Imagine waking up to the news that a cybercriminal has compromised the sensitive information of over 49 million users. In May 2024, Dell was faced with this stark reality when a threat actor known as Menelik infiltrated their systems through authorized partner accounts. This incident serves as a somber reminder: in today’s digital age, the question isn’t whether you’ll face a cyber threat, but when. Keep reading this blog as we explore the essential cyber attack mitigation strategies to help you stay ahead of the curve and protect your assets.
Cyber threats pose a serious risk to major businesses that depend on data, networks, or online services. This can include computer viruses, Denial of Service attacks, phishing scams, and many other forms of attack vectors. Such threats can originate from within an organization, including trusted employees, or from other external parties.
This hostile landscape creates a critical need for safeguards and countermeasures. Since the pandemic, cyber-attacks have more than doubled with companies facing hefty fines due to negligence in protecting sensitive information. Financial firms are especially more at risk of being targets, owing to the abundance of sensitive data and transactions they handle. Businesses not only have to worry about financial risk as a result of cyber attacks but also must consider the potential damage to their reputation, as breaches can break down customer trust and diminish brand value. According to estimates from Barclay Simpsons, which reference data from the Ponemon Institute, 1.57 million US Dollars can be attributed to reputational costs, through abnormal customer turnover and loss of goodwill.
These concerning statistics underscore the urgency of implementing cyber attack mitigation strategies for businesses. With the threat of financial losses and reputational harm on the horizon, companies must avoid complacency. With the help of effective cyber attack prevention strategies and appropriate response planning, sensitive information can not only be protected, but also help in maintaining customer trust. This involves protecting all forms of data from theft and damage, including general sensitive data, protected health information, intellectual property, and personally identifiable information.
In this blog brought to you from Cogent IBS, we will explore the current state of cyber attack strategies that threaten modern organizations, and provide insights on how these attacks manifest. Following this discussion, we will outline cyber attack mitigation strategies to combat the malicious techniques employed by threat actors. This guide aims to equip business leaders and IT professionals with the knowledge necessary to protect their organization’s sensitive information.
What are the current threats?
Understanding organisations’ cyber threats is essential for developing effective cyber attack prevention strategies and appropriate response plans. Numerous malicious risks impact businesses daily, this section covers the most common types of threats currently affecting the digital landscape and causing significant damage.
DDoS Attack
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack involves overwhelming a target system with a flood of internet traffic from multiple sources, disrupting its normal functioning and preventing legitimate users from accessing it. This is typically accomplished by flooding a target with a large number of requests to overload a system and block genuine requests from being executed. In simpler terms, a DDoS attack is like a sudden traffic jam on a highway, preventing regular cars from getting where they need to go.
DDoS attacks make use of internet-connected machines. These networks would contain computers and IoT devices known to be infected with malware, making it possible to be controlled remotely by attackers. Each of these individual devices is known as a bot, and collectively are called a botnet. Once a hacker selects a target, the botnet will launch an attack on the victim’s server, with each bot sending requests to the victim’s IP address, ultimately overwhelming the server with traffic.
Social Engineering
Social Engineering refers to all techniques that attempt to extract sensitive information from a target through means of manipulation, to be used for malicious means. This can happen in person, for example, if a hacker poses as an IT technician. They could visit your office and claim to need access to perform routine maintenance. By dressing the part and exuding confidence, they can manipulate staff into granting access to restricted areas or sensitive information. A segment from The Jimmy Kimmel Show demonstrates how a friendly demeanor can trick individuals into unknowingly revealing their passwords.
There are online methods through which attackers can gain sensitive information from individuals as well, such as baiting users with links claiming to download something the user may desire (movies, software etc.). Instead of containing the user’s desired material, the download would actually contain a malicious payload. Another common tactic is when the attacker claims to be a wealthy foreigner requiring US bank account information to transfer their fortune. The attacker would coax the victim into believing they will be rewarded handsomely in exchange for their bank account details, in reality however the attacker means to drain the victim’s account.
Social Engineering is considered as one of the deadliest forms of cyber attacks because while technological defenses can be strengthened, humans are the most vulnerable points of failure. This is because the attacks use psychological manipulation to trick users into making security errors, a vulnerability which can be very easy to exploit without needing any form of technical experience.
System Misconfiguration
A system misconfiguration happens when an application is set up incorrectly or lacks essential configurations. This tends to occur when security settings aren’t adequately defined in the configuration process or deployed with just the default settings. Misconfigured systems are a central cause of data breaches as malicious threat actors can use the backdoor to inject their payloads, resulting in organizations having to pay out millions of dollars in fines.
A variety of reasons contribute to why this happens. It could be since the present network infrastructures are so complicated and evolving, that organization would prefer to simply overlook these essential security settings, seeing it as a costly expenditure. Another scenario is if an employee disables the anti-virus of their system to carry out a task (like executing an installer) and forgetting to re-enable it.
An example of a System Misconfiguration can be given from recent events at CrowdStrike. In July 2024, the American cybersecurity company CrowdStrike distributed a faulty update which caused widespread outages with Microsoft Windows computers, which were running the software. Consequently, 8.5 million systems went down and could not reboot, an event referred to as” The largest IT outage in history”.
Phishing
Phishing is a type of online scam where cybercriminals trick individuals into disclosing confidential information or downloading harmful software by pretending to be a trustworthy source. This is usually done with the mediums of scam emails (or text messages). The central aim behind these attacks is to obtain passwords, User IDs, credit cards or bank details. By imitating a legitimate source with an enticing request, attackers lure their victims in order to trick them, similar to how a fisherman uses bait to catch fish.
