Cybersecurity threats are putting companies on high alert. The complexity of cyberattacks has increased dramatically in recent years, targeting businesses, governments, schools, banks, and social media sites alike. What’s more, a shortage of cybersecurity professionals is further exacerbating the threat.

Put simply, there’s no end in sight to cybercrime. As the global economy becomes more technologically dependent, cybercrime will inevitably increase. As the number of hackers grows, the strategies and sophisticated technologies used to deploy their attacks advance like never before. It’s crucial, with this in mind, to have an incident response plan that addresses cybersecurity issues—specifically if you plan on relocating your NYC office—so IT teams can respond adequately if a security breach occurs.

5 Cybersecurity Threats Your NYC Business Should Know

Listed below are five cybersecurity threats your company should be aware of and prepared to deal with when your corporate move involves moving your IT equipment.

Malware and Ransomware

Malware, also known as “malicious software,” is any code or program harmful to a computer system, device, or network. Typically, cybercriminals use malware to obtain unwarranted access to a computer system, steal data, damage or disable it, interrupt its normal operation, and carry out other intrusive activities that exploit victims.

Malware has many motives. Malware can be used for various reasons, including stealing money and damaging your computer for political gain or for personal use. Though malware doesn’t damage computer hardware, it can steal files, encrypt them, delete them, and change computer operations, as well as monitor your computer.

Malware such as ransomware, which encrypts your data and blocks access to it, is the most dangerous and common form of malware. When a ransomware attack occurs, a ransom payment is usually requested in exchange for the decryption key or access to the locked system. Ransom demands often have a deadline, and if you do not pay the ransom by that time, your files will be lost forever.

Phishing

To conduct a phishing attack, a cybercriminal targets you through an email, text message, phone call, or social media account in order to gain sensitive information. Such attacks are typically conducted by individuals posing as legitimate or trusted members of an institution, like a bank, employer, or tax authority, in order to disguise their real intentions. Often, users are tricked into revealing sensitive information such as passwords, credit card or social security numbers, addresses, bank accounts, and more. By gathering this information, it’s possible to access confidential business and personal information.

Data Leakage

When sensitive, confidential, or protected data is leaked into an untrusted or unknown environment, it’s referred to as data leakage. An organization’s data breaches can occur either intentionally or unintentionally. Hacker attacks, insider attacks, or unintentional losses may all result in data breaches.

Breach of data can result in leakage of information, also known as exfiltration, which refers to unauthorized copying of data without impacting the original source of the data. In other cases, it can result in total data loss, as in ransomware attacks.

Password Attack

Password attacks refer to any method used to obtain access to password-protected accounts through malicious intent. In most cases, these attacks are eased by using software that automates the process of guessing passwords. Typically, attackers use brute force, dictionary attacks, password spraying, and credentials stuffing.

  • In brute-force attacks, the goal is to guess a password by trying all possible combinations of characters that are permitted.
  • In dictionary attacks, passwords are guessed through repetitions of similar words that appear in the dictionary.
  • The practice of password spraying lets users try a limited number of common passwords to access many accounts at once, rather than multiple passwords to attempt to access one account. In this way, hackers can avoid account lockout rules and detection.
  • Credential stuffing is a cyberattack technique that involves attacking a system by using lists of compromised user credentials. It assumes that many users reuse usernames and passwords across different websites or applications.

Data breaches are primarily the result of password attacks. Even though these threats are relatively easy and inexpensive to combat, many organizations fail to implement the appropriate protections.

Insider Threat

An insider threat is a cybersecurity risk generated by individuals within an organization, including employees, contractors, and partners. Access to networks and assets can be mishandled by these individuals for the purpose of disclosing, modifying, and deleting sensitive data, whether intentionally or not.

Compromised information may include company security procedures, financial information, and employee and customer credentials. In recent years, traditional security measures have fallen short of countering insider threats.

IT Relocation and Moving Services for Companies in NYC

When you are moving to another office, you need the skill and resources of a professional IT relocation company for a successful transition. Count on CRS Moving & Storage to provide you with structured and efficient IT moving services.

We look forward to taking your call or responding to your questions at any time. Send us a message today to learn how we can assist your organization. Contact us today by calling 718-424-6000 or filling out our contact form.