Today, with the emergence of the latest Information Technology (IT), and its invasion to every aspect of life significantly defines its importance and dominance in real-world times. This very technological innovation has made the IT segment a potential target for cyber-attacks even during the pre-Covid-19 times.

Content 1.  Glimpse of recent cybersecurity attacks in 2020 2.  Major Impacts for Businesses due to Cybersecurity Breaches 3.  Some of the cybersecurity threats amid Covid-19 pandemic are: 4.  Cybersecurity Challenges for WFH employees during Covid-19 5.  Cybersecurity Challenges for Healthcare, Financial, Telecom, and E-learning Systems during Covid-19 6.  How can WFH employees and other Business Sectors overcome these Cyber Threats and Attacks? 7.  The need for businesses to leverage security testing to prevent cyber threats 6.  Conclusion

Remarkably, now as the world grapples with an unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic, the cyber-attackers and hackers are trying to take complete advantage of the rapid changes happening across various industries due to the ever-changing digital landscape, and thus, these cyber-attacks are becoming WFH employees: more rampant these days.

Invariably, the cyber-attackers are using this pandemic situation as a way of spreading malicious campaigns that include spam emails,  malware, ransomware, banking malware, malicious websites, malicious domains, DDoS attacks, etc. The U.N. disarmament chief has warned that cybercrime is on the rise, with a 600% increase in malicious emails during the COVID-19 pandemic. The high representative for disarmament affairs said, growing digital dependency has increased the vulnerability to cyber-attacks, and it is estimated that one such attack takes place every 39 seconds.

Many organizations across the globe have encountered huge economic losses and even many brands had their businesses hit due to these rapidly growing cyber-attacks during these pandemic times, some of which have been detailed below.

Glimpse of recent cybersecurity attacks in 2020

◘  According to a Capgemini report, there has been a 667% increase in spear-fishing email attacks related due to COVID-19 since the end of February 2020 alone

◘ Another cybersecurity report states that the ransomware attacks are estimated to cost $6 trillion annually by 2021

◘  According to Cybercrime Magazine, cybercrime is likely to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025

◘  Twitter hackers who targeted Elon Musk and others, received $121,000 in Bitcoin in a recent cyber attack

◘  67% of financial institutions reported an increase in cyber-attacks over the past year of 2019

◘  The world’s largest cruise line operator reported a data breach due to a ransomware attack in August 2020 wherein hackers stole confidential information of customers, employees, and crew members

◘  500,000 stolen Zoom passwords were available for sale in dark web crime forums

◘  Many healthcare organizations were struck by ransomware attacks and data breaches, stating that millions of their patient’s data were exposed

◘ 43% of cyber-attacks target small businesses

Let us also know some of the major impacts businesses face due to these cybersecurity breaches. Typically, each organization is unique in terms of the impact of the breach or cyber-attack which also depends on the timing and duration of the attack and also the industry involved. Specifically, if it is a financial industry the impact could be more rather than for manufacturing industry when these both industries are compared with respect to being affected due to these cyber attacks.

Major Impacts for Businesses due to Cybersecurity Breaches

Brand reputation loss:

These cyber-attacks by hackers have caused some businesses to lose some of their customers and stakeholder’s trust, especially if the company has failed to protect their customer data. Invariably such a reputation loss might not attract the best talent, suppliers, or even investors, and might also lead to business disruption at times.

Customer data and Intellectual Property theft:

Continuous attacks by cybercriminals have led to monetary losses and especially this stolen data could be of more worth to the attackers. The stolen data is also sold on the dark web and hackers make good ransom these days. In addition, if Intellectual Property theft occurs, it might cause more harm to the companies as they lose their years of effort and R&D investment, due to these cybersecurity attacks.

Financial loss & business disruption:

Cybercrimes cause small businesses more damage when compared to large businesses or large corporations. According to a report, 43% of cyber-attacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves. Due to certain cyber-attacks, many of the leading corporate websites have gone down suffering many hours of business disruption in recent times.

Fine payment and legal consequences:

Businesses need to protect the personal data of customers or employees or patients, etc. If this data is accidentally or deliberately compromised, then it showcases that the organization has not followed appropriate security measures and they may be levied with fines and some might also have to face certain regulatory sanctions and legal consequences also.

