s fear, and they can exploit a person’s comfort zone. Let’s take a look at each.

User Carelessness

Despite the need for information systems, companies largely depend on individual users to secure their own endpoints. Sure, they will put in place a set of tools designed to keep network resources secure, but overall, it is important for each user to maintain vigilance over their own workstation and other network-attached devices. If they aren’t, scammers can obtain access fairly easily. 

If they can’t use spam or phishing messages to gain access, they may have to try an alternate method. For example, a scammer may gain access to your workspace. If your people ignore best practices for convenience and leave credentials or correspondence out in the open, a scammer looking for things like this will be able to leverage that mishap into access most of the time. 

Perceived Helpfulness

Most people will help people that are having trouble. The impulse to be helpful can be taken advantage of if the “victim” is a hacker. People can hold the door for a cyberthief giving them access to your office. They can use information syphoned from the web to gain a person’s trust and then use the trusting nature of good people for nefarious means. Moreover, it is natural to want to help someone, so you and your staff have to be careful that they are, in fact, in need of help and not looking to steal access to company resources.

Working Within the Comfort Zone

Most workers do what they are told. If they have somewhat repetitive tasks, they may grow complacent. Social engineering tactics will take advantage of this, especially at a large company. The scammer will get into your office and if some employees are used to random people just milling around, they won’t really pay any mind. 

We typically like to think about hackers as loners that sit in the dark and slurp energy drinks while they surf the Dark Web. While this description is fun, it’s not realistic. Hackers, the ones that you should be worried about, know your company’s weakest points and will take advantage of them. If that weakest link is the complacency of your employees, that will be the way they will approach it. Unfortunately, this also technically includes insider threats.

Fear Tactics

Getting someone to do something out of fear is effective, but can be risky. The more fear someone has, the more they will look to others to help mitigate it. That’s why most fear tactics, nowadays, come in the form of phishing messages. Using email, instant messaging, SMS, or other means to get someone worried enough to react to a threat takes a believable story that could produce an impulsive reaction by a user. Fear has long been known to be a powerful motivator, so it really is no surprise that cybercriminals would resort to this means to coerce their targets into compliance. 

We Can Help 

If you would like more information about social engineering or any other cybersecurity issue, contact the IT experts at MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001. 

With email being such a huge part of doing business, phishing has become a favorite tool of many scammers. To fight back, it is key that you know how to recognize a phishing email, so we’re dedicating this week’s tip to doing just that.

What is Phishing?

Phishing goes beyond just your email. The term actually covers any digital attempt that someone makes to trick you into revealing important information about your business or personal accounts. A ‘phisher’ would try to fool you into handing over a particular detail about yourself, like the password you use for your online banking, or your business’ client and personnel files.

Of course, a scammer doesn’t have to use email as their preferred phishing tool. With social media becoming such a big part of business and personal life, phishers will pose as people you know and message you to try and extract information. Others will just pick up the phone and call you as someone else, hoping you won’t question them and hand over the information they want.

These different methods that a scammer might use can even classify the attempt into a more precise type of phishing. Attacks that are highly customized to one particular target are called “spear” phishing attacks, while those that pose as the CEO of a company are called “whaling.”

Regardless of what kind of phishing it is, it ultimately relies on deception to work, more than any other factor.

Spotting Phishing

Fortunately, while some phishing scams are getting to be pretty elaborate, there are a few practices that can help prevent you from being fooled. Here, we’ve put them together to give you a simple guide to avoiding potential phishing attacks.

Warning Signs

There are plenty of warning signs to help you spot a phishing attack. Some are found in the body of the email itself, while others are actually based a little bit in behaviors. For instance:

Is the message filled with spelling and grammar issues? Think about it this way: does it look good for a business to send out official correspondence with these kinds of avoidable errors? Mind you, we aren’t referring to the occasional typo, rather the tone of the message as a whole. It certainly does not, which suggests that the message may not be legitimate.

Is the message written to make you panic about something? Consider how many phishing messages are framed: “Oh no, you have an immediate issue with something so we need you to confirm your access credentials so that this immediate issue can be resolved. Otherwise, there will be huge consequences.” While there are a variety of ways that people can be convinced, these types of messages hit on some major ones: striking quickly to keep people from questioning you, removing power from someone who wouldn’t listen to you, and using very definitive and final terms. Does the message do these things, suddenly alerting you to a terrible issue that only the sender can protect you from? If so, there is a good chance that it is a scam.

