As cyber threats continue to evolve, businesses must prioritise proactive measures to safeguard their operations. Eleanor Barlow highlights four critical cyber-attacks organisations should be prepared for this summer
Given the scope of cyber threats over the past several years, it is more important than ever for businesses to take proactive measures to protect themselves.
Here are the four cyber-attacks I feel organisations should be aware of and ready to protect themselves against this summer.
AI-powered social engineering attacks
Artificial intelligence (AI) has entered almost all spheres of the business world.
While AI brings numerous benefits and advancements, it also introduces new cybersecurity risks, such as social engineering attacks.
These attacks use manipulative tactics to deceive the victims into revealing sensitive information or trespassing security structures of the organisations.
To execute these attacks, cybercriminals rely on AI-based natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to generate more realistic and human-like phishing emails, chatbot interactions or voice calls. Detecting these malicious campaigns is getting harder for the average employee, which is why significant training is required to know what to look for and how to prevent escalation.
Cloud-based breaches
Cloud computing has become a norm in today’s digital landscape, offering scalability, flexibility and cost-efficiency to businesses.
Nevertheless, the widespread adoption of cloud services exposes organisations to new cybersecurity threats, making them a major concern in 2023.
Cybercriminals target cloud environments to exploit misconfigurations, weak access controls or insecure APIs.
A recent example of the consequences of cloud misconfigurations is the Toyota data leak, in which the personal information of over two million customers was exposed after an access key was leaked on GitHub for almost five years.
Enhanced phishing attacks
Phishing attacks involve cybercriminals posing as trustworthy entities with the intention of deceiving individuals into divulging sensitive information or performing malicious actions.
With over 500 million phishing attacks reported in 2022, the number is expected to rise further this year.
In fact, threat actors continuously refine their techniques to make phishing emails and messages appear more genuine and convincing, which takes a trained eye to spot.
Zero-day vulnerabilities in supply chain attacks
With the increasing complexity of supply chains and the interconnectivity of various systems, zero-day vulnerabilities are anticipated to be a significant cybersecurity threat during the summer of 2023. A zero-day attack is a strategic exploitation that involves using previously unknown vulnerabilities in the supply chain and has no available patches or fixes. These vulnerabilities in the supply chain can have severe consequences, allowing attackers to compromise the integrity and security of products and services.
They can lead to data breaches, unauthorised access and the potential for sabotage or manipulation of systems.
Awareness is key
By being aware of these possible threats, organisations can arm themselves appropriately to prevent them.
To effectively deal with the cybersecurity challenges of 2023, organisations need to adopt a customised and agile cybersecurity strategy.
Eleanor Barlow is Head of Content at SecurityHQ