While there are countless ways to combat cyber attacks, in this article we address three simple but important questions that users can follow to protect their data.
Cyber attacks are on the rise. These threats come in all shapes and sizes, and no business or organization is immune. A common question in network security is: what is the external attack surface? What can we do to reduce the risk and prepare for the worst.
Network attack
With the increasing popularity of technology in our life, network security has become the focus of people’s attention. Data hacking can lead to information theft or identity theft, putting many different people at risk.
Cybersecurity Ventures says cybercrime will cost the global economy $6 trillion a year in 2021. While there are countless ways to fight cyber attacks, there are three key things people can do to protect their data.
1. Reduce external attack surfaces
The external attack surface refers to any network interface where a device can access information in its internal network or the system. This is a term commonly used for computer systems and networking devices such as routers, servers, or personal computers.
The basic concept behind the external attack surface is that an attacker can gain access to the target system at many points. Therefore, network security experts recommend minimizing the external attack surface and minimizing the content shared with others.
Software security is the foundation of network security, ensuring software security will reduce the emergence of network attack surface. Strengthening vulnerability detection for software security, such as discovering and repairing vulnerabilities through static code detection, can effectively reduce the risk of network attacks.
This can also be done by reducing the number of vulnerable servers, systems, and firewalls, which will only allow a small amount of traffic to be used for business purposes. By sharing less information, there is less data to steal and fewer systems to attack.
2. Safety awareness
The second way to deal with cyber attacks is to raise awareness of cyber security. Employees make up the corporate network, but from a cybersecurity perspective, they are at risk because they are important vulnerabilities. Employees access data more frequently in their daily work.
Therefore, it is necessary to improve the safety awareness of enterprise employees while still completing their work effectively.
3. Evaluate system vulnerabilities
For enterprises, identifying vulnerabilities in their software systems and mitigating them through software patches, updated network configurations, etc., plays a crucial role in preventing cyber attacks or data breaches. Earlier, it was revealed that nearly half a year after the patch was released, 50% of gitLabs connected to the network were still affected by the RCE vulnerability. This undoubtedly increases the chances of success for attackers who detect vulnerabilities on the network.
To assess the network security status of an enterprise, a thorough vulnerability scan is required.
Vulnerability scanning should be comprehensive, including the following:
Network scanning detects IP addresses, services, and features
Penetration testing to find actual vulnerabilities in network configurations and IT infrastructure;
Configuration audits to ensure that systems and applications are configured according to best practices;
Vulnerability assessment for software (such as web browser, software services, etc.) defects.
More importantly, defects and vulnerabilities caused by code problems can be discovered in advance through static code detection in the development process, which is not only conducive to improving software security and reducing the attack surface, but also can greatly reduce the cost of defect management. Statistics estimate that this cost can be reduced by at least a third.
Therefore, for vulnerability management, in addition to strengthening vulnerability scanning and repair, it is more necessary to timely detect and modify the vulnerabilities caused by code problems in the coding stage to ensure software security from the source.
One final note
Cyber attacks come with many risks, which is why be proactive and prevent them at all costs. Implementing some measures now could go beyond saving businesses thousands of dollars, because the damage goes beyond lost files.
Reference link:
www.hackread.com/3-ways-to-p…