Is the message a typical occurrence in general? Finally, think about the average case when a message like this is received. If you were to suddenly get a message on social media from someone who you really don’t talk to, it’d be a little weird, right? The same goes for your business communications… how often would this supposed sender actually reach out for this?

Protecting Your Assets

Fortunately, there are a few simple ways to help reduce how effective these attacks can be.

• Use a spam blocking solution to help reduce the number of phishing messages your employees need to deal with. While many phishers have become more sophisticated, plenty are still keeping it simple enough to be stopped automatically.
  
  
• Make sure your employees are trained to spot and properly handle attempts that may come through. By starting with the end user, you’re taking away a lot of the power that phishing has.

At MSPNetworks, we appreciate the importance of secure workplace practices. If you’d like to learn more about phishing, and how we can help stop it from hurting your business, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

For most businesses, technology has a major role in what they do. They use it in all manners of ways, but there is no question that it has become a driving force for business. As the calendar flips to a new decade, we thought that it would be good to take a look at what the 2010s brought us, and what to expect in the 2020s. 

2010: A Decade of Innovation

The 2010s saw the expansion and innovation of technologies and devices that came about after the turn of the century, as well as the new technologies that will see improvements themselves moving forward. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest technologies that came to market in the 2010s:

4G

Technically released in 2009 but deployed over the first few years of the past decade, 4G wireless changed what was capable for wireless data transmission. This had a hand in changing several technologies and forced innovations with others. Companies that depended on app deployment and real-time technologies suddenly became much more viable. The 2010s saw the launch of some of the biggest names in mobile computing: Spotify, Uber, Instagram, Snapchat, and many more. None of these companies would have been able to take the world by storm without 4G wireless. 

Apple iPad

It’s hard to believe that it has only been 10 years since the introduction of the iPad.  The first--and for the first couple of years, only--true mass-produced consumer tablet computer, it was quickly emulated by a number of manufacturers. Having a large display, and working on Apple’s iOS, the iPad ushered in the tablet boom. After initial sales of tablet computers were through the roof, the touchscreen technology has settled into a useful device for both individuals and businesses.

IPv6

The sixth version of the networking standard went live in June of 2012, upgrading wireless networking that had been in place for years. The new standard improved networking for a new era of connectivity as well as the rapid growth of the number of devices that soon would need to be connected to the Internet. 

Chromecast

Google released their first Chromecast in 2013 and it changed the way people were able to view all the new streaming content that was being unleashed. The technology is now integrated into a lot of televisions that you find on the market today, but at the time, it was a revolutionary technology. Businesses can use it to share presentations in conference rooms without a massive expense.

The Virtual Assistant

Apple has Siri. Amazon has Alexa. Microsoft has Cortana. Samsung has Bixby. Google has Google Assistant. The virtual assistant not only is an increasingly useful software, it also got many of the biggest players in tech competing against one another to develop the most useful features. This invention has improved machine learning exponentially and continues to push the innovation that has come to define these iconic brands.

USB-C

If you want one technology that is never mentioned as essential but has been a complete game changer it is USB type C connector. It is now the industry standard (except on Apple devices) for data transmission and power and can be found on a majority of devices manufactured after 2015. 

Windows 10

With Microsoft’s mobile division fledgling, and their “metro” Windows 8.1 OS not replacing the aging Windows 7 OS, Microsoft developed Windows 10 to modernize and standardize the Windows experience. Now, firmly in place, it currently runs on over 64 percent of all PCs in the world and is sure to grow as Microsoft retires Windows 7.

2020: The Decade of Things

Many people might consider the 2010s the decade of things, but rest assured, the 2020s will be the first decade where all these Internet-connected devices have the functionality, integrations, and most importantly the security needed to actually be viable tools. This is for the same reason mobile technology took off this decade: improvements to wireless networks.

The truth is that we’ve just scratched the surface of what is possible. The immediate future is going to introduce us to things that seemed like science fiction just 20 or 30 years ago. Let’s take a look at some of the technologies that we will see developed over the next 10 years:

5G

The new wireless standard, 5G, will be rolling out over the next few years and it's going to signal a major shift in the way that people use technology. Today, the data demands on networks are massive and rising fast. With 5G there is a legitimate hope that it will bring ubiquitous wireless connectivity that is no longer broadcast from macrocell sites that cover neighborhoods, but smaller more mobile broadcast sites that bring high speed, synchronized connectivity to each user. With the limited amount of 5G users already seeing gigabit speeds, 5G is sure to revolutionize the way we use technology. 

