The tools to protect against cyberattacks but especially cybersecurity policies have changed with the intensity and complexity of the attacks. From prevention tools to prevent an attack or to detect an anomaly, to the implementation of a real security policy, we will see in this article what it is necessary to put in place to protect yours IS from end to end, in the face of cybercrime.
Small or large companies, the issue of cybersecurity arises in every organization with varying problems from one structure to another. The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018 has, in turn, heightened concerns related to the importance of protecting one's digital heritage, in general. For their part, security experts expect malware to increase and the development of increasingly sophisticated attack methods. Enough to seriously consider the issue of cybersecurity, regardless of the size of the company.
How Will Cybersecurity And Its Fraudulent Practices Evolve?
The issue of cybersecurity (or computer security) for both companies and public administrations has never been so significant, especially as the practices specific to cyberattacks are diversifying and becoming increasingly difficult to counter.
Controlling new digital risks has therefore been integrated as a major issue in digital transformation and business competitiveness strategies.
There are several forms of cyberattacks that tend to eliminate the digital-physical border and here is a non-exhaustive list:
Business email compromise is still a hot topic, although training is being provided to employees to raise awareness of the dangers of suspicious emails and links. We speak in this case of "phishing", that is to say, a process consisting of compromising a professional email address to take ownership of it in order to carry out fraudulent operations with it.
All computer systems, such as servers, in particular, must integrate regular updates to maintain their proper functioning. It is therefore through deliberately corrupted updates that it is possible to undermine an initially reliable and secure server.
The emergence of artificial intelligence also represents a potential security breach, through the use of botnets (networks of infected machines and controlled remotely by a hacker). This accessibility to technologies such as artificial intelligence allows cybercriminals, through AI, to automate the selection of their targets, to analyze the vulnerabilities of a network or to assess the responsiveness of infected environments. Thus, it is possible for them to better conceal their attacks to unfold the following phases of a global plan.
Another potential threat is the creation of cybercriminal alliances to combine different types of attacks and find strategies to circumvent computer defences, which may be difficult to stop.
Thus, illicit activities such as the exploitation of vulnerabilities, the introduction of malicious programs, ransomware, bank fraud or even money laundering will obviously multiply. It is therefore imperative for any company to integrate cybersecurity rules into its daily operation since IT security tools will sometimes be fallible in the face of human behaviour and action.
How to Protect Yourself Against Certain Acts Of Cybercrime?
As the nature and type of cyberattacks evolve, the tools needed to protect yourself have also changed. Prevention tools to prevent an attack upstream, tools to detect an anomaly, analysis tools and finally corrective tools will be increasingly and jointly necessary to protect one's IS against cybercrime.
At the same time, and for obvious cost reasons, some companies will not be able to invest in in-house cybersecurity solutions and will opt for an outsourced service to protect themselves or sometimes take out cyber insurance.
How to Protect Yourself Against Ransomware?
Several options exist in the event of a cyber ransomware attack, but the issue of data recovery remains just as important.
One of the first reflexes will be to seek to isolate your computer equipment by disconnecting from the network as quickly as possible to avoid any propagation of the ransomware to other stations in the network (wired and WiFi connections).
Data recovery will be the main concern. It is possible, depending on the nature of the ransomware, to call on computer security companies. Some sometimes have tools to recover stolen data. In the event that recovery is impossible, the best alternative will always be to anticipate the potential risk of an attack by setting up and upstream, a backup of all the data.
This backup must be carried out in a secure place, remote from the primary site where the data is located. By replicating all of its data to a remote site, as well as the configurations specific to the servers hosting the data, a company can fully protect itself from the risk of a cyber attack. It will thus be able to find all of its data, Outsourced IT PRA ).
Cybersecurity: What Is Social Engineering And How to Deal With It?
Social engineering is akin to procedures aimed at entering into a relationship with an individual in a discreet but sufficiently thorough way, to be able to use for fraudulent purposes personal information that could be extracted from him.
The hackers adopting these practices thus set up “phishing” techniques which, thanks to the interactions, the questions asked and the relationship of trust established with an individual, will make it possible to recover a sufficient quantity of personal information.
The accumulation of apparently non-strategic information, but once cross-checked, will become a powerful lever of diversion allowing hackers to access the money, private data and secrets of their victims.
