What is Threatening Your Data?

Data is the lifeblood of an organization, and the primary target for the most advanced cyber adversaries.

Understanding what is threatening your data and IT environment can help better protect your organization from the most serious consequences.

Security vendors research and harness real-world experience about cyber attackers TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures). They feed this threat intelligence into their platforms, products, and services to detect and neutralize threats before those threats become security events or incidents that causes business damage.

Let’s look at some of the types of threats that put data and IT assets at risk.

Data Destruction

Malware is widely known as unwanted programs that get into your systems and cause significant damage. It enters your IT environment both via human error and gaps in security.

Security solutions need to be able to detect even previously unknown malware by identifying characteristics and scanning every potential network entry point. But detection alone isn’t enough. Users need to be able to quickly remediate threats to their environment and put safeguards in place to prevent re-infection.

Data Hostage

Perhaps one of the most controversial forms of threat is Ransomware. This form of Malware involves a threat actor encrypting key files and locking out access until a ransom is paid. Once a ransom is paid, there is nothing stopping the threat actor from repeating the attack at a later date.

Strong defense is your best offense. Ensure all key files are safely backed up away from the primary network. From there, look for tools that enable continuous monitoring and automated remediation for malicious activity to detect and prevent malware from spreading.

Data Access Disruption

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks can take entire networks and applications offline for prolonged periods of time and result in significant damage. And DDoS attacks against critical infrastructure and government systems pose much more that monetary threats. A successfully executed DDoS not only takes down operations but can act as a smokescreen for long-term intrusion campaigns, which can undermine city, state, and national security.

Bandwidth buffering can help with the immediate situation. Then, it will be important that you work with a partner who can trace the source of the attack and prevent a re-attack.

Data Misuse

Often, our beloved employees pose a significant threat to your data when someone with authorized access intentionally (or not) misuses that access and information.

Make sure to provide right-level access for all employees. This means setting up access protocols and restricting individuals to only the applications and data they need. Make sure to enable multifactor authentication to prevent password sharing. To ensure no one is inadvertently left with access, set up contractors with temporary accounts that have specific expiration dates.

Data Hunting

Phishing is a form of data hunting, where the adversary poses as a trusted or authoritative source and sends an urgent or enticing communication. The intent is to engage with unsuspecting recipients, who then divulge critical information or access credentials, which allows the adversary to dig deeper into systems. The reality is that 90% of all successful cyber attacks start with phishing, making it a critical threat to enterprises, government organizations, and each of us, individually (at work and at home).

Teach your staff the tell-tale signs of a phishing attempt and give them a clear and concise method for reporting questionable emails, calls, and texts. Also, be sure your security team is equipped with cyber defenses that help investigate and cut off the sources of phishing attempts.

Data Theft

The ultimate goal of many attackers is data theft. Whether it’s personally identifying information (PII) including social security numbers, corporate confidential information like roadmaps or internal contacts, etc., valuable data is almost always the target for cyber attackers. (One of the most notorious recent example was SolarWinds.) There are many paths toward data exfiltration and theft. Here are just a few…

The key to thwarting data theft is a shifting to proactive cyber defense. With a cybersecurity platform that spans networks, endpoints, and cloud, you can keep track of your highest value assets, continually assess risk, stay ahead of the attack, and shut the door on adversaries before they get away with your most valuable data.

Ready to Shift to a Proactive Cyber Defense?

Identifying and neutralizing threats early-on is essential to staying ahead of a sophisticated and evolving attack surface. As detection and response strategies race to detect adversaries before damage can be done, new mechanisms will be required to root out low-and-slow attacks early in the attack chain.

Watch the replay of “A Guide to Active XDR: Shift to Proactive Cybersecurity” to see how you can get ahead in the race to protect your organization’s valuable data and assets.

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