What Is The Biggest Threat To Security Of Healthcare Data?

Malware and Ransomware – Malware and ransomware are two of the most common threats to the security of healthcare data. Malware is malicious software that is designed to steal or manipulate data, while ransomware is malicious software that encrypts data and demands a ransom in exchange for the decryption key,

What is the most common threat to the security of an information system?

2. Viruses and worms – Viruses and worms are malicious software programs ( malware ) aimed at destroying an organization’s systems, data and network. A computer virus is a malicious code that replicates by copying itself to another program, system or host file.

It remains dormant until someone knowingly or inadvertently activates it, spreading the infection without the knowledge or permission of a user or system administration. A computer worm is a self-replicating program that doesn’t have to copy itself to a host program or require human interaction to spread.

The BIGGEST Reasons Why Hackers Target Healthcare Companies

Its main function is to infect other computers while remaining active on the infected system. Worms often spread using parts of an operating system that are automatic and invisible to the user. Once a worm enters a system, it immediately starts replicating itself, infecting computers and networks that aren’t adequately protected.

What are the four major threats in data security?

Frequently Asked Questions – What are the threats to data security? Data security threats can be divided into insider and outsider threats.

Outsider or external threats are those that come from outside of the organization and usually are carried out by hacktivists, other countries, and even competition. Common methods include ransomware, phishing attacks, and hacking. Internal threats originate within the organization itself and usually are carried out by a current and former employee, a contractor, a business associate, etc. Insider attacks can be malicious or inadvertent. Common types of insider threats include unauthorized data transfers, abuse of employee privileges, and data sharing.

Learn more about insider threat management How to ensure data security? Data security is critical for every company nowadays. When looking to ensure that their sensitive data stays safe, organizations should consider the following:

Implement security tools such as firewalls, intrusion detection, and antivirus systems that help to prevent threats. Companies looking to mitigate insider threats should also consider deploying a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution that safeguards sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands or leaving the company. Train employees on data security: As a company’s employees are among the biggest threats to data security, they need to be trained on best practices to prevent data leakage and data loss. An efficient training means ensuring that the employees are informed about the importance of data security, know how to detect threats and avoid leakages, and are empowered to report potential privacy incidents. Develop an information security policy and an incident response plan: An information security policy is a first critical step in securing the company’s systems and data. An incident response plan has an important role in dealing better with cybersecurity incidents, as well as limiting damages and restoring public and employee trust.

Find out how big companies protect their data. What is an internal security threat? An internal security threat originates within the organization itself and it can be caused by any user with legitimate access to the company’s assets such as a current or former employee, a contractor, a business associate, etc.

Security threats caused by insiders include sending sensitive data to the wrong recipient, loss or theft of confidential information, and storing data in an insecure location. Read more about insider threats. How to reduce internal security threats with DLP? Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions can help companies to reduce internal data security threats by offering data visibility and control.

By deploying such a solution, organizations can monitor activity related to device use and file transfers, thus controlling what data leaves the company and preventing data exfiltration. DLP tools can also help to reach a better understanding of shadow IT within the organization.

What are 3 threats to data?

When it comes to data security, a threat is any potential danger to information or systems. Threats could be an intruder network through a port on the firewall, a process accessing data in a way that violates the security policy, a tornado wiping out a facility, or an employee making an unintentional mistake that could expose confidential information or destroy a file’s integrity.

It’s critical for every business to understand their risk. An important step in data security is to identify potential threats, classify them by category, and evaluate the damage potential to the company. Use this checklist to understand common data threats and assess how they may affect your business: Hacking : Hacking is now a multi-billion dollar industry for cybercriminals and provides opportunities to extract data for political and monetary gains.

Hacking refers to an unauthorized user gaining access to a computer or a network. There are a variety of ways that hackers gain access to networks or computers –some as intricate as altering a systems security, and others as straightforward as guessing a user’s passwords or installing a keylogger.

