5 Network Security Threats And How To Protect Yourself

Cybersecurity today matters so much because of everyone’s
dependence on technology, from collaboration, communication and
collecting data to e-commerce and entertainment. Every organisation
that needs to deliver services to their customers and employees
must protect their IT ‘network’ – all the apps and connected
devices from laptops and desktops to servers and smartphones.

While traditionally, these would all live on one “corporate
network,” – networks today are often just made up of the devices
themselves, and how they’re connected: across the internet,
sometimes via VPNs, to the homes and cafes people work from, to the
cloud and data centres where services live. So what threats does
this modern network face?

Let’s look at them in more detail.

#1 Misconfiguration

According to recent research by Verizon^[1], misconfiguration errors
and misuse now make up 14% of breaches. Misconfiguration errors
occur when configuring a system or application so that it’s less
secure. This can happen when you change a setting without fully
understanding the consequences, or when an incorrect value is
entered. Either can create a serious vulnerability – for example, a
misconfigured firewall can allow unauthorized access to an internal
network, or a wrongly configured web server could leak sensitive
information.

#2 Outdated software

Software and app developers constantly release updates with
patches to cover vulnerabilities that have been discovered in their
code. Applying patches to fix these vulnerabilities across an
organisation’s entire network of devices can be time-consuming and
complex to implement – but it is essential. If you don’t update
your software, firmware and operating systems to the latest
versions as they’re released, you’re leaving your network exposed.
A vulnerability scanner^[2]
will give you a real-time inventory of all the software which needs
updating, as well as detect misconfigurations that reduce your
security, so you can stay as secure as possible.

#3 DoS attack

The previous two threats are usually exploited to breach
networks and steal information, but a Denial-of-Service (DoS)
attack is meant to shut down your network and make it
inaccessible.

This can be done by many means, either with malware, or by
flooding the target network with traffic, or sending information
that triggers a crash such as requesting overly complex queries
that lock up a database. In each case, the DoS attack prevents
customers or employees from using the service or resources they
expect.

DoS attacks often target websites of high-profile organisations
such as banks, media companies and governments. Though DoS attacks
don’t usually result in the theft or loss of data, they can cost
you a great deal of time and money to handle. A properly configured
content delivery network (CDN) can help protect websites against
DoS attacks and other common malicious attacks.

#4 Application bugs

A software bug is an error, flaw or fault in an application or
system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result.
Bugs exist in every piece of code for all sorts of reasons, from
improper testing or messy code to a lack of communication or
inadequate specifications documents.

Not all bugs are cyber security issues or vulnerable to
exploitation where an attacker can use the fault to access the
network and run code remotely. However, some bugs like SQL
injection can be very serious, and allow the attackers to
compromise your site or steal data. Not only do SQL injections
leave sensitive data exposed, but they can also enable remote
access and control of affected systems. This is just one example of
a type of application bug, but there are many others.

Injections are common if developers haven’t had sufficient
security training, or where mistakes are made and not code reviewed
– or when combined with inadequate continuous security testing.
However, even when all these things are done – mistakes can still
happen, which is why it’s still ranked as the #1 threat in the
OWASP Top Ten Web Application Security Risks. Fortunately, many
types of injection vulnerabilities (and other application level
security bugs) can be detected with an authenticated web vulnerability
scanner^[3], and penetration testing
for more sensitive applications.

#5 Attack surface management

Can you secure your business if you don’t know what
internet-facing assets you own? Not effectively. Without a complete
and updated inventory of internet-facing assets, you don’t know
what services are available and how attackers can attempt to get
in. But keeping on top of them and ensuring that they’re being
monitored for weaknesses isn’t exactly a walk in the park as IT
estates grow and evolve almost daily.

When companies try to document their systems, they often rely on
manually updating a simple spreadsheet, but between configuration
changes, new technologies, and shadow IT, they rarely know exactly
what assets they own or where. But discovering, tracking, and
protecting all these assets is a critical component of strong
security for every business.

A vulnerability scanner is a dynamic, automated tool that can
keep track of what’s exposed to the internet, and restrict anything
that doesn’t need to be there – like that old Windows 2003 box
everyone’s forgotten about, or a web server that a developer spun
up for a quick test before leaving the business…

It can also keep a constant watch over your cloud accounts and
automatically add any new external IP addresses or hostnames as
targets. And it can help with ‘asset discovery’ when companies need
help finding their IP addresses and domains that they don’t even
know about.

What does this mean for you?

Attackers use automated tools to identify and exploit
vulnerabilities and access unsecured systems, networks or data –
however big or small your organisation. Finding and exploiting
vulnerabilities with automated tools is simple: the attacks listed
above are cheap, easy to perform and often indiscriminate, so every
organisation is at risk. All it takes is one vulnerability for an
attacker to access your network.

Knowing where your vulnerabilities and weak points are is the
first and most important step. If you spot your vulnerabilities
early, you can address them before an attacker can exploit them. A
vulnerability scanner is a cloud-based service that identifies
security vulnerabilities in computer systems, networks and
software. Vulnerability scanners provide a continuous service that
searches for network threats and vulnerabilities – everything from
weak passwords to configuration mistakes or unpatched software – so
you can address them before attackers exploit them.

Vulnerability management made easy

Intruder’s network vulnerability scanner^[4] is powered by
industry-leading scanning engines used by banks and governments
across the world. It’s capable of finding over 11,000+
vulnerabilities and focuses on what matters, saving time with
contextually-prioritised results. Using noise reduction, it only
reports actionable issues that have a genuine impact on your
security.

Intruder offers a 30-day free trial of their vulnerability scanner

By scanning both your internal and external attack surface,
Intruder monitors your publicly and privately accessible servers,
cloud systems, websites and endpoint devices. Fewer targets for
hackers mean fewer vulnerabilities for you to worry about.

Organisations around the world trust Intruder’s vulnerability
scanner to protect their networks with continuous security
monitoring and comprehensive scanning.