Artificial Intelligence

While you shouldn’t expect sentient androids, the deployment of artificial intelligence will increase substantially over the next decade. Neural networks that are already being used to recognize patterns in data to automate simple processes will benefit exponentially from the huge amount of data they will be exposed to. This will allow them to solve more complex problems and be used in more dynamic applications.

The Internet of Things

As was stated above, the 2020s will be the decade of things. All those things that now connect to the Internet will finally have the wireless capabilities to be a massive benefit to society. You will begin to see smart cities developed that use AI to run essential services efficiently and cut down waste. You will see driverless cars make the roadways safer and give more people better opportunities. The things will improve crucial systems in healthcare, infrastructure, and finance. 

Mixed Reality

The future will be filled with immersive experiences fueled by mixed reality. Eventually, MR is viewed as an eventual replacement to the mobile platforms we all have come to depend on. MR will reduce data strains by providing interactive and real-time overlays for all types of applications. Entertainment, social interaction, and education could be completely revolutionized as this technology is developed. 

The technology that fuels the world is sure to change in the next decade as it did in the previous one. What technology would you like to see developed in the immediate future? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Cybercrime has morphed over the past decade or so. With unbreakable encryption making breaking directly into a network all but impossible, phishing, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and other methods of indirect hacking have become en vogue. As a result, software companies are looking in some strange places to find building blocks for intrusion mitigation. One interesting emerging technology being used for this purpose is blockchain.

Developments in blockchain technology have begun to be stretched past keeping records and cryptocurrency. Today there are a couple companies using blockchain to create innovative cybersecurity solutions that aim to drastically reduce a company's exposure to cybercrime. No matter what vertical you work in, blockchain-integrated solutions have begun to pop up. Building new solutions with blockchain is incredibly popular nowadays, but is it just a buzzword used for its role in marketing, or is it making a discernible difference in these solutions?

Often thought to be “unhackable”, security professionals developing a blockchain-based cyber security platform isn’t all that noteworthy, until you realize how they are going about it. Developers have begun to create blockchain-based platforms that uses the distributed nature of the solution to power content delivery networks (CDN) and DDoS attack mitigation services. It does this by allowing users to rent out their spare bandwidth to use as security computing.

This will potentially reduce the ability for hackers to execute attacks, lower the cost for businesses to mitigate the effects of these attacks, and capitalize on their extra bandwidth. Other developers are using smart contract adoption to secure their interoperability and file security.

Is Blockchain Vulnerable?

Being a human invention, there have been some kinks in blockchain technology. For those of you who do not know how the blockchain works, here is a very stripped-down definition: Every transaction made through the blockchain, financial or contractual, is given a permanent, designated “block” in the chain. In order for it to be added to the ledger, the rest of the network (every other node) needs to approve this new block’s validity. Once it is added, it cannot be altered and provides an unchangeable record of the transaction. If a block needs to be changed, a new block would have to be entered. It is only then that the transaction is completed.

While this method may seem extraordinarily secure, this “unhackable” technology has its flaws. In 2018 alone just under one billion dollars' worth of cryptocurrency was stolen. Of the $927 million taken, $532.6 million of it was hacked from the Tokyo-based cryptocurrency company Coincheck where 500 million XEM coins up and vanished from the exchange.

Other Blockchain Vulnerabilities

To my surprise, one investigation found that some blockchain and cryptocurrency constructs has over 40 different vulnerabilities. Here are a couple:

51% Vulnerabilities

Many of blockchain’s vulnerabilities have more to do with the nature of the platform as well. One such vulnerability is known as a 51% vulnerability and is associated with mining cryptocurrencies. Let’s assume you are a cryptocurrency miner and you accumulate hashing power that exceeds more than half of what the blockchain contains, you could leverage a 51% attack to manipulate the blockchain to your own advantage.

Obviously popular blockchains, typically associated with renowned cryptocurrencies, have too big of a price tag to be practical targets for such a hack. Less expensive coins, however, are, and can be lucrative targets for hackers. In 2018, 51% attacks were leveraged against new cryptocurrencies, netting the attackers the equivalent to approximately $20 million.