The most common means phishing is carried out, is through on-path attacks or cross-site scripting attacks. The essence of both these attacks, is in the way they are carried out by email, the most popular example is the ‘Nigerian Prince Scam’, where the attacker pretends to be a Nigerian Prince in a desperate situation and offers to give their target a large sum of money for a small fee upfront. As expected, when the ‘small’ fee is given no large sum of money arrives.
A similar common example is when an email is sent creating a sense of urgency and fear for the victim, for instance, by informing them that their account may be deactivated if they don’t provide log in credentials. The hacker would trick their victims in this manner into handing over their login credentials.
Artificial Intelligence Cyber Threats
Artificial Intelligence involves creating computer systems capable of executing tasks that usually need a degree of human intelligence. It has proven to be quite beneficial, in various fields for automating workloads such as in the healthcare industry, or even for recreational purposes such as generating artwork or simply chatting. AI like any other technology, can unfortunately be misused, through malicious hackers trying to steal or damage personal data. This could be done by impersonation, automated malware, AI privacy risks, physical risks (AI self-driving cars), manipulation of data and reputation damage.
A study conducted by Deep Instinct revealed that 75% of security professionals have seen an increase in attacks in the last 12 months, and 85% of them blame this on the rise of threat actors using generative AI, according to CFO. As businesses prepare employees to use tech powered by generative AI, cybersecurity experts warn this could lead organization unknowingly exposed to hackers. Almost half of the study’s participants expressed the opinion that generative AI will make companies more vulnerable to cyberattacks than they were prior to the use of AI.
Mitigation Techniques Against Current Threats
The previous section covered the most common kinds of cyber attacks that take place in the cyber sphere. By understanding these threats, organizations can more easily develop effective cyber attack mitigation strategies. Recognizing specific vulnerabilities that organizations face, such as DDoS attacks or phishing scams, enables businesses to tailor their defenses and address these risks head-on. In this section, we will discuss various techniques that can be implemented to safeguard digital assets from malicious actors while fostering a culture of preparedness against potential attacks.
Leverage Multifactor Authentication
Multifactor Authentication (MFA) is a security measure which adds an extra layer of protection to user accounts, by requiring multiple forms of verification before granting access. Instead of relying just on a password, MFA would combine other identifying information, such as biometric verification (fingerprints or facial recognition) or smartphone tokens (SMS One Time Passwords).
MFA is used to protect accounts with elevated privileges, remote access or containing valuable assets. Using MFA greatly decreases the likelihood of unauthorized access, even if a password is breached. Educating employees about the importance of MFA is crucial, to ensure it is consistently applied across all accounts and applications.
Utilize Secure Third Parties
Working with third business parties is nothing new and has been a major part of the business world for decades. It works by giving businesses the benefits of specialized skills and expertise that can’t be found in-house, without having to hire full-time employees. The advantages of third parties are clear, but like any beneficial venture, there are bound to be some drawbacks. The risks that they pose could include compliance/legal issues, reputational damage, financial repercussions, operational disruptions or information security vulnerabilities.
To mitigate third-party risks, it is essential to conduct necessary due diligence before onboarding with suppliers and vendors. Due diligence must include background checks, financial statements, reputation and security controls. After a third party is onboarded, continuous monitoring must be conducted to make sure that security and compliance standards are being maintained.
Always Assume Insider Threats
Security teams often prioritize identifying and mitigating external threats. All threats, however, don’t necessarily come from the outside. By shifting to a hybrid work culture, accelerated cloud adoption and high-rated employee turnover have created high rates of data loss and insider threats over the past could years. It makes sense why this is happening. Insider threats have shown an increase of 44 per cent since 2020, attributed to current market dynamics. Research done by Verizon in their 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report has shown that 68 per cent of data breaches are attributed to a human element. Insider threats could either be malicious or simply a careless mistake.
To mitigate this risk, identifying your users would be the first step. Proof-point research indicates that the majority of insiders are classified as “careless”. This is a good thing, as it means the average user doesn’t want to steal or misuse data.
Promoting good communication is also another step that should be undertaken to reduce risk of unintended insider threats. Try to minimize technical jargon in your cybersecurity protocols and hold multiple workshops on a recurring basis to educate employees. When an employee is leaving the organization, conduct the exit interviews and remind them of their ongoing responsibilities regarding data protection.
Update and Upgrade
Regularly updating and upgrading software systems and hardware is essential for maintaining a robust cybersecurity posture. Security flaws in outdated software are frequently exploited by hackers. It’s best to automate updates so that the system gets the latest patches without needing manual effort. Vendor updates must also be genuine, as they are typically signed and sent via secure links to ensure the content’s integrity.
Limit and Control Account Access
Threat actors tend to gather login credentials, so it is recommended to start a program using a zero-trust framework. By using this model, account privileges are assigned sparsely only as users need them. This guarantees that users can access only the information required to carry out their specific tasks. Procedures should be documented for securely resetting credentials (email and password).
Create a Disaster Recovery Plan
A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a structured approach which describes how an organization can quickly resume operations after an unplanned incident. Crafting a DRP is key to mitigating cyberattacks. The plan should start with a business continuity plan (BCP)and address data protection, data restoration, configurations and logs. This document is not static, it should be updated and reviewed continuously since these periodic reviews can help identify gaps and accommodate the ever-changing network environment.
So to summarize…
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the importance of vigorous cybersecurity cannot be overstated. As explored in this blog, the threats being faced by organizations are diverse and ever-present, ranging from DDoS attacks to misuse of Artificial Intelligence. By implementing the mitigation strategies outlined in this blog, such as leveraging multifactor authentication or utilizing secure third parties, businesses can significantly ensure security in protecting valuable assets. Don’t wait for a cyber incident to threaten your company; take proactive measures now to protect your organization. Get in touch with Cogent IBS to find out how our professional services may help you strengthen your defenses and make sure your company is resilient to new threats.