Some of the cybersecurity threats amid Covid-19 pandemic are: 

Cybersecurity Challenges for WFH employees during Covid-19

With the Work From Home (WFH) option still continuing for almost all corporate IT employees, their remote settings bring in more susceptibility to cybersecurity threats. The remote access, use of collaboration tools by employees, availability of enterprise data on endpoint devices, lack of physical oversight of IT infrastructure, continue to be some of the major grey areas for organizations and their WFH employees to be more susceptible to these cyber-attacks.

Cybersecurity Challenges for Healthcare, Financial, Telecom, and E-learning Systems during Covid-19

Healthcare systems:

Almost all modern-day healthcare systems are based upon ICT apps and these e-healthcare systems include e-pharmacy, telemedicine, virtual consultations using various apps, etc. In recent times, during this pandemic, these systems have become more vulnerable and have become more targeted systems for hackers.

Many of the healthcare systems across the globe have been attacked by various forms of cyber-attacks thus either causing business disruption or causing data theft of patient records.

Financial services:

For the financial sector, hacking and malware continue to be the primary cause of data breaches. 71% of all data breaches are financially motivated and typically the cost of cyberattacks in the banking industry reached $18.3 million annually per company, according to a recent report.

Alarmingly, 8 out of 10 US citizens fear that businesses are not able to secure their financial information and this financial report also states that 92% of ATMs are vulnerable to hacks. Thus, financial services organizations need to leverage effective measures and best security testing practices to safeguard customer data from possible threats.

Telecom systems:

According to a Deloitte report, telecom companies are a big target for cyber-attacks, as they build, control, and operate critical infrastructure that is being widely used to store large amounts of customer sensitive data. Cybercriminals or insiders are looking to blackmail customers, or even conduct identity theft, or launch furthermore attacks.

There are more risks involved even with the leased infrastructure equipment such as routers from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and once it is compromised, then hackers use it to steal data, launch anonymous attacks, and many more which could lead to significant revenue loss to these telecom companies.

E-learning systems:

With schools closed for in person study, online learning environments have become the target for cyber attackers. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has warned that attackers could take advantage of COVID-19 by increasingly targeting virtual environments, including those utilized by school districts. The education sector has already been a prime target for ransomware attacks during these pandemic times. Another report from a leading Security firm said that many educational organizations are at risk of data security incidents during the current period of working from home and virtual learning on the go.

How can WFH employees and other Business Sectors overcome these Cyber Threats and Attacks?

Undoubtedly, cyber attackers have become smart in their moves and tactics but to defend systems from these attacks, businesses and organizations need to become even smarter by ensuring some best practices. Below mentioned are some of the best practices to adopt and protect their systems, applications and infrastructure from cyber-attacks.

Best practices to be followed:

Organizations should increase awareness among their employees, and educate them to identify potential risks, and stay away from any unsolicited emails, links, and messages, or malicious domains.

Both the employer and employees should ensure below mentioned best practices:

◘  Employees should be advised not to open up emails from unknown senders or from people who often do not communicate directly with them

◘  Employees should be advised not to click on links, or malicious domains if it comes from an unknown sender

◘  A corporate-approved anti-phishing filter or corporate-approved anti-virus must be installed by IT team to protect the company’s data from any possible cyber threats on each system

◘  Employees should maximize the usage of virtual private networks (VPNs), cloud interfaces, etc. to keep data safe and secure

◘  Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) should be made necessary for all employees to access critical applications

◘  Password authentication should be followed and also ensure to keep their software updated

The need for businesses to leverage security testing to prevent cyber threats:

Organizations need to leverage security testing of their applications, systems, and infrastructure to safeguard them from any possible threats and vulnerabilities. Security testing is the key solution for preventing the organization’s apps, systems, and infrastructure from cyber-threats and vulnerabilities. Security testing is a rigorous testing process performed by using various open-source and commercial automation security testing tools to help identify any weaknesses, or vulnerabilities in the systems, applications, or networks.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, cybersecurity is an uprising issue, especially during these unprecedented pandemic times. Many businesses have turned towards digital solutions to ensure the longevity of their businesses. But, inevitably,  with the usage of these digital solutions, many organizations are more prone to cybersecurity attacks. Hence, brands must leverage effective security testing services from next-gen security testing services provider to safeguard their systems, apps, data, and IT infrastructure from cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

How can TestingXperts help in preventing your organization from cyber-attacks?

