Hackers on every horizon

The world is witnessing a dramatic, year-by-year increase in damaging cyberattacks. Across Northern America, nine out of every ten attacks are financially motivated and one out of every four results in a confirmed data breach.

It’s the end of a long, stressful day, and you’re finally taking a moment to relax and take in a little TV. Just when you’re starting to enjoy yourself, your cell phone beeps. You’ve received a text from your bank, warning you that there’s been a data breach and someone has stolen your credentials. All you need to do to recover them is click on the link the bank has provided.

Your brain processes this info in the flash of a second, driven by your immediate desire to repair and recover your login credentials, so driven in fact that you don’t notice a small typo in the text. Not noticing that error, you don’t bother checking to see if the link leads somewhere other than your trusted bank domain (it does), and you don’t notice the message is missing a header… At first glance, everything looks alright, so you just click on the link.

The average phishing victim takes the bait in less than sixty seconds.

You don’t realize it yet, but in under a minute you’ve not only lost your login credentials; you’ve opened an unprotected window into your company’s security network.

That’s because you use this same device to work, receive emails, exchange documents and connect to the company network. For cyber attackers intent on doing harm, entering the company system with your help, leveraging the fact that you’re unaware of what’s going on, is infinitely cheaper and easier than trying to break into the company’s system on their own.

Today hackers rely on advanced tools like kit phishing-as-a-service, tools that can run on their own and come equipped with detailed lists of objectives. Threats are constantly evolving, and thanks to the advent of Artificial Intelligence, they are now becoming more sophisticated and elusive, requiring companies to remain vigilant and constantly on the lookout.

Internal and External Threats

An organization’s security perimeter is under constant threat, both internally and externally.

External threats come from unknown sources – organized crime, solitary hackers, dissatisfied former employees, sometimes even other nation-states. These sources take advantage of systemic vulnerabilities or application weaknesses.

Internal threats can be brought by employees, consultants or contractors who enjoy privileged access and legitimate login credentials that are in turn involuntarily or unwittingly used to do damage. Last but not least, commercial partners with whom an organization shares data and resources represent yet another potential path of entry, especially in the event their access is not appropriately evaluated and monitored.

The Weakest Link

A recent report published by Verizon – the 2024 Verizon DBIR (Data Breach Investigations Report) – paints an alarming picture: attacks continue to rise, year on year, and human error continues to be the primary factor responsible for data theft. Analyzing over 30,000 security incidents that took place during 2023, the report highlights an almost 50% increase compared to 2022. In other words, attacks essentially doubled from one year to the next, and human error is a factor in 68% of all attacks.

The dangers are global, and the vast majority of attacks are brought to bear by external players intent on financial gain. No corner of the planet is safe. In North America (primarily the USA and Canada), nearly two thousand attacks resulted in confirmed data breaches, meaning at least one out of every four attacks enjoyed some measure of success. Those numbers are even worse in the EMEA, where three out of ever four attacks resulted in confirmed data breaches, for a total of over six thousand attacks. In the APAC, one out of every four attacks resulted in a confirmed data breach, although the focus was primarily espionage.

Consider these key data points:

A world under attack: in 2023, nearly 2,000 cyberattacks in Northern America; more than 6,000 cyberattacks in the EMEA; and over 500 cyberattacks in the APAC were classified as official “data breaches.”
Individuals first and foremost: 68% of these attacks involved human error, for example clicking on suspicious links or supplying login credentials to third parties.
Internal threats: 12% of these attacks are caused by people on the inside; people who take advantage of the company’s trust to damage the organization.
Third parties: 15% of these attacks are connected to suppliers or external parties.
Paying a steep price: in 2023 in the US alone, the average cost of a data breach reached an all-time record high of USD 4.45M per breach.

What does all this mean? It means that, despite considerable advances in technology, we remain the most vulnerable targets of our own cyberattacks. Errors in evaluation, distractions and even simple ignorance can open windows for increasingly sophisticated cybercrimes.

Cyber criminals have set their sights on SMEs

The growing digitalization of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises has exposed a level of cyber risk that grows more significant every day. With the adoption of new technologies and expansion of the area potentially vulnerable to attacks, companies’ security perimeters have increased. Combined, these factors make SMEs an easy target. According to recent reports, the success rate of cyberattacks on SMEs is rising steadily, having a significant impact on operations and business reputations.

What is “data exfiltration”?