Scams that mobilize social engineering techniques generally fall into two broad categories. On the one hand, massive fraud namely attacks using basic information theft techniques while targeting the greatest number of people. On the other hand, more sophisticated targeted frauds targeting specific individuals or businesses.
The four characteristic phases of a social engineering scam are information gathering, relationship building with the targeted individual, exploitation of identified vulnerabilities, and execution.
In the event of social engineering fraud, the first instinct, concerning a professional organization, must be to warn network administrators so that they redouble their vigilance in the detection of any suspicious activity.
If the fraud concerns bank accounts, you should contact the financial institution as soon as possible to close the accounts, identify any unexplained charges and reset your passwords. One of the good reflexes is also to report all attacks to the authorities.
The Audit Of The Information System And Systematic Prevention As a Serious Alternative
One of the best alternatives to protect and prevent your information system against any cybercriminal threat is still to carry out a complete IT security audit of your IS upstream.
This will make it possible to take stock of the state of the system and could be the opportunity to review all or part of the infrastructure in order to optimize the level of its security system, or even make it IS more powerful.
The first objective of an IS audit is to transcribe an image, an inventory of the IS. By making an inventory of the operation of the information system, the hosted applications and the connection networks, for example, it becomes easier to identify the requirements to be respected and the areas of the IS to be optimized.
The audit must also make it possible to identify the flaws in the information system, the levels of access to the network and the security of the data hosted. It must define a tolerance threshold in terms of data availability and inaccessibility.
The audit helps to formalize areas for improvement aimed at overcoming the weaknesses of an information system while adapting to material, resource or human constraints. Intrusion and vulnerability tests can be performed to assess the security level of the system and then adjust it accordingly.
Why entrust your IS to cybersecurity experts and opt for outsourcing?
In the field of information systems (IS), recourse to outsourcing (or outsourcing) is a common practice allowing access to the services of a service provider specializing in an IT field. Companies, but also administrations choose to entrust part of their IT to a third party because of the technical nature of certain tasks requiring specialized skills, for lack of resources or budget available to carry out the action internally.
But ultimately each of these reasons has a common objective, even if it is not expressed as such at the outset, which is to guarantee the security of IS data through the services of companies qualified in the protection of data. data.
However, handing over the management of its IS to a service provider may also entail risks depending on the context in which it is carried out. For the customer, there may be an alteration in the control of his information system, over the evolutions and updates made by the service provider, but also due to the fact that the service provider himself can legally call upon a subcontractor to provide part of the outsourcing package. Remote interventions can also be a source of risks since the service provider will have to connect to the customer IS network from the outside, thus presenting a greater security risk than a connection made from the internal network.
However, recourse to outsourcing will remain essential (see the ANSSI guide on the outsourcing and security of information systems), mainly when the internal skills do not exist to respond to the IT problem.
Raising User Awareness First And Foremost: The Key To Cybersecurity
In the majority of cases, it has been observed that human activities linked to the end-user, through its bad practices, appears quite frequently as the point of origin of an IT security breach.
The consultation of questionable web pages, the opening of attached files or malicious links carrying in them the seeds of an attack or the direct use of corrupted software, are all opportunities to infect a computer and the computer network to which it belongs.
The study "The Global State of Information Security" conducted by PwC already indicated in 2017 that nearly one in three companies believed that its employees were unwittingly at the origin of certain attacks suffered the previous year.
Regularly raising employee awareness and assessing their knowledge of IT security rules is becoming the common development vector for many companies. The imperatives of cybersecurity now place companies in emergency situations such that a single user can alone and thanks to best practices stop a cyberattack before it is triggered, a bit like gestures first aid for survival. It comes down to the fact that it is reckless or unlucky employees who are most often linked to cyber threats, rather than genuinely malicious employees.
There are therefore many training courses and support to train staff in the safety and risks to which a computerized company is exposed.
An IT charter, to formalize and share best practices
E-learning sessions, to train each employee at their own pace
Group training, for sharing experience and emulation
Fun and participatory systems such as quiz-style tests, social engineering intrusion tests and other serious games,
The setting in real conditions with live-hacking sessions (artificial reproduction of an attack).