Organizations from all around the world are having continuous fear of cyberattacks from cyber criminals or nation-states. Now it is quite clear that one of the major focus for the IT cloud security team is to stop intruders from acquiring access to assets over the network. However, a badgering number of enterprises are losing their guard when it’s about defending against internal and external cyber attacks.
The risk of online cybersecurity threats is not only from the side of external individuals but, it is also from internal sources. This means companies need to focus and get aware of the security of external as well as internal Cyber attacks.
An Introduction on Insider Threats And External Threats
Organizations from each and every corner of the world need to take external as well as internal Cyberattacks, both very seriously. Fortunately, there are Cybersecurity strategies to defend each type of cybercrime, which will be discussed in the coming section of the post. Before that, let us take a quick look at what is internal and external Cyber threat.
- Internal Cyber Attack – A threat that originates inside the industry, institute, or government firms, and causes exploitation due to dissatisfaction in a promotion or sudden termination of an employee, is known as an internal Cyber threat. This type of threat is after the employee’s complaints regarding their mind thoughts towards the place where they work. Since the workstation staff is allowed to access business content, it means that a huge data breach might occur when negative thoughts take birth in one’s mind. In a large or medium business, it is not possible to read everyone’s mindset and work according to that. So, it is better to adopt cloud security measures that provide unbreakable protection from internal threats. These insider Cyber attack protection approaches should at least involve auditing of activities that are carried away with business core information. Rest, you can also contact managed security service providers who provide smart tips and solutions for safeguarding internal attacks in cyber security.
- External Cyber Attack– As per the cloud survey results, it is found that in the majority of cases external web crimes take place for stealing the core business content. Attacks like Trojan, worms, phishing, horse viruses, etc., are carried away to gain access to the target PC. Few groups of cyber crime like Anonymous, perform attacks on the government bodies and organizations. The perspective of this type of group crime is to teach a moral lesson or take some kind of revenge from the target firm. Well, it might be possible that your industry is not under the category of Anonymous crime but, it is still under the target of individual hackers. In several cases, the main target of external attacks is disclosing or stealing customer’s records. It is so because this activity results in leakage of an individual’s personal information that is having a price tag on the dark web.
In today’s digitization scenario, organizations focus on the external attack in cybersecurity by hardening the enterprise’s network perimeter. Here, the idea is that if you are stopping hackers from getting inside the network then, nothing bad happens. But, the issue is that the majority of the enterprises that are dedicated to perimeter security put blind trust over the workers who are walking through their doors. This can be quite risky because who knows what is in one’s mind.
Security Plans to Be Safe From Internal and External Cyber Attacks
Cloud data protection will be of no worth if only external threat security is there. A proper business information security should cover protection from internal as well as external Cyber threats. It should be the responsibility of industry authorities to modify privileged credentials in a frequent manner. Rest, the following measures should be adopted to stop the occurrence of internal as well as external Cyber attacks:
- Check For Changes in Job Role – At least once a month, review the role alteration and turnover in the IT sector. Analyze whether enterprise systems are accessed with the provided password or are changed by their respective users. If they are changed then, immediately change the system login credentials.
- Have A Look at Web Software – The administrator should check the location of compliance and data loss prevention policy. They need to ensure that policies are applied to their exact location because then only, they will provide security as they should. Also, the admin should periodically verify that ‘Are there any changes made in enterprise security policy by employees of the organization or not?’ If yes then, search for the cause of making modification and if you find something fishy, immediately contact higher authorities.
- Restrict Sharing of Account Password – The other internal and external Cyber attacks security measures say that industries should restrict the sharing of official account credentials. Employees might try to share their account id and password through sending emails to their personal id or any other communication means. So, this demands advance cloud security services that stop the distribution of official account credentials.
- Change Business Password Timely – An administrator should change the account password at least once a month. This will limit down the occurrence of insider threats as well as external threats. This measure should be made as a habit of the IT security team because it is quite effective in reducing cybercrime occurrence.
- Remove Ex-employee Data Access Rights – Employees say bye to their firm either with positive thoughts in their heart or with negative / revenge kind of thoughts in their mind. If it is about positive thoughts then, of course, there is no issue but, if it is about a negative mindset then, a big problem to think over it. So, it is better to eliminate all the data access controls of the ex-employee and delete his / her official account by keeping a backup file of data.
Conclusion
The most essential thing an industry can adopt is that they have to place a Cybersecurity strategy in the correct place. This will address vulnerabilities on time and will take immediate action on the data breach occurs. A combination of internal and external Cyber security measures will result in the creation of a strong & invisible data protection bond. This bond will be unbreakable, even by an internal employee, only if things are carried away accurately. At last, we want to end up this post just by saying that ‘User awareness is the core part of protection cybercrime’. So be updated and develop your business in a Cyber safe way!