Cybersecurity Terminology

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a reminder for all organizations to educate themselves on cyber attacks and how easily this can happen, potentially crippling the business. Based on the number of incidents and breaches, ALL staff must be aware and knowledgeable on ways threat actors can access (and most of the time, easily) an organizations environment.

Does your team know the following cybersecurity definitions and their implications:

• Email Phishing: a type of social engineering and cybersecurity attack where the attacker impersonates someone else via email, luring the recipient to reveal sensitive information, either through following the prompts in the email or clicking on a link or attachment that steals information such as a password, or installs malware on the device.
• Smishing: a text message is sent to trick the recipient into downloading malware, sharing sensitive information, or sending money to cybercriminals.
• Hacker, Black Hat: any hacker who attempts to gain unauthorized access to a system with the intent to cause damage or theft, typically being motivated by monetary settlements in return for lost data.
• Malware: bad software used to infect and/or damage a system. Ransomware, worms, viruses and trojans are all considered malware, usually delivered via spam emails.
• Man in the Middle Attack: hackers can break the Wi-Fi encryption and use this as a means to steal data as they now have access to your system via the internet.
• Internet of Things: an IoT attack is a malicious attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in internet-connected devices such as medical devices, smart home devices and industrial control systems, to gain control of the device, steal sensitive data or use the device as part of a botnet for other malicious purposes.

Take advantage of organizations offering cybersecurity awareness training and education, to protect your business.

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