There are several signs that could indicate a cyber attack is happening. Whether it’s receiving suspicious messages, observing unusual activity on your website or application, discovering deleted or corrupted files, or noticing password modifications, staying alert and responding promptly is crucial to safeguard your systems or sensitive data.
A variety of tools are accessible to protect you from these online assaults. These might include antivirus software, a VPN, intrusion detection programs, firewalls, and password managers, among others. However, no single solution or universal method guarantees protection. Combining multiple techniques is key to constructing an effective defense.
In a previous blog post, our experts offered advice on strengthening your data security. This time, we delve deeper into the topic, presenting various approaches to safeguarding against attacks, assisting in recognizing warning signs, and exploring different types of potential attacks.
Source: Microsoft Azure
Azure Features for Enhanced Security
Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, stands as a pillar of any cybersecurity strategy. With its highly secure data storage and processing services, along with advanced monitoring and identity management tools, Azure allows companies to protect their infrastructures and sensitive data against cyber-attacks, making it a preferred choice at Uzinakod.
In addition to Azure, other options on the market, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), offer robust security features. However, they vary in terms of specific functionalities and pricing models.
Azure Security Center
The Azure Security Center detects threats, analyzes vulnerabilities, and offers recommendations to enhance your infrastructure’s security. As such, setting up an account should be your initial step in fortifying cybersecurity.
Azure Active Directory
Managing credentials through Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) ensures that only authorized individuals can access the resources deployed on your infrastructure, which reinforces system security and maintains data confidentiality.
Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
Azure Advanced Threat Protection offers advanced threat detection capabilities, protecting against a range of sophisticated cyberattacks. Among the detection tools available, Azure Sentinel stands out as a complete solution for information and event management. Leveraging artificial intelligence, Sentinel can proactively identify and respond to attacks.
Azure Key Vault
Companies can also leverage encryption and data protection features effectively. With Azure Key Vault, a secure storage solution for keys, certificates, and secret data, they can reliably manage and protect their information. Additionally, Azure provides the capability to control access to sensitive data through the implementation of data protection policies. This feature allows companies to define access policies and access rights to documents and credentials, strengthening the security of their confidential information.
Azure Policy
Finally, Azure equips businesses with the tools to fulfill sensitive data protection requirements through features like Azure Policy and Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager. Access Policies allow companies to define and enforce usage rules for their Azure resources. On the other hand, Compliance Manager helps companies in assessing and managing their compliance with diverse industry standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or ISO 27001.
In summary, Azure provides a comprehensive range of features for safeguarding against cyber-attacks. This includes advanced threat protection, data encryption, and continuous monitoring of security compliance.
How can we protect ourselves from a cyber attack?
A cyber attack involves intentionally exploiting vulnerabilities in your systems or network to compromise devices or steal data. Safeguarding your organization against such threats is crucial, and can be achieved through various methods:
Employee Training
Attackers often exploit an employee’s vulnerability within the company to gain access to data and systems. This vulnerability is typically unintentional, proving the importance of raising awareness among your teams about such threats. It’s crucial to instruct them to verify the links they receive before clicking on them, confirm the sender’s email address, and exercise caution before disclosing sensitive information.
System Updates
Every day, new threats and viruses emerge, emphasizing the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date applications and operating systems. This ensures you can leverage security patches that close potential loopholes, enhancing your systems’ resilience against cyber-attacks.
Firewall Installation
The role of a firewall is to monitor and regulate incoming and outgoing traffic in alignment with corporate policies. Consequently, it enables the authorization or blocking of data transmission based on configured rules. For example, traffic can be filtered by IP address, port used, protocol, and other criteria.
Data Backup
Ultimately, it’s essential to create complete backups of all systems, databases, and architecture. This ensures the ability to quickly restore a redundant environment in the event of a cyber-attack. Moreover, it’s prudent to maintain multiple backup copies, storing different versions in separate locations. A detailed disaster recovery plan should also be drafted and tested annually.
Examples of Cybersecurity Attacks
To illustrate the severity of cybersecurity incidents, here are notable instances of sophisticated cyberattacks:
- Ransomware: This type of attack involves blocking access to your systems and demanding a ransom payment to restore access to IT assets. In January 2023, the UK postal service fell victim to LockBit ransomware, resulting in a temporary halt in mail delivery.
- Malware: Malware can infiltrate your network through various vectors, such as email links. It manifests in different forms like ransomware, adware, trojans, worms, and spyware. An infamous example is the ILOVEYOU worm, originating in 2000 as a love letter. Upon opening, it propagated by sending the same message to 10 contacts, subsequently infecting them. This malware has impacted over 45 million individuals’ systems, resulting in more than $15 billion in damages.
- Phishing: This method entails impersonating a company and sending malicious links to its customers. Between 2013 and 2015, Google and Facebook fell victim to a phishing campaign costing them $100 million. Attackers exploited the common supplier, Quanta, by sending fake invoices to Facebook and Google, posing as the company. Although the two giants eventually uncovered the deception and pursued legal action, they only managed to recover half of the lost sums.
- Password Attack: This attack seeks to uncover a password by attempting various combinations to access a system. In 2013, Yahoo experienced the largest cyberattack, affecting over 3 billion users. A group of Russian hackers targeted Yahoo’s databases, using stolen backups, backdoors, and cookies to access information on all user accounts. This breach granted them access to names, emails, phone numbers, birth dates, passwords, and security questions.
- Man-in-the-Middle (MITM): This attack involves positioning oneself between the user and the victim system to steal sensitive data. In 2017, Equifax encountered a significant data breach exposing the personal information of over 143 million Americans. The perpetrators had created a site with a URL closely resembling the original equifaxsecurity2017.com, masquerading as the company to gather user data.
- SQL Injection: SQL injection entails executing malicious code by inserting it into a search field, for example. This vulnerability exposes database access to the attacker. In 2016, certain forums of Epic Games, the creators Fortnite, fell victim to such an attack, resulting in the leak of approximately 800,000 user accounts.
- DoS ou DDos: A DoS (denial of service) or DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack involves overwhelming systems with requests, disrupting their normal operation. An example is the attack on Amazon Web Services in February 2020, where Amazon was bombarded with massive data volumes, reaching up to 2.3 terabytes per second. This technique exploited data amplification, multiplying the size of the data sent to the victim by 56 to 70 times.
- Internal Attack: This scenario may entail an employee misusing their access to sensitive data to destroy, share, or modify it. In 2023, two former Tesla employees shared sensitive information from over 75,000 employees, including names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and employee records.
Protect Yourself Against Cyber Attacks Now
In the first half of 2023, Canada faced over 17.8 billion attempted cyber attacks. A ransomware breach, for example, can incur an estimated $2 million in losses.
No company is immune to cyber threats. It’s crucial to evaluate your data protection and security practices today, especially considering that 40% of Canadian companies have fallen victim to cyber attacks, and associated costs are high. When in doubt, seek expert advice to maximize protection.
To report a cyber attack, contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre today.
