7 Security Vulnerabilities My Business Could Face Right Now
Businesses face a wide variety of IT security risks. The Web can be a dangerous place, with hacking attacks, security exploits and even company insiders leaving your company vulnerable.
To better understand and respond to these threats, it is important you are familiar with the vulnerabilities that are out there.
Below is a summary of the seven most common vulnerabilities and why they are dangerous.
(This will be the beginning of a 7-part blog series, so stay tuned for more detailed information about each of these vulnerabilities in the near future).
Unsecure Authentication
Many companies have weak authentication procedures, allowing hackers to gain access to a network. Once attackers successfully impersonate other users, they can steal your data and run rampant through your network. Faulty authentication can arise from:
Unencrypted passwords in transit over the network
Predictable session IDs
Reusing session tokens
Session hijacking vulnerabilities
URLs that contain sensitive session ID information
Injection Flaws
When an application sends data to an interpreter that is untrusted, companies are exposed to an injection flaw vulnerability. Unfortunately, these flaws are one of the major reasons companies suffer from data theft and loss. Injection flaw vulnerabilities are present in LDAP, XML parsers, SQL and many other solutions.
Malicious Insiders
Your employees can also be responsible for leaking inside information or even selling it to a competitor. System administrators with a high level of access can also install backdoors, add logic bombs or steal passwords, allowing them to seriously jeopardize your system’s security.
Denial of Service
Many companies are hit with DoS attacks every year. Unfortunately, a DoS attack is often very simple to execute and can very quickly overload your company’s servers, lead to serious downtime, and make customers question the security of your company’s IT structure.
Lost or Stolen Devices
Your employees store sensitive data on laptops, smartphones and tablets. Unfortunately, these devices are often stolen or lost. If these devices are unsecured, you face a serious business risk from exposed data.
Poor IT Management
Poor network security often stems from poor IT management. That means IT departments fail to update software, leave default passwords and user accounts, or run Web applications in debug mode. There are many security configurations and safeguards an IT department can fail to make, leaving a system vulnerable to many types of attack.
Sensitive Data Exposure
There’s no excuse for failing to encrypt sensitive data such as bank and credit card information or personnel records. That also includes sensitive data in transit, not just when it’s at rest. Companies often fail to utilize strong encryption like AES and HTTPS protocols with proper certificates. As a result, this sensitive data is much easier to steal.
So, what’s a business to do? Ultimately, companies need to respond to these challenges in a variety of ways, including increased training, a regular IT security audit procedure, and secure network connections, such as fiber.