We have a team of Certified Ethical Hackers (CEH) who can help you to ensure that your application is secure from any vulnerabilities and that it meets the essential security requirements like confidentiality, authorization, authentication, availability, and integrity.

We are one of the best security testing companies that have expertise in assessing a wide range of applications for security threats and we ensure that your application is rigorously tested for all possible threats and vulnerabilities. We also perform vulnerability testing and pen testing to safeguard your systems, apps, and infrastructure from any possible security threats.

We primarily follow the OWASP (Open Web Security Project) guidelines in our security testing services along with PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOX, WAHH, OSSTM, WASC, and NIST Standards as per the application-specific requirements.

The post Why Cybersecurity Matters the Most in COVID-19 Pandemic? first appeared on TestingXperts.

With the year 2020 on the go, there have been rapid technological moves associated with the IoT connected devices, cloud networks and mobile apps that continue to dominate the business world.

There has been digital transformation across all these systems and business sectors that have truly enabled better business outcomes. But inevitably, this huge benefit of connectedness across systems and networks comes with underlying security threats. The more connected we are, the more our data becomes vulnerable to cyber threats and vulnerabilities. Some of the business sectors that are more vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks have been financial, healthcare, government, education.

Contents 1. What is security testing? 2. What are Cyber Security Trends to Look in 2020? 3. How Should Businesses Overcome Cyber Attacks in 2020? 4. What Tools Are Recommended for Application Security Testing? 5. Conclusion

According to Forbes, based on a report by Risk Based Security research newly published in 2019, during the first six months of 2019 has seen more than 3,800 publicly disclosed breaches exposing an incredible 4.1 billion compromised records. Businesses of all sizes need to get their security act together, with the business sector accounting for 67% of the reported breaches and 84.6% of the exposed records according to the report.

Though businesses become more technologically advanced, but as data is shared across the internet, there is more susceptibility for data threats and vulnerabilities. There has been emerging web security, application security and mobile application security threats that continue to dominate today’s business world. However, in this year 2020, there is a need to understand and know about the top cyber security trends that businesses should watch out and effective mobile and website security testing should be opted.

What is security testing?

Security Testing is taken up to identify threats and vulnerabilities in the system. It also helps in detecting possible security risks in the system and ensuring a failsafe application. Businesses today should ensure that security testing is taken up for all developed applications.

What are Cyber Security Trends to Look in 2020?

>

1. Growing Attacks of Ransomware and Phishing:

Hackers continue to use publicly available information across the internet to hack personal and other critical business data. Global ransomware damage costs are predicted to hit $20 billion in 2021, up from $11.5 billion in 2019, $5 billion in 2017, and just $325 million in 2015, according to a report by a leading Cybersecurity firm. According to another CIO report, Ransomware took the industry last year, leeching off smaller entities such as state governments, healthcare facilities, and school districts.

According to the FBI, hospitals and health care institutions continue to be the primary targets of these ransomware attacks. There are usually costs involved in paying the ransom and then getting restored their network systems.

These attacks have been so rapid that certain healthcare providers were affected and were unable to deliver critical healthcare to their patients. Another rather annoying fact is that certain victim companies reported data loss even after they paid the ransom demanded by the hackers.

Hence, end-to-end web security testing and application security testing by leveraging expert testing companies should be taken up.

2. Integrating AI,and ML to Counter Security Threats:

There are so many advances in Data Science that have been effectively used with advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

AL and ML are being used in more and more products in all market segments including cyber security. Various ML algorithms are used for face recognition and threat detections. Biometric logins are increasingly being used by either scanning fingerprints, retina or palm prints. Biometric logins are highly useful to achieve a positive AI contribution to cyber security.

AI is also used to detect threats and certain other malicious attacks. AI and ML can collaboratively be used to determine ransomware and malware attacks before it enters the system and then specifically isolate it.

3. Expanding Cloud Security Threats:

Undoubtedly most businesses are shifting more workloads to the cloud due to its easy 24X7 access and fewer infrastructure overheads. But, organizations need to overcome various data security breaches in cloud computing.

Some of the most important cloud security threats include data breach, critical data loss, abuse of cloud services, insecure interfaces and security issues with application programming interfaces (APIs).

Some of the other include malware infections and identity theft that continue to cause a lot of concerns to enterprises. Hence, thorough digital testing and cloud application security testing should be taken up by experienced security testing companies to realize the full benefits of a cloud environment.