• Cracking : Cracking is reverse engineering of software, passwords or encryption could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information.
• This is another form of hacking.
• Malware : Malware (short for malicious software) disrupts computer operations, gathers sensitive information, or gains access to a computer system to compromise data and information.

Antivirus software and firewalls are typically used to keep malware off of computers. Examples of malware include viruses, worms, spyware, ransomware, keyloggers and backdoors, but in reality malware can be any program that operates against the requirements of the computer user.

• Misuse : Employees may take advantage of entrusted resources or privileges for a malicious or unintended purpose.
• Included in this category are administrative abuse, policy violations, and use of non-approved assets.
• These actions can be either malicious or non-malicious in nature.
• Errors : Errors such as system misconfigurations or programming errors can cause unauthorized access by cybercriminals.

Errors can occur in-house due to faulty programming, or hackers can find loopholes that can cause errors as well. Data Leakage : Unauthorized electronic or physical transmission of data or information from within a company to an external destination or recipient could leave data in the wrong hands.

Cloud Computing : Storing unencrypted sensitive data with lax access controls leaves data stored in the cloud vulnerable to improper disclosure. With the growing amount of organizations and people using cloud computers, it’s more important now than ever before to protect your information against hackers.

Mobile Devices : Mobile devices carrying sensitive data can be lost or stolen, possibly causing data to fall into the wrong hands. Availability Attacks : Availability attacks are structured cyberattacks to extort or damage companies whose websites or online assets are a major source of revenue.

• Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) : The goal of an APT isn’t to corrupt files or tamper, but to steal data as it continues to come in.
• Hackers attack computer systems while avoiding detection and harvesting valuable information over a long period of time.
• Third Parties / Service Providers : Third-party networks may be used by other external cybercriminals as an initial access point into a company’s network.

Remember that data security isn’t only an electronic issue. Non-technical threats can affect your business, too. Physical : Theft, tampering, snooping, sabotage, vandalism, local device access, and assault can lead to a loss of data or information. Environmental : Natural events such as tornadoes, power loss, fires, and floods pose hazards to the infrastructure in which data assets are located.

• Insider Threat : Employees, contractors, or partners can commit fraud, espionage or theft of intellectual property.
• Social Media : Employees often fall victim to scams or reveal information not intended for public knowledge on social media.
• Dumpster Diving : Improper disposal of sensitive data could lead to improper disclosures and sensitive information just sitting in trash bins.

Having internal procedures when disposing of sensitive documents is crucial in preventing this kind of a non-technical vulnerability. Social Engineering : Attackers rely heavily on human interaction to gain access to company networks or systems, usually tricking users into breaking normal security procedures and revealing their account credentials.

What are the two information security threats?

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Information security threats can in many forms: software attacks, theft of intellectual property, identity theft, theft of equipment or information, sabotage, and information extortion. This page contains a great deal of important information. There is a similar article by Cisco that covers these same topics, it may be a bit more up to date. Find it at: “What Is the Difference: Viruses, Worms, Trojans, and Bots?” A threat can be anything that can take advantage of a vulnerability to breach security and negatively alter, erase, harm object or objects of interest. Software attacks means attack by Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses etc. Many users believe that malware, virus, worms, bots are all same things. But they are not the same, the only similarity is that they are all malicious software. Malware is a combination of 2 terms, Malicious and Software. So Malware basically means malicious software that can be an intrusive program code or a anything that is designed to perform malicious operations on system. The best-known types of malware, viruses and worms, are known for the manner in which they spread, rather than any specific types of behavior.

