The murky waters of the Internet space can sometimes be dangerous. No one is safe from malware, fraud, and data leakage. This article will discuss the importance of cyber security for websites and how to maintain it in a highly competitive and understaffed environment.
Like any other industry, the IT sector experienced a crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the forced quarantine, raw materials supply, electronics value chain disruption, and higher inflation risks haven't stopped many entrepreneurs from restarting their businesses and moving into the world of remote work, ESG principles, and quick technological solutions. They had to immediately reformat old business development strategies and optimize the app's performance and protection. As a result, companies' profit is estimated to be at about $ 5.3 trillion in 2022. Looking ahead to the future, it is expected to increase at a 5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2024.
There is a specific pattern: the more prosperous the sector is, the more fraudsters want to take a bite out of it. To minimize the raids on websites, it is critical to ensure awareness among internet users through cybersecurity education.
Today, no one is immune from hacking - technology is constantly improving, and scammers are getting more creative. Indeed, the nightmare of each user is the third-parties possession of transactions, personal information, and any compromising information. To avoid this happening, the franchisee or business owner needs to take care of a strong protection system. Read more about why cybersecurity is needed and what you should know about attacks from a developer's point of view in this article.
The world has turned upside down in the last two years - we are still fascinated by the dramatic shift to digital technology, but even more so by the increase in cyber attacks. New, more sophisticated ransomware has appeared - it can hit the average user, the enterprise, and partners. That can disrupt the raw materials supply chain and affect the site's reputation. Here are a few more reasons why cybersecurity is important.
Blockchain has become a refuge for criminals
Every year, this technology looks more and more like a protective cocoon of malefactors trying to hide their digital transactions and stay undetected for longer. In addition, many criminals looking to launder their dirty money will use some websites as a washer. This flow of malicious traffic is quite challenging to discover and stop, which speaks to the significance of hiring cybersecurity consultants capable of handling attacks.
Cloud reminds the battleground for all kinds of attacks
The cloud structure also provides a level of security that many companies cannot achieve on their own. Nevertheless, there are smartypants ready to hack into the most secure systems to steal more money. It's like Neighbours from Hell: the more mischief a character makes, the higher the rating and self-satisfaction. And although threads via the cloud are primarily unsuccessful, hackers find ways to control a user's accounts and make certain withdrawals on behalf of the authentic user. This can include attacks on service platforms that utilize service delivery models like SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS.
To protect yourself from such threats, consider properly configured servers and strong password protocols, adhere to documentation while setting APIs, limit the amount of information accessed by some employees in your company.
Direct denial of service (DDoS) attacks become more frequent
DDoS, including encryption and data hostage situations, have become new ransomware trends: they paralyze and speed up transactions and put out of the security systems action. Unable to pay the ransom and to look to response operations can put disaster recovery front and center of ransomware incident response. They will charge these online platforms large sums of money to return the hacked info or smooth website access.
Sanctioned countries intensify cyberattacks
Depending on geolocation, economic and political constraints, groups of intruders are activated, which infringe on the security of many sectors of foreign countries. But all expert predictions point to the real possibility of reducing vulnerability through cyber security and web development. The fact is that applying the latest practices and solutions in the Internet space will help you to achieve the smooth operation of the site.
Recently, more and more entrepreneurs are deciding to establish “zero trust” in their security strategy. After all, users are increasingly wondering what are the motives of companies that collect data. Data access auditing can help solve many security problems, including taking down entire ransomware syndicates.
Doubling down on cybersecurity regulations and the conflicting expectations of different governments may become a kind of tribunal for many companies. Therefore, when introducing your business into the industry, you should consider the rules of interaction with senior management, regional requirements, legally permissible loopholes, and IT security principles (confidentiality, integrity, and availability).
Cybersecurity Threats you Must Know as a Web Developer
Web applications rule the Internet. Despite this, many companies prefer to implement their products into web-accessible applications, which leads to reduced complexity and cyber security of the web development and, therefore, greater vulnerability. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) seeks to raise awareness among software vendors. Every few years, it publishes a list of top attacks, risks, and solutions that every developer should look out for. Let's take a closer look at them.
Injection
This threat involves sending malicious and invalid info to the application in the form of a request to open. One of the popular methods to hack sites and programs that work with databases is SQL injection. It utilizes the power of code for malicious objectives, usually by penetrating the backend of an application or webpage with the possibility of subsequently viewing, changing, and removing data - that is, actions aimed at violating all cyber security principles. Consequently, the database will perform and return the query to the attacker.
You can prevent such a threat: you should save data separate from queries and sanitize all inputs from the application. To recognize SQL injection, filter queries following a specific syntax.
Broken authentication
This problem is more likely to apply to web applications with little or no protection. Credential stuffing is the general method of defeating apps by checking the leaked passwords.
To soften and prevent the threat, you may be guided by the criteria of a weak and secure password. Also, don't store it in plain text; hash it.
Hackers often resort to selling or publishing personal information to compromise it in the public domain. A common cause of such attacks is weak data encryption (the unpatched TLS end-to-end encryption used by most modern web browsers) and unsecured sessions.
Here, encryption and hashing of data can be utilized as one of cybersecurity measures for developers. Use new protocols instead of obsolete ones.
XML External Entities
XML external entity (XXE) vulnerabilities pose the probability of DOS bombardment of simultaneous requests to a central server, theft of confidential data, etc. An XML input can inject malicious requests into the parser in a syntax that the parser typically expects. Therefore, you should have a properly configured parser to filter requests. Note that XML parsers are susceptible to XXE attacks, so you should be very careful when designing applications and forbidding external entities.
Broken Access Control
Permissions systems are commonly utilized to preclude unauthorized access to content or features. In the case of an error, the hacker is likely to identify the vulnerability. One of the most practical cybersecurity tools to mitigate a threat is to observe the "principle of least privilege" and to examine the input data, registering the disclosure of failures.
Errors in Security configurations
The human factor and laziness are often the reasons for inefficient websites. Why? Most likely, due to inattention, the programmer makes vital mistakes that lead to ignoring security configurations, gaining access by third parties to sensitive information, and data compromise.
To prevent such problems, you should take care of quality checks. There are several techniques for this, including all sorts of plugins that significantly decrease the risks of cyberattacks.
Conclusion
Because the Internet today depends on web applications, every business owner and developer must go through the entire cybersecurity lifecycle. After all, attacks can happen to anyone with rather unpleasant and severe consequences. Utilizing the strategies and tips described in this article, you can learn how effective cyber security is and how to protect your customers from possible hacks.
Every self-respecting business owner, at some point, thinks of improving employees' knowledge, mastery, and confidence. They may already succeed in creating an eLearning platform for corporate training. However, it still needs constant updating to keep the staff up with time and deliver the most relevant data. While developing online lessons is a lengthy process requiring experience and tech power, distributing tasks can become the only solution for companies searching for quick and efficient results.
Today’s busy and tech-savvy online customers are interested in mobile-friendly educational courses suitable for smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets. User-centric and accessible, gamified and bite-sized, mLearning can happen anytime, anywhere. You should learn how to implement it in the organization to make it a part of your corporate culture.
If you practice edtech in your organization, then you might already understand the crucial role of digital learning platforms in constant employee growth. Corporate training has a direct impact on your company’s productivity.