4. Mounting Mobile Apps Security Risks:

With the enormous mobile apps running across business sectors, poses a major threat to security vulnerabilities. While at the time of developing these mobile apps, much importance was not given to security testing to be a part of the mobile application development process.

Hence, with increased digitalization and mobile apps being the major medium for entire e-commerce businesses, it is today an utmost priority to embrace mobile application security testing by independent testing companies to get the full benefits out of the business-critical mobile apps.

5. Increasing Attacks on IoT Devices:

In today’s era where smart technologies like a hotspot, IoT (Internet of Things), IIoT (Industrial Internet of things) started to penetrate every facet of life, security is largely getting compromised. Though there are enormous benefits with this smart technology but still, some of its loopholes result in possible cyber attacks resulting in loss of data.

It is an important fact that many of these connected devices do not have security built-in at the device level. Hence they become more prone to security threats.

Thus, application security needs to be tested using paid and open source security testing tools for mobile applications to enable thorough security across connected devices.

6. Striking Cyber Security Skills Gap:

Undoubtedly, there is an increasing demand for cyber security professionals but the supply is very low when compared to demand.

According to a report, the estimated current cyber security workforce is 2.8 million professionals, while the amount of additional trained staff needed to close the skills gap is 4.07 million professionals.  The data indicates a necessary cyber security workforce increase of 145% globally.

There should be a proper strategy by enterprises to raise their workforce through upskilling them, enabling training and skill development with transferring proper knowledge. There is a need to increase cyber security professionals as the number of security threats continues to rise uncontrolled across businesses.

7. Increasing Investments in Cyber Security:

A report by a research firm states that cyber security spending is predicted to exceed up to $1 trillion from 2017 to 2021.

Worldwide spending on information security of products and services is increasing in leaps and bounds.

How Should Businesses Overcome Cyber Attacks in 2020?

Experts say mobile will be the primary phishing vector for attacks in 2020 and hence effective end-to-end mobile application security testing by an expert testing company should be aligned to become secure.

As corporate infrastructure moves towards the cloud, there is more chance for cyber-attacks and comprehensive cloud application security testing should be adopted to make your cloud environment secure.

What Tools Are Recommended for Application Security Testing?

There are many open source security testing tools and paid security testing tools in the market to ensure that your mobile and cloud applications are secure. This way businesses can leverage mobile application security testing tools to ensure their systems, mobile apps, cloud networks are all free from cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

A few Open-source Security testing tools:

SonarQube: This is a popular tool used for continuously inspecting the quality of the code and security of the codebases. Also, this tool is efficient to guide the development teams during code reviews. This tool efficiently supports 27 programming languages and thus, it is easier to pair-up with the already existing software pipeline.

SQLMap: This tool can successfully automate the procedure of exploiting and detecting SQL injection. It is build up with a powerful detection engine and supports several niche features. The tool also has a broad range of switches for database fingerprinting which is done by fetching data from the database.

Grabber: This tool is efficiently known as a web application scanner. This simple and portable tool is used to scan and detect vulnerabilities on the website. It has several features such as file inclusion, cross-site scripting, SQL injection, etc.

Arachni: This is a multi-platform tool with a high-performance Ruby framework, it helps administrators and security testers to evaluate the security of the application.

A few Commercial Security Testing tools:

HP Webinspect: This tool is popularly known as the web application security testing tool. It helps in identifying the vulnerabilities in the application. Also, the tool is effective to monitor the configuration of the webservers as it is used to perform cross-site scripting, parameter injection, and more.

Acunetix: This is one of the prominent security testing tool commonly known as a web vulnerability scanner. It performs several functions such as PCI compliance reports, cross-site scripting, SQL injection, etc. Also, it is capable of performing out-of-band vulnerability testing.

Kiuwan Security: This is a cloud-based platform for Enterprise Software Analytics and Application Security. This tool can help teams of any sizes meet their goals with a wide range of features such as to detect security vulnerabilities, reduce issues, increase productivity, etc.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly with the speed of technological innovations around Smart devices, IoT connected devices, mobile apps, and cloud networks have increased the possibility for cyber security attacks.

These systems are more prone to rampant attacks due to their lack of proper security evaluations embedded in the systems. Hence, an expert security testing company will prove handy to enable connected systems that are more secured.

The post What are Top Cyber Security Trends for 2020? first appeared on TestingXperts.