For many businesses, it isn’t always true that what doesn’t kill them makes them stronger. The year 2020 left many businesses in a tailspin; the prognosis is still bleak for many of them. A report states that 60% of US businesses have closed and won’t be reopening again. Moreover, in Europe, 70% of SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) reported losses; more than half project that they may not survive longer than a year, according to an August 2020 McKinsey survey.
After 2020, business leaders worldwide hope that 2021 is the year when the economy will come roaring back. The year 2021 is supposed to be the year of hope and economic recovery. It’s the reason why many moved toward digital business models, in the hope that online business could keep them afloat. This hope, however, could be quickly dashed if business leaders neglect their digital security.
There has been an exodus of sorts even before the pandemic–a lot of businesses had begun transferring a large part of their operations online about two years before the pandemic. They had embraced the fact that the future of business is digital. Then, the virus came, and the rest were forced to play catch up.
This may be good news for companies centered on IT, but this also presents opportunities for cybercriminals. While those huge multi-national companies have the resources to invest in top-notch cyber protection, those SMEs may be in for a challenge.
Testing For Vulnerabilities
The past few years have seen how businesses are vulnerable to dedicated cyber-attacks, like Equifax in 2017 and the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica breach. Of course, at the end of 2020, one of the most infamous cyberattacks in history occurred–the SolarWinds hack, when several US federal agencies, including the Pentagon, were hacked.
A data breach is becoming a serious concern, which is why companies should take cybersecurity threats seriously and have their systems tested regularly.
To help you out, below are some of the common ways to test your organization’s cyber protection:
1. Network Testing
Network testing helps protect your business from having your servers and systems accessed by unauthorized elements. The test could identify and remove network vulnerabilities, too.
Network testing can have three components:
- Vulnerability Assessment – This assessment aims to find out flaws and vulnerabilities in your network, where attackers might gain egress into your system, steal valuable data, and cause general mischief.
- Penetration Testing – Purposely hacking your own system to find weaknesses that hackers can use is called ‘penetration testing.’ Penetration testing can discover real and practical network weaknesses that can be easily targeted if it’s not immediately addressed.
- Red Team Exercises – Used by the armed forces in one of their traditional war games, this type of exercise can test your organization’s readiness when it comes to real-world cyber-attack. It’s the kind of exercise that pits Blue Team versus Red Team: The Red Team would launch a cyber-attack on your system, while the other team would defend your network and repel the attackers.
2. Application Testing
A secure, state-of-the-art network protection would be as useless as a dollar bill in Jeff Bezos’ wallet if your applications and software are riddled with all manners of vulnerabilities. Application tests, which is an important type of security testing, are crucial, especially since businesses today use many web-facing applications.
Here are some ways to test one’s app:
- Application Security Assessment – Apps are now the usual launch pads for hackers. Penetration testing of web applications and mobile applications helps you determine vulnerabilities that could be exploited. It also makes sure that the apps you use conform to various guidelines and cybersecurity laws.
- Static Source Code Analysis – Analysis of an app’s code before implementation is an efficient debugging method as it could identify a lot of flaws. Static Source Code Analysis includes operational and security weaknesses that should be immediately addressed to implement the app safely and error-free.
- Manual Source Code Analysis – Automated tests might sound super-advanced, but sometimes, they miss errors. This is why manual assessment of the source code, done by a human, is a crucial app testing stage. Humans can catch and fix those security concerns that were missed by an automated analysis.
3. Social Engineering
Sometimes, it isn’t always an app or your network that’s the most vulnerable in your organization. It could sometimes be the human element, which could be exploited through social engineering. In other words, it could be as simple as somebody tricking any one of your staff.
- Phishing Assessment – The styles may have changed over the years, but the purpose is still the same. Phishing attacks can be emails from somebody that appears to be legitimate, and the aim is always to trick people into giving up their credentials, like usernames, passwords, and others. Make sure your staff is aware of these kinds of attacks. Give an evaluation of their susceptibility to attacks like these and educate them about phishing attacks.
- Vishing Assessment – Attacks like vishing or voice phishing mean attackers would call someone to trick them into giving up sensitive information. Thus, be sure to include vishing in your staff’s training on how to handle social engineering.
- Smishing Assessment – SMS, or smishing, attempts to get sensitive information from you using text messages. Attackers could get creative in their attempts to fish information from you; they’d mention things like winning an iPhone, lottery, free vacations, and others.
- Physical Breach Assessment – You may be so focused on keeping things safe on your business’s cyber end that you’ve gotten lax in your organization’s physical security. Since a cyber attacker could physically enter your business premises, beef up your security and upgrade security protocols, evaluate sensitive areas, and ensure that your workers are trained to recognize attempts like these.
4. Other Methods
Oftentimes, after doing your due diligence regarding the security of your network and applications, including your physical security, you’d still have to deepen your security assessment to discover possible security breaches. This is all the more important in factories and laboratories where industrial spying is a genuine threat.
The tests below are drawn up to make sure your data centers, offices, and hardware safe and intrusion-proof.
- SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) Testing – This means ensuring that the security in your control mechanisms has no flaws and can’t be remotely exploited. This consists of doing a round of tests on the applications and network system.
- Embedded/Industrials Control Systems (ICS) Testing refers to testing the security of any factory or pilot plant’s sensitive areas. Security in these types of facilities is crucial, so the tests ensure that there are no exploitable vulnerabilities.
- Board-Level Hardware Testing – Software isn’t the only thing that’s vulnerable to attacks. Your hardware can be vulnerable, too. This test ensures that the hardware you’re using is free from any security flaws that could be exploited by hackers, like the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities in modern processors.
Conclusion
Businesses need to recover from the 2020 debacle, and so, many are increasing their online presence. But as cyber-attacks are becoming more of a concern, an organization shouldn’t neglect to strengthen its cyber protection by using the vulnerability tests enumerated above.
Keep in mind that every business is different, so tests and cyber protection should be customized to a specific company. Likewise, some organizations might need a more comprehensive test methodology, while some may be fine with the tests listed above.
