Companies face a rapidly evolving and growing cyber threat landscape. As cybercrime becomes more professionalized and automated attacks grow more common, organizations are targeted by a growing number of sophisticated cyber threats.
A successful cyberattack can have a significant impact on an organization’s data security, service availability, and ability to operate. Cyber protection is essential to managing the risk that companies face from cyber threats and ensuring that they are able to effectively protect their sensitive data and remain compliant with applicable regulations.
The modern company faces a wide range of cyber threats. Below, we list some of the leading threats that companies are most likely to face and that will have the greatest impact on the organization.
The cyber threat landscape has undergone multiple stages of evolution, growing more sophisticated, automated, and subtle. The latest evolution, Gen V, involves the use of automation and advanced attack tools to perform multi-vector attacks at a massive scale.
Protecting against modern cyberattacks requires Gen V cybersecurity solutions. These solutions incorporate advanced threat prevention capabilities to minimize the cost and impact that continuous, automated attacks have on business operations.
SolarWinds, Kaseya, and similar incidents have demonstrated the potential risks of supply chain attacks. Every organization is dependent on external parties, such as suppliers, partners, and software vendors. These third parties often have access to an organization’s sensitive data and IT resources.
Supply chain attacks exploit these relationships to bypass an organization’s defenses. If an attacker can gain access to a vulnerable organization in a company’s supply chain, the attacker may be able to exploit existing trust relationships to gain access to the company’s environment. For example, injecting malicious code into trusted software may allow that malware to slip through a company’s defenses.
Ransomware has emerged as one of the biggest cyber threats that organizations face. After gaining access to a target system, ransomware encrypts the files and data on that system. To regain access to encrypted data, a company must pay a ransom to the malware operator.
Ransomware groups have enjoyed significant success, and ransomware provides a means for threat actors to effectively monetize their attacks. As a result, ransomware attacks have become more common and expensive for organizations.
Phishing attacks are the most common cyberattack. Phishing messages can be used to deliver malware, steal user credentials, or exfiltrate other types of sensitive data. Phishing attacks are cheap and easy to perform, targeting the human element rather than vulnerabilities in an organization’s digital attack surface. This also makes them more difficult to protect against, requiring a combination of technical security controls and user cybersecurity awareness training.
Companies face a number of different malware threats. Ransomware is a common example, but malware can also be designed to steal information, disrupt operations, and provide an attacker with remote access to an organization’s systems.
Cyber threat actors can use various means to deliver and execute malware on an organization’s systems. Some of the most common are phishing emails, exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities, and using compromised user credentials to take advantage of remote access solutions.
Companies can take different approaches to cybersecurity and cyber protection. The two main approaches differ in where they come into play in the lifecycle of an attack: focusing on threat detection or prevention.
Most corporate cybersecurity programs take a detection-focused approach to cyber protection. Various cybersecurity solutions are deployed to identify potential threats to the organization and trigger incident response activities. Ideally, the organization will mitigate the threat before an attacker can steal sensitive data or cause damage to corporate systems.
The main limitation of detection-focused security is that it is inherently reactive — action is only taken in response to an identified threat. This means that — in the event that an attack cannot be immediately blocked — a window exists for the attacker to take action before incident response begins.
Prevention-focused security attempts to stop attacks against an organization and its systems before they happen. Many cyberattacks exploit common vulnerabilities, such as the failure to apply updates and patches or security misconfigurations in cloud infrastructure. By closing these attack vectors and preventing an attack from happening in the first place, an organization eliminates the potential cost and impact on the organization. Check Point prevents attacks thanks to its consolidated cyber security architecture Discover Infinity
Cyber protection and cybersecurity are related but distinct concepts. In general, cybersecurity focuses on protecting an organization’s systems and networks against cyber threats, such as ransomware, phishing, etc.
Cyber protection brings in an increased focus on data security, combining elements of cybersecurity and data protection. Cyber protection uses many of the same tools and techniques as cybersecurity and faces similar threats, but the focus is on protecting data and the systems that store and process it against attacks that could result in unauthorized access to and disclosure of that data.
Data is an intrinsic part of an organization’s operations, and effectively protecting data requires securing it at every stage of its lifecycle. For this reason, many different types of cyber protection exist, each targeted at a place where sensitive data may be stored, processed, or transmitted.
