Cyber Threats Become More Severe During the Holidays

Cybercriminals view the holiday season as an opportunity to strike. When you’re busy with a sudden, massive increase in business, you can’t dedicate as many resources to security. Additionally, you likely have fewer people working because employees take time off. This combination lets hackers slip in unnoticed, giving them more time to cause damage. 

“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) even released a report in 2022 on the sharp rise in cyber threats during the holiday season.” 

Although it didn’t publish specific statistics, it stated cyberattack frequency increases before holidays and during typical off-hours. Notably, it said the attacks often caused more significant damages than usual. 

CISA’s findings match the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center’s report on cyberattack trends. The agency received 800,944 cybercrime reports in 2022, totaling $10.3 billion in losses — a $3.4 billion increase from 2021. On top of becoming more frequent around the holidays, cyber threats are growing more severe yearly. 

Benefits of Improving Your Cybersecurity Posture

You likely do much of your business during the holiday season. Enhancing your cybersecurity measures ensures you don’t have sudden, unplanned downtime that costs you sales. Additionally, it safeguards your reputation and brand loyalty since customers view you as a safe, convenient place to do business. 

“Not to mention, improving your cybersecurity posture protects you from non-compliance fees and financial losses.” 

Proactively lowering your cyberattack, malware and threat risks protects your employees, customers and profits during a high-traffic time of year. 

Tips to Enhance Cybersecurity During the Holiday Season

While the increased attack frequency during the holiday season can seem daunting, it’s easily manageable with the right strategies. If you’re proactive, you can prevent most cybersecurity incidents. 

1. Transition to Digital Systems

If you’re like many SMEs, you rely on physical filing systems to store your data and paperwork. Although it’s a common practice, it poses a significant security risk — anyone who can enter the room can manipulate, steal or toss records. Additionally, you risk leaks whenever you scan or transfer paper documents. 

Going paperless can dramatically improve your cyber safety. Digital systems can improve document security by providing secure storage and access privileges. This way, only people you give pre-authorization to can edit, send or save paperwork. 

2. Implement Authentication Measures

Authentication measures fall into three categories — something you know, have or are — which include passwords, multi-factor authentication or biometrics. When you limit who can access sensitive data or systems, you protect against human error and reduce your vulnerabilities. 

Most security professionals agree authentication measures are some of the best protection tools an SME can have. In fact, some experts say multi-factor authentication can prevent up to 50% of illegitimate access attempts on average. You should strongly consider implementing these tools because unauthorized logins and intrusions become more frequent during the holiday season.

3. Prioritize Redundancy

Although most SMEs strive to eliminate redundancy, it’s beneficial during cybersecurity incidents. When cyberattacks strike, critical systems go down for hours — possibly weeks. In fact, the average downtime of distributed denial-of-service attacks increased to over 50 hours in 2022, up from a mere 30 minutes in 2021. In this scenario, backups are essential. 

“Imagine ransomware impacts your enterprise over the busy holiday season — you’d lose out on tens of thousands of dollars in sales.” 

That is unless you have backup systems and data. This way, you won’t have to pay the ransom or wait for the cyberattack to end. Redundancy means you can stay operational even during the worst-case scenario. 

4. Leverage Automation Tools

Most holiday season cyberattacks occur because cybercriminals have a better chance at exploiting your network vulnerabilities when you have less staff or are too busy. Naturally, automation implementation is one of the best strategies. 

If you have tools like artificial intelligence or robot process automation do the work for you during off-hours or busy periods, you can consistently maintain security. If you set up automatic alerts for threat detection and suspicious activity, you can speed up your incident response. In other words, cybercriminals have a much lower chance of accessing your sensitive systems.

5. Audit Vendor Security

You might have a lot to deal with during the holiday season, but you should consider scheduling a meeting with your vendors. They often overlook vulnerabilities, putting you at risk of a cyberattack. In fact, nearly 50% of enterprises experienced cybersecurity incidents because of a third-party servicer in 2023. Contacting them about their security compliance can protect you. 

Review your contracts with your vendors to see their security-related responsibilities and audit them to ensure they’re compliant. Even though they might be resistant, you should push for accountability. After all, their vulnerabilities are essentially yours. 

