Cybercriminals fight dirty, whether it’s attacking small businesses, large enterprises, or individuals who just want to watch Netflix. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do for the community; you’ll always be a target for hacking attacks. To save time and effort, hackers will use low-tech attacks and social engineering attacks to target individuals. Hackers aren’t developing new threats all the time; if anything, they largely use existing exploits, purchasable software, and social engineering to take advantage of people.
Let’s look at some of the more common types of attacks you might see.
Billing and Invoice Fraud
Let’s say you’re expecting a bill from one of your vendors. A hacker could impersonate that vendor through the use of email spoofing. Cybercriminals can usually take a pretty close guess at what an invoice might look like and use it to worm their way into your inbox.
For example, if you register your domain through GoDaddy, this information is available to the public. A cybercriminal could make an official-looking phishing email stating that your account is up for renewal or that your hosting bill is overdue. They can use this email to steal your website credentials and cause a lot of chaos in the process.
You’re the Bad Guy
Now imagine what the hacker can do with these credentials. They could take over your website, send emails from your company’s email domain, and even impersonate your company to steal even more information from your clients. You effectively become the bad guy in a situation like this, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to crack an email account that isn’t using complex passwords or multi-factor authentication.
When a cybercriminal gets a chance to mimic a legitimate organization, they have opportunities to take advantage of others who will use your good name as a reason to trust them. Don’t let them drag your business through the mud in this way!
Communication Mediums are Potential Threat Avenues
Depending on the configuration, hackers can exploit solutions like Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Slack, Zoom, and Discord against you. For example, back in September, a cybersecurity firm called Truesec announced they would be investigating a cybercrime campaign that used Microsoft Teams to send phishing messages and malware-infected attachments. This is hardly the only instance of this type of attack, as there was another back in 2020 that targeted 18,000 SolarWinds customers with malware distributed during a software update. This attack is thought to have originated in Microsoft Teams.
These types of solutions aren’t necessarily insecure; they’re just easy to trick people with, which is how hackers get your business and its employees into trouble.
Social Media is a Common Culprit
More likely than not, you’re already aware that social media can be used for cybersecurity attacks, so we won’t waste our breath here… but again, cybercriminals can and will use social media vectors that take advantage of the constant shifts in policy and procedure of websites like Facebook. You can never be too careful that the messages pretending to be from a social media authority are authentic, and if you get an urgent message claiming that you have violated community guidelines or some other nonsense, never trust it outright. Don’t click any links, or hand over your security credentials.