The goal of cyber criminals is to steal sensitive data and information so that they can demand a ransom payment, or block business continuity in such a way that the companies under attack are brought to their knees. More and more often, these companies are SMEs: generally medium-sized companies that lack the simple, accessible, easy-to-manage tools they need to defend themselves. And when a company discovers it has suffered a data breach, it’s already too late: the average discovery time is 200 days after a breach has taken place.

Too small to be attacked?

SMEs continue to repeat the all-too-common errors that make it easier for cyber criminals to attack them. Despite the fact that 67% of SMEs interviewed by OpenText believe that they are safe and protected from ransomware attacks, the data speaks volumes: nearly half of these companies have already experienced an attack. The belief that cybercriminals can’t be bothered to attack smaller realities is a dangerous misconception. In truth, ransomware continues to represent a concrete threat for companies of all kinds, all over the world, no matter their size or reputation.

If you scroll down the list of American companies (published by Ransomfeed) that recently experienced a cyberattack, you’ll find boutique hotels, dairy farms, law offices, packaging and shipping companies, design firms, veterinarian studios, construction companies, travel agencies…even a local lumber yard! In other words, you’ll find the heart and soul of American local businesses across every industry imaginable.

SMEs are particularly vulnerable due to:

Unfamiliarity with cyber risks
Lack of resources dedicated to security
The use of weak and/or non-updated passwords
Negligence in applying security updates and patches
Lack of an emergency response plan for cyber attacks
Underestimating the importance of training staff, who often can’t even recognize the signs of a cyber threat.

For an SME, the consequences of these attacks can be truly devastating. Consequences include loss of sensitive data, service interruption, reputational damage, and costs connected with repairing and restarting company systems, just to name a few. In order to protect themselves from these kinds of threats, SMEs need to invest in adequate security solutions, train their staff to use them and adopt best practices for dealing with cyber risks.

Solutions custom-built for SMEs

Training personnel and hiring dedicated cyber security professionals are useful, even necessary remedies for the long term. But both of these solutions require time and patience. Companies to move more quickly, adopting solutions that can protect them from human error, preventing both internal and external threats. Solutions that are easy to use, install and maintain, not to mention economically accessible.

Developed by American cyber defense company Cyber Grant Inc., Remotegrant is an advanced security solution designed to protect company endpoints from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

With Remotegrant, companies can protect data, computers and company networks alike.

Remotegrant, the ideal partner for protecting your business

This security add-on is easy to install and maintain. It reinforces vulnerable terminals, protecting them from external and internal threats and guaranteeing secure connections to remote desktops, applications, and files over internal networks and the internet.

Thanks to its Zero Trust Application approach, Remotegrant offers robust protection no matter which sector a company operates in: manufacturing, finance, insurance, construction, tech services, pharmaceutical, medical and more.

The patent for Cyber Grant’s advanced Zero Trust Application revolutionizes how organizations can protect sensitive data. This approach is based on the core principle of “never trust others, and always verify,” a concept that extends beyond traditional cyber security measures.

This solution makes it possible to manage access for specific users or create an allowlist of applications authorized to interact with a particular file type, automatically blocking out all other applications not present on the list.

For example, only applications expressly authorized to do so can access specific files, blocking any unauthorized attempt to access, both accidental and ill-intentioned. Legitimate but non-essential applications – for example, music streaming apps or text messaging services – can be a risk when installed on company computers; the Zero Trust approach offers complete protection that is superior to traditional antivirus software.

Consider the most critical company documents – often Office files containing contracts, financial databases, or other strategic information. Unless there is a specific, immediate need, there’s no reason for software like Adobe or Spotify to access these files at all.

Zero Trust technology ensures that only the selected, approved applications can access these docs, excluding any other program and reducing potential attack vectors.

This level of security prevents unauthorized access and protects the network and the company data from threats that standard antivirus software cannot recognize. For example, Zero Trust protects against sophisticated attacks like ransomware and zero-day attacks.

While traditional antivirus software can fail to identify these threats immediately, Remotegrant’s system blocks them automatically, thanks to its restrictive nature and ability to control which applications can interact with company data at a granular level.

The advantages of Remotegrant at a glance:

Security: Remotegrant protects company data from both internal and external threats, ransomware and zero-day attacks.
Privacy: Remotegrant guarantees user privacy, establishing a clear division between work environments and personal or private spheres.
Flexibility: Remotegrant can adapt to fit any kind of company, from small businesses to large organizations.
Economical: Remotegrant offers flexible, competitive pricing plans.
Ease-of-use: Thanks to its intuitive interface, Remotegrant is simple to install and keeps maintenance to a minimum.
High performance: Remotegrant doesn’t affect system performance, guaranteeing your user experience remains fluid.

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