The Importance of Proactive Effort this Festive Season

Even though you may be tempted to put off implementing new security measures until the buzz of the festive season settles, proactive effort ensures far better outcomes. Instead of waiting for cyberattacks to happen — risking fees, reputational damage and lost sales — you should strongly consider improving your cybersecurity posture as soon as possible.

Also Read, 3 Essential Compliance Regulations for Data Security in Remote Work

The post 5 Tips for SMEs to Stay Cyber Safe This Festive Season appeared first on AiiotTalk - Artificial Intelligence | Robotics | Technology.

Compromised AI Training Data

AI algorithms can be extremely useful in education, but the black-box nature of most AIs poses a serious cybersecurity vulnerability. Algorithms are trained using sets of training data that teach the AI to understand or recognize something. For example, an AI might be trained to understand 8th-grade algebra problems so it can grade homework.

However, the way that AI algorithms process information is hidden in a black box, meaning glitches and biases can go unnoticed. An AI might inadvertently learn something incorrectly or make false connections from the training data. The black-box nature of AI also means poisoned training data can go unnoticed.

Hackers can taint training data to include a backdoor concealed in the AI’s logic. When the hacker wants access to the system where the AI will be used, they can simply input the key for the backdoor and the AI will recognize it from the training data. Backdoors like this can be highly difficult to detect because developers and users can’t see all the connections going on in the AI’s black box.

“The way that AI algorithms process information is hidden in a black box, meaning glitches and biases can go unnoticed.” 

Hackers Are Adapting

Creating a backdoor in AI training data is a complex and time-intensive process and something that mainly only highly skilled hackers would be capable of. Unfortunately, hackers are adapting their attack strategies to bypass the threat-hunting abilities of AI. In fact, hackers are even creating their own AI algorithms that can outsmart other algorithms.

For example, hackers have developed AIs that can autonomously crack passwords to bypass access management systems. Even worse, hackers are using AI to make their ransomware and malware smart enough to get past AI-powered security protocols.

This is a serious threat to education because schools necessarily need to collect large amounts of personal information on students and families. Schools’ data is a highly appealing target for hackers, who know that compromising that data would cause panic, potentially leading to a large ransomware payout from victims.

With AI security systems at risk, educators may be concerned about what they can do to defend their students. There are solutions, though. For example, cloud-based AI systems may be safer than those based on conventional data centres. Plus, cloud-intelligent data protection systems, which are built specifically for cloud-native systems, can provide an extra layer of security for schools’ data in the event of an AI cyberattack.

Deepfakes and Faulty Image Recognition

In addition to backdoors, hackers can also exploit unintentional glitches in AI algorithms. For example, a hacker could tamper with photos to trick an AI into incorrectly recognizing an image.

Deepfake technology can also be used to disguise video, photo, or audio files as something they are not. This could be used to create a fraudulent video of a teacher or administrator, for example. Deepfakes can allow hackers to get into systems that rely on audio or image recognition for access control.

Hackers can leverage AI themselves to create highly realistic deepfakes that then become the mode of attack. For example, a 2021 fraud scheme used AI deepfakes to steal $35 million from a Hong Kong bank.

Hackers can weaponize AI in this same way to create deepfakes of parents’, teachers’, or administrators’ voices. They launch the attack by calling someone on the phone and tricking them with a voice-based deepfake. This could be used to steal money or personal information from schools, students, teachers, and families.

“Schools’ data is a highly appealing target for hackers, who know that compromising that data would cause panic, potentially leading to a high ransomware payout from victims.” 

Reliance on AI for Testing and Tutoring

AI is great for automating various aspects of education and can even improve the quality of students’ education. For example, the popular language tutoring website Duolingo uses machine learning AI to help students learn at their own pace. Many other schools and educational resources are using similar technology today. This is known as adaptive AI learning, and it even helps with essential tasks like test grading.

Unfortunately, this reliance on AI is a cybersecurity vulnerability. Hackers tend to target systems that are crucial for the operation of key systems. So, if educators are relying on certain AI tutoring tools for students to successfully complete coursework, that reliance on AI can be exploited by a hacker. They could launch a ransomware attack on critical education AI algorithms or possibly even manipulate the AI itself.

