SpartanTec, Inc. Wilmington: What is Cybersecurity and Why Do You Need It?

Manufacturing firms are becoming more interconnected and the risks to the production systems, supply chain, and confidential data are rising significantly. Cybersecurity must be an important concern or for all manufacturers.

Small and medium sized firms face greater risks to being attacked by cybercriminals because they have more digital assets to choose from compared to other individual consumers. But they also have less security compared to a bigger company that has a lot of resources.

However, what kind of cyberattacks should you be on the lookout for and how can you prevent them? In nearly all cases, the objective of cyberattack is to steal and use the sensitive data for their own gain. Hackers search for financial information, proprietary designs, employee records, and client data. Hackers may also target your company to use your systems for purposes of cyberblackmailing. Once they’re hacked, they would ask for big sums of money if you want your network to be released unharmed.

If you want to fight the threat from cybercriminals, the first thing you have to know is the kind of cyberthreats that are out there.

Common Cyberattacks against Manufacturers

Advance persistent threats – APT are cyberattacks that are long term. They break into your network in several phases so they could avoid detection.

Distributed Denial of Service – DdoS attacks happen when a server is overloaded intentionally with several requests, with the objective of shutting down the network system or website of their target.

Inside Attack – When somebody that has administrative privileges misuses their credentials intentionally to get access to a confidential information from the company.

Malware – A malicious software covers any kind of program that is introduced into the computer of their victims with the intention to gain unauthorized access or cause damage.

Password Attacks – Brute force, dictionary, and keylogging attacks are the three types of password attacks.

Phishing – It is the most common type of cyberattack, which involves gathering confidential information such as credit card information and login credentials through a real looking website, generally sent to unsuspecting people through an email.

How To Lessen The Odds of Getting Hacked

Protect your network against spyware, viruses, and other cyberthreats - Install antivirus and antispyware software on your computers and update them regularly.

Secure your networks – protect your internet connection by installing and setting up a firewall. All information must be encrypted, too. In case you have a Wi-Fi network, it must be hidden and secure. To conceal it, you have to set up the router or wireless access point so that it doesn’t broadcast the name of the network or the SSID. You should also password protect the router.

Set in place security policies and practices to safeguard sensitive information - Create policies on how your staff needs to deal with and protect PII or personally identifiable information as well as other confidential data. You have to outline what will happen if they violate the cybersecurity Wilmington NC policies of your company.

Educate your staff about cyberthreats – teach your employees about cyberthreats and how they can protect your business data.

Use strong passwords – implement multifactor authentication that needs more information than just a single password to gain access. Consult your vendors that deal with sensitive data like financial institutions to check if they can provide multifactor authentication for your account.