How Bad Actors Gain Access to Your Business
A bad actor is anyone whose actions cause a negative effect on your business. They may be an employee, customer, third-party vendor, or malicious hacker. Bad actors can gain access to your business by exploiting vulnerabilities in your software and hardware. These vulnerabilities can be as simple as using a weak password or as complex as exploiting unknown security flaws in a piece of software. Once inside, bad actors can steal sensitive data such as customer records, business bank accounts, and confidential internal files; disrupt production systems; or hold your entire network for ransom.
While no system is completely secure, there is much you can do to prevent bad actors from gaining access and the damage they might cause. In this article we’ll look at how bad actors gain access and methods their abuse can prevent.
Gaining access to your business is the first step in most cyberattacks. Once an attacker has access, it may take months before you realize you have been compromised. In a recent survey conducted by Ponemon Institute, it took organizations an average of 191 days to detect a data breach and 66 additional days to contain it.
The longer attackers remain undetected, the more damage they can do — stealing data, deleting files, installing malware and more. Access is power, and they will use it as long as they can get away with it.
In this blog we’ll explore some of the ways bad actors gain access to your business and methods their abuse can prevent.
Bad actors are always looking for new ways to gain access to a company. Their methods are constantly evolving, creating an ongoing challenge for security professionals. In this blog post, we will look at the most common ways bad actors gain access to your business, and methods you can use to prevent their abuse.
1. Phishing
2. Vulnerable Third-Party Suppliers
3. Malware
4. Spear Phishing
5. Social Engineering
6. Poor Passwords
7. Weak Security Questions
The business landscape is filled with many types of bad actors. These include fraudsters, identity thieves, and hackers seeking profit or the exposure of sensitive information.
In order for a bad actor to gain access to your business, there are several methods used to complete their objective. This blog will detail these methods and how to prevent their abuse.
One method that is used is by gaining access to your account through hacking passwords and PINs. In order to gain this access, a common method hackers use is called phishing. Phishing is when a hacker sends an email pretending to be someone else (usually someone associated with the company) in order for the user to click links or download attachments that will then automatically download malware into their computers or devices.
Another method used by bad actors is the one-click hack. One-click hacks are popular among fraudsters because they are easy to perform, but can have massive consequences on your business if they are successful. One-click hacks occur when a fraudster uses malware that automatically clicks through ads on your website using fake IP addresses and real mobile devices in order for those clicks to be monetized. These attacks are hard to detect because they mimic human activity and the fraudulent activity only lasts for about three seconds per ad clicked. The
A malicious actor who gains access to a system or network can cause significant damage, such as stealing sensitive information, installing malware, or disrupting systems. A single compromised account can lead to unauthorized access of internal network, services, resources and data.
How Bad Actors Gain Access
There are many ways in which bad actors gain access to your business. Here are a few:
Malware: Malicious software installed on the endpoint (i.e., desktop computer, laptop, tablet) of an unsuspecting user that allows hackers to remotely control the infected machine and use it to distribute spam or launch attacks on other computers. There are many types of malware including viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware and spyware.
Weak Passwords: When users create easily guessed passwords for their email accounts or other online services (i.e., “123456” or “password1”), bad actors will try these common passwords first when attempting to access user accounts.
Phishing Scams: These scams trick users into providing sensitive information via email. The user receives an email appearing to be from a legitimate institution with a link that takes them to a website that looks like the original institution’s site but is not – usually a duplicate site set up by hackers. The
Bad actors will always find a way to gain access to your business. Whether it be through a phishing email, ransomware, or socially engineered call, your organization will be breached at some point in time and the best you can do is minimize the damage.
Here are some of the most common ways bad actors gain access:
1. Phishing emails
2. Ransomware
3. Social Engineering (calls and emails)
4. Physical Theft
5. Third party applications/extensions
Bad actors gain access to businesses in many ways, including:
Malware and other hacks
Phishing and social engineering
Piggybacking or tailgating
Weak passwords
Bad actors can use these methods to steal data, deface websites, hold computers hostage, damage files and infrastructure, and generally wreak havoc on your business. These are just some of the things they can do. They can also do more targeted attacks, like using weak passwords to access a sales database or stealing company secrets by hacking into an executive’s email account.
You can protect yourself by using strong passwords combined with two-factor authentication for all your accounts, keeping software up-to-date, and being skeptical of emails from people you don’t know. And even if you take all the right steps, there’s still a chance that bad actors will get in. This is why it’s important to have security measures in place to detect intrusions and mitigate their effects as quickly as possible.
