Threats to Your Network

Modern security solutions have made good strides to protect businesses, but there are still a lot of threats out there that can cause problems for your business. If you don’t take a proactive stance on security, you could leave your network vulnerable to incoming threats of all types. Macro Systems will help your business comprehend what threats are out there, why they are dangerous, and what you can do to keep your business secure.

Viruses and Malware
Your computer’s operating system is a software solution; all devices on your network run an operating system in addition to countless other software that can be exploited by threats. This is where viruses and malware come in. Viruses are small pieces of code that make changes to the code of your software. The results can vary from being a minor irritation to a significant waste of productivity and efficiency. Malware especially can be extremely hazardous to your organization. This “malicious software” can be utilized by hackers to steal, change, or terminate data, which can be quite damaging to your organization.

Ransomware and Spyware
More specialized kinds of malware are utilized to extort money from organizations and steal data covertly without them knowing. Ransomware has become a significant threat to businesses, as it’s designed to coerce money from them by threatening to lock data away forever. Hackers like to use ransomware because it can collect a significant amount of revenue due to the large amount of victims it can reach. Spyware is also in this vein of dangerous malware, as it can be used to install backdoors, keyloggers, and other types of covert threats that give hackers a way to slowly siphon data from businesses.

Spam and Phishing Attacks
One of the biggest reasons why threats are so dangerous is because they are concealed so that even the most well-trained employee could slip up and make a mistake. You never hear about brute-force attacks being the main causes of data breaches (or, at least, they don’t happen as often in this way). The largest and most devastating data breaches tend to happen over extended periods of time in which countless records are stolen without being noticed by security professionals or network administrators. To this end, spam and phishing campaigns are hackers’ best friends. How often do you receive emails enticing you to click on links or “claim your price?” How about messages that pose as others within your organization, or those who your business has a professional association with? These kind of spam and phishing attacks mean that vigilance is key to protecting your organization’s network.

Protect Your Business with Proactive Tools and Best Practices
While there are more threats these days than ever before, it’s never been easier to secure your organization's network infrastructure, especially with all of the great security features that your business can take advantage of. A Unified Threat Management solution combines the comprehensive security tools your business needs to prevent infections and limit the scope of attacks against your network. You can take advantage of a firewall, antivirus, spam blocker and content filter to prevent and detect threats on your network before they can cause too much damage. By reducing access to data on a user basis, you can also keep specific data much safer than it would be otherwise. In general, it’s best to use industry best practices to only share data with those who need it for their specific roles within your organization.

For more information about how to keep your organization secure from threats, reach out to the security expects at Macro Systems via 703-359-9211.