With virtual dangers reaching historic highs, cybersecurity is more vital than ever. Every industry needs to take precautions to protect itself against cybercrime. Several industries, in particular, should be worried about safety. These industries are the most vulnerable to cyberattacks, which can result in billions of dollars in losses.
- Electronic commerce
Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, online shopping grew in popularity, but the COVID-19 epidemic has caused an amazing growth in the 2020s. This is wonderful news for businesses since e-commerce can reach a far bigger audience than traditional retailers.
These businesses, on the other hand, must have top-notch cybersecurity. When internet shopping became more popular in 2020, cybercrime increased dramatically, resulting in $1 trillion in losses. Online checkout security, multifactor authentication, secure data storage, and other procedures that prioritize client information can help e-commerce enterprises safeguard their clients from these dangers.
- Finance
In 2021, a staggering 74 percent of financial institutions reported an increase in cyber risks linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial institutions are at the top of cybercriminals’ lists, which should come as no surprise. As more clients switch to internet banking, the trend will only continue. Financial institutions must take extra precautions to safeguard themselves and their clients from digital dangers.
Biometric authentication, for example, should be included in mobile banking apps since it is more difficult to crack than a traditional alphanumeric password. Internally, cybersecurity must be impregnable, which necessitates a security culture among employees and executives.
- Medical care
When the COVID-19 outbreak drew a lot of attention and money to the healthcare business, hackers took note. Cybercriminals have turned their attention to service providers, institutions, and enterprises of all kinds. Because it allows for impersonation and identity theft, patients’ sensitive data might be highly valuable on the dark web and cybercrime networks. To protect their patients and consumers, healthcare firms must be highly cautious and diligent.
According to studies, misdelivery accounts for 36 percent of all breaches in the medical profession. Individual errors and inconsistencies are only exacerbated by telemedicine. Every password, device, file, and user should be very secure. For this reason, AI cybersecurity software is on the increase, assisting in the autonomous detection of threats and weaknesses.
- The manufacturing industry
The industrial industry was not traditionally a target for cybercrime, but that has changed as a result of the supply chain issue. Cybercriminals are aware that manufacturers are already working against the clock, making it much simpler for assaults such as ransomware to get a foothold. As a result, security flaws among manufacturers have put the entire supply chain at danger.
During the supply chain crisis, more firms are turning to automation, IoT, and other linked technologies to remain ahead of the game. It is critical to safeguard these gadgets. To keep attackers out, industrial plants’ networks must have powerful firewalls and login safeguards. Employees’ computers that they use to access corporate information should be protected and backed up on a regular basis.
- The federal government
Cybercrime has long been a top priority for government agencies and the private sector firms with whom they collaborate. However, in the next years, their cybersecurity approaches will need to adapt. To keep ahead of the growing flood of cybercrime, government entities and their business sector partners will need to lead the way in terms of cutting-edge security procedures.
Specific sorts of assaults are rising at a greater rate than others, and governments must be aware of this. They could start mandating anti-phishing training to teach government employees how to spot and respond to questionable emails and websites, for example. In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, INTERPOL discovered that phishing attempts had surged more than any other sort of hacking. Governments are particularly vulnerable since they constantly handle sensitive and sometimes secret information.
Cybersecurity in the Digital Era to Come
To keep ahead of thieves, cybersecurity must be a continual process that is constantly reviewed and enhanced. In response to changing risks, innovation has blossomed in recent years. Artificial intelligence, for example, is quickly becoming a popular technique for outsmarting fraudsters and stopping assaults entirely.
Friendly hacking is also becoming more popular as businesses look for a safe way to test their defences. For digital safety, education and training are essential. This is especially true in the age of remote work when employees are exclusively responsible for the security of their equipment and connections. Organizations in any industry can defend themselves and their customers from the increasing hazards of the digital world by adopting a security-first strategy.
The most prevalent sorts of attacks
In order to enter networks or steal sensitive client credentials, thieves are most likely to use the following attack types
Attacks on the supply chain (JavaScript and software)
Supply chain attacks increased by more than 650 percent in the previous year, according to new study. To carry out hostile attacks against enterprises and sectors connected via the supply chain, threat actors exploit existing vulnerabilities in open-source and third-party code or insert their own malicious scripts into software and JavaScript code.
Attacks against vulnerable apps (bugs/vulnerabilities that haven’t been patched and older programmes)
Cybercriminals love to exploit new faults and vulnerabilities that are found on a regular basis. Criminals are often drawn to older programmes because they may have unpatched flaws. Attackers can find flaws before security experts do, and these ‘zero days’ allow attackers to infiltrate applications and systems without the organisation even realising it. Cross-site scripting and injections are common attack methods that target vulnerabilities (JavaScript, SQL, CSS, and HTML).
