Page 37 - BusinessWest May 30, 2022

credit card data, social security numbers, bank- ing information, and credentials. Detection relies on the ability to identify unusual activity such
as unusual outbound traffic, increased database activity, network activity at odd times. APTs also likely involve the creation of backdoors into your network.
• Insider threats: Although we are fixated on external threats, internal threats are more com- mon and can be equally as damaging. Examples
for everything. It could also be a system that was not patched, a port that was left open on a fire- wall, or forgetting to lock a user account after termination.
• Viruses and worms: Frequently considered to be ‘old school’ threats, these still exist and can cause tremendous damage. Users should be careful about clicking on ads, file sharing sites, links in emails, etc. Their purpose is to dam- age an organization, systems, data, or network.
the emergence of a new generation of security products and platforms. To better understand how we look at information security, let me borrow one of the examples I commonly use when speaking to businesspeople and groups about building an effective Information Security Program.
Think of information security as an onion. Like an onion, information security programs are comprised of layers (firewall, backup, AV, email filtering, etc...) of protection surrounding the core (your data). As we build an information security program, we need to put layers of pro- tection between the threat and the asset we are trying to protect. While the details of an informa- tion security program are outside the scope of this article, for the purposes of this discussion you only need to understand that there is no single magic product that can protect you from all threats. Anti-virus, or even the new generation endpoint detection and response (EDR) products are but one layer of protection in an over-arching strategy to protect your business from modern threats.
A brief history of antivirus (AV) products has them coming onto the scene in the late 1980s, with familiar names like McAfee, Norton, and Avast. These early products relied on signature- based definitions. Much like you look up a word in the dictionary, these AV products could catch defined threats, but they would easily fail to prevent attacks that had yet been discovered;
or worse, that they had not yet downloaded an update for that would allow them to recognize
Threats
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“MThe notion that you are just too small a company to worry about these threats, or that no one wants your data is a fallacy. Criminals are targeting small companies every day because they are easy targets.”
However, traditional anti-virus software is usually effective at controlling them.
• Botnets: Sim-
ply put, a botnet is a collection of devices that have access to the internet like PCs, servers, phones, cam- eras, time clocks,
or other commonly found networked devices. These devices
of intentional and unintentional threats include: Intentional threats such as employees stealing
data by copying or sending sensitive or propri- etary data outside the company. This may occur viaemail/FTP,USBdrive,clouddrive(OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud), or some other means. Often, these happen because someone fails to comply with security protocols because they are per- ceived to be inconvenient or “overkill.”.
Unintentional threats might include an employee clicking on a phishing email, respond- ing to a pop up asking for credentials, not using a strong password, or using the same password
are then infected by malware that allows crimi- nals to use them to launch attacks on other net- works, generate spam, or create other malicious traffic.
• Drive-by attacks: These are infected graph- ics or code on a website that gets injected into your computer without your knowledge. They can be used to steal personal information, or inject trojans, exploit kits, and other forms of malware.
While this list might seem exhausting, it only represents a few of the more common attack methods that we see daily. It also helps explain
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