Security of Private Keys

Using a blockchain requires a user to have a private key to unlock the naturally encrypted platform. Naturally, if this key were to be stolen, the thief would be able to access the user’s blockchain. What’s worse, because the blockchain is decentralized, these kinds of actions are difficult to track and, as designed, harder to undo.

It’s hard to forget in this world that is completely integrated with technology that some tech is just in its infancy. Blockchain, especially outside of the cryptocurrency sphere is only emerging and the tech built with it should be looked at through skeptical eyes. Stay up to date with the latest technology concerns and information, subscribe to MSPNetworks blogs.

Phishing attacks have been in the social consciousness now for a while, and for good reason: it is the predominant way that hackers gain access to secured networks and data. Unfortunately, awareness to an issue doesn’t always result in positive outcomes. In this case, hackers get more aggressive, and by blanketing everyone under a seemingly limitless phishing net, 57 billion phishing emails go out every year. If a fraction of those emails accomplish their intended goal, the hackers on the other end of them really make out.

As a result, endpoint security has become a major consideration for nearly every organization. There are strategies and solutions that businesses can implement that will not only give IT administrators the resources they need to protect the company’s data and computing infrastructure, but also trains their staff in the backhanded way these hackers try and infiltrate the business’ network with their legitimate credentials. Let’s take a look at some different forms of phishing and what you should be teaching your staff to keep them from messing up, and making your business just another negative statistic.

Deceptive Phishing

As the most common type of phishing scam, deceptive phishing in a name is pretty obvious. The name of the game for this attack is to pull the wool over the eyes of an unsuspecting end user. In essence, a deceptive phishing strategy is one where an email or message is created impersonating a legitimate company or person to flat out steal personal access information. With this access, the illegitimate party has some time to pick and choose what he/she wants to take, or gain access to. By having legitimate credentials, the illegitimate party doesn’t immediately trigger any red flags.

Most deceptive phishing messages are ignored, caught by filtering technology, or disregarded when accessed; but, the one that works to fool the end user is worth the hundreds or thousands of emails they’ve sent using the same method. To ensure that your organization doesn’t have to deal with a data breach, or malware associated with that phishing attack, it’s extremely important to lay out the ways that these deceptive emails are different from legitimate emails.

Phishing emails traditionally have misspelled words and hastily thrown together construction. Typically, users will have to download some attachment. So if there is an attachment that an email prompts you to click on, be sure to check the URLs by mousing over the links to determine if the email is from a legitimate source. One thing every user should be cognizant of is that if the email is from a financial institution demanding payment, it is likely a phishing email. Email, while being a popular form of communications, is rarely used for such purposes.

Spear Phishing

These types of phishing attacks are personalized to a specific user. This can cause a lot of people to forget what they know about phishing and let their defenses down. The goal - as fraudulent as it is - the same as a traditional phishing attack, except it will be harder to decipher that it is, in fact, an attempt to trick the user into providing network access. The spear phishing email will often feature the target’s name, their title, their company, even information like their work phone number, all with the same aim: to get them to click on the malicious extension or URL sent with the email.

Users of the social media site, LinkedIn, will likely come across spear phishing if they utilize the service regularly. Since you provide certain information for networking with other like-minded industry professionals, you unwittingly provide the hackers with the information they need to build these messages. Of course, we’re not suggesting that you stop using LinkedIn, or any other social media because of the risk of hackers, but be careful what information you have shared within these profiles and ensure that any personalized email is, in fact, legitimate before you click on anything.

Pharming

With more and more people becoming savvy to these types of phishing attacks, some hackers have stopped the practice altogether. They, instead, resort to a practice called pharming, in which they target an organization’s DNS server in order to change the IP address associated with the website name. This provides them an avenue to redirect users to malicious websites that they set up.

To ward against pharming, it is important to tell your staff to make sure that they are entering their credentials into a secured site. The best way to determine if the website/webtool a person is trying to access is secure is that it will be marked with “https” and will have a small lock next to the address. Also having strong, continuously-patched antivirus on your organization’s machines is important.

With proper training and solid security solutions, your company can avoid falling for the immense amount of phishing attacks that come its way. To learn more about how to secure your business, and what tools are best to help you do just that, call the IT professionals at MSPNetworks today at (516) 403-9001.

The funny thing about ransomware is that they give them very strange names: Bad Rabbit sounds like the name of a villainous bunny who gets his comeuppance in some type of modern nursery rhyme, not malware that would ravage hundreds of European businesses. Locky seems like the son of Candado de seguridad, a character Medeco would come up with to educate kids on proper physical security. The latest in a long line of funny-named ransomware, SamSam, isn’t a pet name for your pet ferret you perplexingly named Sam, it is one of the worst ransomware strains ever, and it has caught the attention of U.S. Federal law enforcement.

Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security have issued alerts for the ransomware, also known as MSIL/Samas.A. The alert was issued on December 3, 2018, and outlines an attack on multiple industries, some with crucial infrastructure. The ransomware has been in the news as of late, as two Iranian nationals, Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri were indicted by a U.S. grand jury in New Jersey for ransomware attacks on the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The pair is alleged to have victimized over 200 hospitals, businesses, government agencies, and schools in the U.S. and Canada beginning in 2015; extorting over $6 million over that time. In addition to these charges, the two hackers have now been indicted by the state of Georgia on charges that they were the ones that perpetrated the ransomware systems that crippled Atlanta’s government in March of 2018. By taking almost 3,800 of the City of Atlanta’s computers hostage, prosecutors state that Mansouri and Savandi have cost the city millions of dollars in consultant fees, downtime, and other costs.

What is SamSam?
SamSam is a privately developed ransomware that is being used to target specific companies selected by the developers. This means that it isn’t just a commodity ransomware, it can’t be found on some type of criminal forum on the dark web, and it isn’t sold as a service like many other forms of ransomware. This is a major problem for any organization that is targeted, as none of the typical endpoint defensive strategies work to stop it.

What’s worse, is that that once a SamSam strain is used, and security vendors publish a report, another SamSam strain is developed. It is thought that this development team includes the two hackers implicated in the Colorado DoT crimes, the Atlanta crimes, and hundreds of other attacks over the past three years.

What Can You Do?
Thus far the SamSam ransomware has entered victims’ networks using exploits in web-facing servers. It has been deployed as millions of other pieces of malware as an executable file that is mistakenly unleashed, or via brute force via the Remote Desktop Protocol. So, while you can lock down your RDP, your best bet is to have a dedicated strategy that:

• Doesn’t allow unauthorized users to have administrative privileges
• Limits use of Domain Access accounts to administration tasks
• Doesn’t provide service accounts for important services
• Restricts access to critical systems

If you are diligent in your organizational cybersecurity practices, you should be able to conduct business as usual without having to worry about ransomware, SamSam or otherwise. If you are interested in knowing more about SamSam and how to stop it, contact the IT professionals at MSPNetworks for more information at (516) 403-9001.

You might hear the term “zero-day” when discussing security threats, but do you know what they actually are? A zero-day threat is arguably one of the most devastating and dangerous security issues your business could face, and if you’re not prepared, they could be the end of it.

Before anything else, it’s critical that you understand what makes the concept of a zero-day threat so terrifying. Vulnerabilities are flaws in software that can be used by hackers and cybercriminals to access important information or cause trouble. To do so, malware is used by the hacker, but they generally need an exploitable vulnerability to do so.

Defining Zero-Day Threats
Depending on how long a vulnerability is known by developers, they might have a timeline to resolve the issue by, provided that the attack isn’t currently being used by hackers to cause trouble for businesses. However, a vulnerability that is being used in the wild without a patch or update to resolve the issue means that developers effectively have zero days to respond to the issue without the threat of it being used by hackers.

Zero-day threats are often found by black-hat hackers rather than white-hat cybersecurity researchers who generally report threats to developers, so they can be patched properly. Under the most ideal circumstances, an update can be issued before criminals start to use the vulnerability to their advantage. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen, and hackers might be able to use these vulnerabilities.

Protecting Against These Threats
It might seem impossible to keep your business secure from zero-day threats, and to an extent, you’re right. The easiest and best way to keep your organization as secure as possible is to take proactive measures. This includes updating your business’ technology solutions as frequently as possible whenever a new patch or update is available. This ensures that you are as protected as possible when the moment does come.

One of the most interesting and notable trends regarding zero-day threats is how they are still successful after they have been turned into an n-day vulnerability. An n-day vulnerability is one that has been discovered and fixed, but if they aren’t resolved in time, a business can still be affected by them before long. The Equifax breach is a perfect example of this, as it was a vulnerability that had been discovered, reported, and patched earlier that year, yet Equifax failed to apply the patch on time.

All businesses need to consider zero-day threats a major problem, and if you don’t take proactive action against them now, you could be putting your business at risk. To learn more about how you can protect your business now, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.