How to Tackle Digital Business Risks With a Cybersecurity Course

Cyber attacks have become more frequent as businesses start to implement more technological systems into their everyday operations.

Now more than ever, they need professionals to implement risk management and help protect them against these attacks.

This is where MANCOSA skillME’s cybersecurity course comes in handy. Discover more about our cybersecurity courses for beginners.

This article will give you a better understanding of cybersecurity, why it’s essential, the primary cybersecurity threats businesses face, and more so you can decide if you want a career in cybersecurity.

What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity protects internet-connected systems from malicious attacks by hackers, cybercriminals, and spammers. These systems include things such as computers, programs, networks, and data.

In business, the organisation’s people, technology, and processes must complement one another to establish an effective defence against these attacks:

People: Employees must comply with basic data security principles such as being aware of suspicious email attachments, choosing strong passwords, and backing up any data.

Processes: Companies need to have systems that guide them in dealing with attempted and successful attacks. This way, they’ll know how to identify attacks, protect their systems, detect threats, respond to them effectively, and recover from attacks.

Technology: Organisations must provide the right tools and technology to protect them from cyber-attacks. The three main components that need to be covered are their computers, routers, and smart devices.

Why is cybersecurity important?

Cyber attacks have become more common as the use of technology in companies increases. Research shows that cybercriminals can penetrate a staggering 93% of company networks.

Without adequate protection, organisations leave themselves utterly vulnerable to these attacks that can have catastrophic consequences.

Not only can these attacks result in the loss of monetary assets, but they can also lead to the disruption of operations, loss of clients (due to a lack of trust in the company), and cause extreme reputational damage.

Thus, cybersecurity has become vital for all businesses — small and large — which is why cybersecurity training has become essential.

Major cybersecurity threats affecting businesses

Cybersecurity consists of three main components:

Risk: This is the potential for loss, destruction, or damage that a company faces if its networks were to be attacked.
Threat: This is the likelihood of the specific attack taking place based on how vulnerable the company is.

Vulnerability: These are the company’s weaknesses in its infrastructure, applications, and networks that make them vulnerable to attacks.

Here’s a list of some of the biggest cybersecurity threats that companies are facing:

1. Malware attacks

Attackers use multiple methods to get malware into a user’s device. They often use social engineering, where a user is asked to take action (like clicking on a link or downloading a file).

In other cases, the attackers may use vulnerabilities in the company’s browsers or operating systems and install malicious code.

When the malware is installed, it can monitor the user’s actions, assist the hacker in penetrating other targets within the network, send confidential information and data to the hacker, and more.

Malware includes Ransomware, Spyware, Trojan viruses, Worms, and more.

2. Software supply chain attacks

A software supply chain attack mainly occurs against software vendors, targeting the weak spots in the supply chain for easy entry.

The supply chain network consists of all the vendor’s personnel, activities, technologies, and resources involved in the creation and sale of its products.

The attacker will enter the vendor’s network and insert malicious code to compromise the software before the vendor sends it out to its customers.

As a result, the compromised software will compromise the customer’s system or data.

3. Password attacks

Attackers can gain access to a user’s password by ‘sniffing’ the connection to the network, gaining access to the password database, using social engineering, or simply guessing.

They can guess the password in either a random or systematic way — which is why employees are encouraged to create strong passwords that are more difficult to decipher.

Some of the systematic ‘guessing’ techniques that hackers use are brute-force password guessing, dictionary attacks, pass-the-hash attacks, and golden ticket attacks.

4. Social engineering attacks

Many hackers use social engineering to manipulate users into performing specific actions or divulging important information to them.

They may use methods such as:

Phishing – Where the attacker sends fraudulent correspondence that seems to come from a legitimate source, urging the user to perform a particular action.
Baiting – Where they trick the user into using malicious devices.
Malvertising – Where online advertising is controlled by the hacker and contains malicious code that infects the user’s computer when they click.

5. Advanced persistent threats

Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are often launched against nation-states, large corporations, or valuable targets by sophisticated attackers.

These attacks happen when an individual or group gains access to a network and stays there for an extended period, exfiltrating sensitive data — all while avoiding detection.

Types of cybersecurity strategies

A cybersecurity strategy has multiple protection layers that protect companies and large corporations against cyber attacks.

Thus, whenever an attacker wants to access, change, export, or destroy data, or if they intend to steal money, they’ll have to work through these layers.

Multiple strategies can be applied to create these layers and ensure that the company is protected against cyber threats. These include, but aren’t limited to:

Encouraging open standards
Creating an assurance framework
Creating a secure cyber ecosystem
Strengthening the regulatory framework
Creating mechanisms for IT security
Securing E-Governance services
And more

A good cybersecurity strategy has processes that will need to owned by the IT team. The importance of this task places great value on IT professionals, which is why an accredited cybersecurity course and related information security courses, are very marketable in today’s corporate environment.

Study a Cybersecurity Course with MANCOSA skillME

If you’re someone who enjoys Information Technology (IT) as a whole but would also like to get into the security side of these systems, studying a cybersecurity course could be ideal for you.

Have a look at MANCOSA skillME’s range of courses in the IT industry, including a Short Programme in Cybersecurity.