This particular vulnerability is a combination of several of the threats mentioned above. Hackers could create a backdoor in an AI that allows them to tamper with the algorithm so that it grades incorrectly or teaches students incorrect information.

“If educators are relying on certain AI tutoring tools for students to successfully complete coursework, that reliance on AI can be exploited by a hacker.” 

Staying Aware of Education Cyber Threats

There is no doubt that AI can be a highly valuable tool for educators. However, using AI requires caution and a proactive approach to cybersecurity to protect AI vulnerabilities from being exploited by hackers.

As AI becomes ubiquitous in education and everyday life, hackers are developing new kinds of cyberattacks designed to thwart intelligent security systems. By staying aware of these emerging cyber threats, educators can take action to protect their systems and their students.

Also, Read 5 Ways Robotics Will Help You Get More Business

The post AI Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities for Educators to Be Aware Of appeared first on AiiotTalk - Artificial Intelligence | Robotics | Technology.

For privacy-minded individuals, using the Tor browser to connect to the dark web does offer many advantages. It can nearly eliminate attempts to track you and collect personal data on you, such as your browsing and shopping habits. It’s also been used by journalists and whistleblowers to leak information, such as journalists living under corrupt authoritative regimes where journalists fear for their life.

On the other hand, there is a dark side to so much privacy, and the dark web can also offer a safe haven to malicious groups engaging in illegal activity.

“We’ve all heard stories of how the dark web is full of drug marketplaces and unprohibited content. This is somewhat true to an extent, though these websites aren’t necessarily out in the open.”

Many of the dark websites running illegal activities are “invitation only” or locked behind paywalls, kind of like a mafia poker game. There’s a very slim chance of just “accidentally” stumbling into one. The same goes for blackhat hacker groups that buy and sell stolen information.

What do Businesses Really Fear on the Dark Web?

What really concerns businesses about the dark web is that it’s become a haven for cybercriminals to share and sell stolen data. Whenever you hear news about a massive data breach on companies, you may wonder what the criminals actually do with all of the stolen information like credit cards and social security numbers. The answer is that they typically sell it on the dark web.

This is because it is far easier to sell stolen credit cards, for example, than to actually try and use them. Using stolen credit cards to make purchases can be traced, and so cybercriminals would rather make easy money by selling stolen information than put themselves at larger risk by actually trying to use the information themselves.

Are Dark Web Monitors Useless in Preventing Data Theft?

It can be extraordinarily difficult to track down sources of data breaches. When free dark-web monitoring websites like HaveIBeenPwned detect stolen credentials on the dark web, it’s usually because the cybercriminals were unable to obtain a ransom for the stolen data, and simply publicly dumped the data in retaliation.

That doesn’t mean dark web monitoring services are entirely useless. Secure coding practices can alert a business (or individual) that their data has been publicly dumped, and alert the business/individual to change their login credentials before further damage is done. Also, some dark web monitoring services may actually have insight into the more secret “invitation only” or “paywall-access” parts of the dark web, and may be able to alert their customers that their data is being traded secretly before it hits the public dumps.

Business Identity Theft on the Dark Web

“So what businesses fear along with data breaches that steal their customer’s information, but data breaches where sensitive company information is stolen as well.”

Business identity theft is not the same as stealing sensitive information, but they can very often go hand-in-hand.

Business identity theft goes a bit under the radar because consumers are of course focused on personal identity theft, but business identity theft is a very real thing. Business identity theft is when criminals impersonate a real business for the purpose of, for example, applying for credit loans.

This is because businesses often have a much larger line of credit than individual consumers, and while a $2,000 loan taken out in an individual’s name would attract immediate attention from that individual’s bank, a criminal could possibly take out a loan as high as $10,000 without attracting any attention for a long time, because businesses don’t really notice until they perform audits and expense reports.

Also, Read Scariest Cybersecurity Threats

The post Why ‘Dark Web’ is Becoming a Cybersecurity Nightmare for Businesses appeared first on AiiotTalk - Artificial Intelligence | Robotics | Technology.

For instance, if a hacker succeeded in getting your email address, he may send phishing emails containing malware or infected files. Opening or responding to such emails can make you lose your important data or control over your device.

There is no secret that our personal information is more susceptible than it was ever before.

