Top 4 Threats to Cyber Security in 2021

IT Services in Provo

If there was one thing that the pandemic of 2020 taught us all, it’s that we are able to cope in a world that works remotely. We can go online and transform our businesses, our time to study and more simply, we can connect with others during lockdown situations. While this has been a positive thing that has come from the pandemic, it’s also true that there has been a dramatic increase in the cybersecurity threats out there. This rise has come from many things, from COVID emerging to the expansion of the remote working culture. People believed that their devices were secure when they weren’t, and email phishing campaigns are on the rise. 

The pandemic is mostly under control these days, but the level of threats to cybersecurity have carried into 2021. This year has seen even more successful fraudulent schemes and new threats out there in the market. Companies everywhere are worried about more than systems breaches, too. They’re worried about issues in compliance and rightly so. Below, we’ve got the top four threats to cybersecurity in 2021, so that you can keep an eye on your business.

Going Phishing

The savviest of cybercriminals out there are learning how to bypass expert IT services in Provo and are exploiting new vulnerabilities that have come from the back of remote working. The biggest vulnerability is not your work email account, but your home email account, and criminals knew this. It’s why there was more of an emphasis on phishing scams that attack emails. People were three times more likely to click on a phishing link during the pandemic than anything else.

Home Online Security

With more people remote working, cybersecurity criminals learned to target home computers. In an office, the IT service a business uses creates a secure perimeter around the technology that isn’t extended to the home. One of the most common attacks has been through Zoom. companies have to improve their endpoint management solutions, as these can give them enough control over apps and data. 

Third-Party Breaches

Did you hear about the 2020 hacking event with SolarWinds? This Texas-based company had hackers secretly break into the systems and add code to the product that was malicious. Software updates that went out included hacked code, and this enabled hackers to get into the system of the customers at home. This then caught the attention of other hackers, and they began to follow suit.

Ransomware Attacks

By April 2020, ransomware use had grown 300%. This malware attack blocks access to data and computer systems with the help of encryption, until the victim of the attack pays a fee to the attacker. These attacks increased because of the fact that companies mitigated the threats with the purchase of insurance from ransomware. This means that attackers learned that companies will pay them back to get the access they need to their systems. This is looking to be on track for 2021. 

Technology is changing and cybercriminals are getting smarter. Winning this battle means that all businesses need to make their cybersecurity a huge priority.