Cyber security in Kerala is alarming as according to the police records, one cybercrime is recorded every two hours in the State of Kerala. The sudden outbreak and spread of the pandemic have left everyone in a state of panic and chaos, providing the best time for the threat actors to exploit this fear of humans.
The hackers drafted the attacks aiming to compromise computers and devices to gain access to users' confidential data, banking details and cryptocurrency accounts. A majority of the recorded attacks were phishing attacks with sophisticated campaigns capable of fooling the most educated users. These attacks are aimed at heightening users' fears to create a sense of urgency to take action.
According to the experts, the phishing attacks were noticed more in the Tier-II and Tier-III cities than the metros. Users from Ghaziabad and Lucknow seem to face 6 to 4 times more attacks than users in Bangalore.
How cyber crimes are executed?
As per Cyber Threat Report, the majority of the attacks were phishing attempts, encouraging the users to visit links that would automatically download malware on the host computer. These malwares will steal the critical personal data of the users including the banking details. Agent Tesla keylogger, Lokibot information-stealing malware, banking trojans like Trickbot or Zeus Sphinx were common among these malwares.
Other methods used by the threat actors were spreading malware through infected apps and emails. Social engineering was utilised for targeting the specific users working in important organisations like healthcare, government sectors and international organisations.
Why is cyber security in Kerala agonising?
Most of the states are not open to registering cyber crimes as they lack basic awareness about it. Whereas Kerala has a simple and easy procedure to report a digital crime.
According to the last year's Police record, 75 % of the total crimes registered are digital crimes or have digital medium involved, which has risen from 20% of the total cases over the past 5 years.
The increased usage of digital media due to the restricted movement of the people in the pandemic has given opportunities to hackers for exploiting this medium. Sudden shifting to the digital medium has not allowed the companies to prepare for this crisis by equipping the infrastructure and training the employees.
What is the solution?
Any responsible cybersecurity auditing and training company will point out human factors and IT infrastructure flaws as the commonly used methods for executing cyber crimes. See more Cyber Security Awareness
Maximum cases hackers try to exploit the IT infrastructure loopholes i.e. outdated or vulnerable software, weak or no passwords, etc. Tricking humans on emotional grounds to get access to the system or device is also very easy.
Saving the IT infrastructure by finding the loopholes, is important for mending them with adequate solutions. One time applying the safety measure is not sufficient as cyber security is a continuous process. Every time adding a new device or network or make any change to the system, it is advised to check the security again. Even if any changes are not made, it is advised to undergo timely security auditing for finding and fixing the vulnerabilities.
Securing the IT infrastructure will not help alone if you will ignore training your employees for cyber security awareness. Understanding safe practices and what kind of small ignorance can lead to big trouble is important for everyone. The human resource comprises people from every domain that may or may not understand the criticality for the training. Hence, it is the responsibility of senior management to encourage the employees to attend the awareness training.
How can Cybersecurity awareness training help?
Awareness can only help in combating the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks. As managed service providers (MSPs), we always focus on delivering the best solutions to our clients for protecting, preventing and recovering from an attack as cyberattacks are highly unpredictable.
Businesses often ignore or don't give importance to training their employees for creating cybersecurity awareness. It has been found by the researchers, human error has caused 95% of the data breaches, leaving no doubt that educating employees holds importance in making a strong cyber security strategy.
The benefits of cyber security awareness training are as follows -
1. Awareness - Awareness driven training program will help in instilling knowledge and confidence in employees for recognising security threats and safely responding to them.
2. Downtime Reduction - By understanding the cybersecurity principles and their roles in securing the organisation, the employees can prevent many attacks making the business-critical functions work seamless.
3. Reduced Threats - Cyber security training educates the employees to understand the common types of attacks. This can be further strengthened by deploying Cyber Attack simulation. By preparing a cyberattack scenario and making the employees participate to understand how to respond when a disguised attack happens.
4. Increased Trust - With controlled data breaches the employees and customers will have more confidence in the business and hence make a better brand image for the business.
There is no second opinion about the benefits of training the employees to increase cyber security awareness for the better performance of the organisation.
What should businesses do to protect themselves against cybercrimes?
When it comes to business, preventing cyber attacks is important not only for financial reasons. Losses a business may face due to cyberattacks are often unrepairable, damaging it for ever.
So how can a business prepare to fight against cyber attacks? When it comes to a business, it comprises IT infrastructure and people that may be at one place or spread globally depending upon the type and size of the business. But the approach to fight against cyber attacks is the same.
1. Analysing the current system - Knowing where we stand is very important as that is the foundation to devise a strong system. After finding the flaws and setting the requirements for the final system, one will know how to proceed to generate the best results.
2. Train the human resource - The IT staff of the organisation should be properly trained to understand the criticality and technicality of the system. The untrained employees will make mistakes because of their limited or no knowledge.
3. Preparing the Cybersecurity Strategy - Having the right Cybersecurity Strategy in place will help in documenting everything and delegating the roles and responsibilities. Everything documented will help in avoiding conflicts and chaos in critical situations.
4. Implementing the best practices as per compliances - Inculcating the best practices in the organisation's Cybersecurity, will help in meeting compliances and smooth functioning of the critical business processes.
5. Regular Auditing - As cybersecurity is an ongoing process and threats also keep on evolving every day it is advised to do regular audits and security testing to keep the functioning of a business smooth and running.
Illume Intelligence being the Cybersecurity Auditing company, is regularly helping businesses in combating cyber threats by staying ahead with best practices and training. Whether it is devising a cybersecurity strategy or auditing, our services are customised to provide the best for the business. Any business ignoring cybersecurity in today's critical time can easily fall victim to the cyber attack leading to the complete shutdown of the business.
Having a strict cybersecurity strategy is a must for any business to excel and stand against cybercrime.