“The incidents of Data Breach and ID Theft are more common in this Digital age having an Impact on Millions of Businesses and their Customers.”

The large and medium scale companies have been working consistently to protect their data by employing security measures. We all have responsibility to protect information relevant to us and people we communicate with. It starts by understanding and employing cyber security.

This article discusses why cyber security is important and what its benefits are for individuals and business organizations. 

Overview of Cyber Security

Any of your digital devices connected to the internet, computer or any other smart device can lose important information due to data breach.

This includes communication systems like emails and text messages, transportation systems like air plane navigation, financial systems like bank accounts and loans, government databases like social security numbers and tax records, medical systems like medical records and equipment, and educational systems like research data and report cards. 

Cyber security refers to technologies and practices to protect all systems, networks and important data from potential cyber security threats such as hacking and computer assisted frauds.

The hackers usually target with an aim to access, change or demolish sensitive data for extorting money from the user of specific network or system. The implementation of effective cyber security measures enables businesses and individuals to protect their systems and networks from such cyber-attacks.  

How to Practice Safe Cyber Security

It is important to safeguard your sensitive data from hacking, malware and viruses. Here is how you can start practicing safe cyber security. 

Beware of Phishing Emails

Never open or respond to an email in your spam folder. Moreover, if an unexpected email lands in your inbox, do not click on links or files attached with that email.

You are likely to receive phishing emails designed and sent by hackers to trap you. Opening such emails and links can infect your device making you lose important data. It does not only put your data at risk but also influences information you have about your fellows, co-workers and relatives.

If you are doubtful about an email, contact the sender of that email through any other means of communication such as calling or emailing them to a different address. 

Ignore Scareware

Have you ever received an email about security software warning? You are likely to receive warnings from unidentified sources. It is better to ignore such scareware.

While surfing the internet, you may receive a warning popping up in a new browser claiming to find a problem in your device.

These are fake warnings and are designed to infect your device.

Install Antivirus

Make sure you install a good antivirus in your mobile phone, computer and other digital devices connected to the internet. Also, ensure that you update your antivirus software regularly because an updated program can protect your device from newest potential malware, viruses and cyber-attacks. 

Importance and Benefits of Cyber Security

There are innumerable perks of practicing cyber security. We have discussed here a few of them. Take a look!

Protect Goodwill

Cyber security protects goodwill of your business. A cyber-attack can badly damage the reputation of your company making your customers to lose trust on your business. A hacker can access data relevant to your customer and publicize it in a negative way.

Therefore, it is crucial that you take cyber security seriously and ensure that your business do not get a bad reputation. 

Protect Bank Balance

Usually, the hacker gains access to system of a business organization for getting bank details such as credit card information and other important details.

” Moreover, the Companies Losing their Customer Data may have to face Legal Cases causing them to bear Expenses of Millions of Dollars.”

In more serious cases, you may have to shut down your business.

Protect Personal Information

The main objective of cyber security is to protect your personal data. The hackers may plan to get your personal details to use them for illegal activities.

Some hackers steal personal information of the target and use this data to create fake online accounts for the purchase of illegal products.

Your name and photos can be used to create multiple online accounts and you never know until you become a crime suspect. 

Protect Productivity of Employees

The productivity of employees does not negatively influence if the daily activities of the business organization remain uninterrupted.

The companies that lose data in data breach incident may also have to face a decline in employee productivity. Business owner can use monitoring software for employee see data from target devices.   

Create Safe Environment to Work

If you fail to provide a safe working environment to your employees, you can never get the best of them. Cyber security can help your employees to work confidently without losing business information and becoming victim of a cyber-attack.

It is important that you practice cyber security measures and educate your employees about it as well. Train your workers about how they can use company-owned digital devices without losing sensitive data.

Let them know the threats that employees face on daily basis such as malware, phishing emails, social engineering, ransomware attacks,

The Bottom Line

The effectiveness of cyber security for business and individuals is undeniable. With a few practices you can create an effective defense from potential cyber-attacks and can safeguard your money, personal information, goodwill and employee productivity.           

Also Read World of Cyber Security

The post Why Is Cyber Security Important and Its Benefits appeared first on AiiotTalk - Artificial Intelligence | Robotics | Technology.