Network security solutions defend the corporate network and data from breaches, intrusions, and other cyber threats. Network solution solutions include data and access controls such as Data Loss Prevention (DLP), IAM (Identity Access Management), Network Access Control (NAC), and Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) application controls that enforce corporate policy and protect against web-based threats.
Companies may also require multi-layered and advanced solutions for network threat management, such as intrusion prevention systems (IPS), Next-Gen Antivirus (NGAV), Sandboxing, and Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR). In addition to these solutions, security teams also need the ability to effectively collect and manage security data via tools such as network analytics, threat hunting, and automated SOAR (Security Orchestration and Response) technologies.
As companies increasingly adopt cloud infrastructure, they need cloud security technologies, controls, services, and policies to protect their cloud-hosted data and applications from attack. Many cloud service providers — including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure (Azure), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offer built-in cloud security solutions and services as part of their platforms. However, achieving enterprise-grade protection of cloud workloads against various threats, such as data leaks, breaches, and targeted cloud attacks, often requires supplementary third-party solutions.
The growth of the mobile workforce makes protecting the endpoint more essential than ever. Effectively implementing a zero-trust security policy requires the ability to use microsegmentation to manage access to data wherever it is, including on corporate endpoints.
Endpoint security solutions can implement the necessary access management and protect against various threats with anti-phishing and anti-ransomware capabilities. Additionally, the integration of endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities provides invaluable support for incident response and forensic investigations.
With remote work and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies on the rise, mobile security is a growing concern. Cyber threat actors are increasingly targeting mobile devices with malicious applications, phishing, zero-day, and instant messaging attacks.
The unique threats that mobile devices face make mobile security solutions essential for the security of corporate data and applications. Mobile security can prevent various attacks, block rooting and jailbreaking of mobile devices, and — when integrated with a mobile device management (MDM) solution — restrict access to corporate resources to those devices that are compliant with corporate security policies.
The healthcare and industrial sectors and companies across all industries are deploying Internet of Things (IoT) devices to take advantage of their various benefits. However, these devices also create significant cybersecurity threats as cyber threat actors identify and exploit well-known vulnerabilities to gain access to these devices for use in a botnet or to exploit their access to the corporate network.
IoT security solutions enable organizations to manage the risks posed by their IoT devices by supporting automated device identification, classification, and network segmentation. IoT devices can also be protected by using an IPS to virtually patch vulnerabilities and, in some cases, by deploying small agents in device firmware to provide protection at runtime.
Public-facing web applications create a significant digital attack surface for an organization. The OWASP Top Ten List details some of the most significant threats that web applications face, such as broken access control, cryptographic failures, and vulnerability to injection attacks.
Application security can help to block the exploitation of OWASP Top Ten and other common vulnerabilities. Additionally, application security solutions can block bot attacks, protect APIs, and identify and protect against novel threats via continuous learning.
Corporate IT environments are growing increasingly complex as companies move to the cloud, support a remote workforce, and deploy IoT solutions on their networks. Each device added to the corporate network creates the potential for additional vulnerabilities and attack vectors that need to be managed.
Attempting to manage all of these devices’ unique security needs and potential threats via standalone solutions creates a sprawling security infrastructure that is difficult to monitor and manage effectively. As a result, security personnel are overwhelmed with alerts, and threats are overlooked or slip through the cracks.
A consolidated security architecture makes it possible for an organization to consistently enforce security policies across its entire heterogeneous infrastructure. With centralized monitoring and management and integration across various solutions, a consolidated security infrastructure provides comprehensive visibility and the ability to coordinate responses across multiple environments.
To learn more about the cyber threat landscape, check out Check Point’s 2023 Cyber Security Report. The Mobile Security Report provides more details on the cybersecurity threats that companies face as they increasingly adopt mobile devices. Companies looking to protect their data and systems across their entire IT infrastructure need a consolidated security architecture.
Check Point offers security solutions that meet all of an organization’s cyber protection needs, including:
To learn more about what Check Point solutions can do to enhance your organization’s cyber protection strategy, sign up for a free demo. Also, feel free to try out Check Point solutions for yourself with a trial. For companies looking to streamline their cyber protection program with a consolidated security architecture, you’re welcome to inquire about Check Point’s Infinity Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) offering.