1. Virus – A computer virus is software usually hidden within another seemingly innocuous program that can produce copies of itself and insert them into other programs or files, and that usually performs a harmful action (such as destroying data). An example of this is a PE infection, a technique, usually used to spread malware, that inserts extra data or executable code into PE files.
2. Worm – a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. It often uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. It will use this machine as a host to scan and infect other computers. When these new worm-invaded computers are controlled, the worm will continue to scan and infect other computers using these computers as hosts, and this behavior will continue. Computer worms use recursive methods to copy themselves without host programs and distribute themselves based on the law of exponential growth, thus controlling and infecting more and more computers in a short time. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.
3. Trojan horse – is a harmful program that misrepresents itself to masquerade as a regular, benign program or utility in order to persuade a victim to install it. A Trojan horse usually carries a hidden destructive function that is activated when the application is started. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek story of the Trojan horse used to invade the city of Troy by stealth. Trojan horses are generally spread by some form of social engineering, for example, where a user is duped into executing an e-mail attachment disguised to be unsuspicious, (e.g., a routine form to be filled in), or by drive-by download. Although their payload can be anything, many modern forms act as a backdoor, contacting a controller (phoning home) which can then have unauthorized access to the affected computer, potentially installing additional software such as a keylogger to steal confidential information, cryptomining software or adware to generate revenue to the operator of the trojan. While Trojan horses and backdoors are not easily detectable by themselves, computers may appear to run slower, emit more heat or fan noise due to heavy processor or network usage, as may occur when cryptomining software is installed. Cryptominers may limit resource usage and/or only run during idle times in an attempt to evade detection. Unlike computer viruses and worms, Trojan horses generally do not attempt to inject themselves into other files or otherwise propagate themselves. In spring 2017 Mac users were hit by the new version of Proton Remote Access Trojan (RAT) trained to extract password data from various sources, such as browser auto-fill data, the Mac-OS keychain, and password vaults.
4. Bots – can be seen as advanced form of worms. They are automated processes that are designed to interact over the internet without the need of human interaction. They can be good or bad. Malicious bot can infect one host and after infecting will create connection to the central server which will provide commands to all infected hosts attached to that network called Botnet.

Malware is referenced by several terms, depending on how it operates within the larger categories specified above. Below is a short description of many of the most well known types of malware.

1. Adware – is not exactly malicious but it can breach the privacy of a user. Adware displays ads on computer’s desktop or inside individual programs. They often come attached with free software downloaded from a variety os web sites. They monitor the sites the user visits, determines those topics of interest to the user, and then display relevant ads. An attacker can embed malicious code inside the software and adware can monitor your system activities and can even compromise your machine.
2. Spyware – is software that monitors the users activity on computer and provides the collected information to a pre-determined adversary. Spyware are generally dropped by Trojans, viruses or worms. Once dropped they installs themselves and sits silently to avoid detection. One of the most common example of spyware is KEYLOGGER. The basic job of keylogger is to record user keystrokes with timestamp. Thus capturing interesting information like username, passwords, credit card details etc.
3. Ransomware – is a type of malware that will either encrypt your files or will lock your computer making it inaccessible either partially or wholly. A message will be displayed asking for money as ransom in exchange for the key to enable the user to unlock the computer.
4. Scareware – masquerades as a tool to help fix your system but when the software is executed it will infect your system or completely destroy it. The software will display a message to frighten you and force to take some action like pay them to fix your system.
5. Rootkits – are designed to gain administrative privileges in the user’s system. Once administrative access is gained, the adversary access to all data and files, allowing them to veiw, download or destroy whatever the adversary wants.
6. Zombies – work similar to Spyware. The infection mechanism is the same but zombies can sit dormant waiting for the adversary to issue commands or perhaps waiting for a specific task to be completed by the user themselves.

No matter what they look like, or how they accomplish their work, malware is intent on disrupting or destroying data. The adversary is interested in one or more of the following:

• Theft of intellectual property means violation of intellectual property rights like copyrights, patents etc.
• Identity theft means to act someone else to obtain person’s personal information or to access vital information they have like accessing the computer or social media account of a person by login into the account by using their login credentials.
• Theft of equipment and information is increasing these days due to the mobile nature of devices and increasing information capacity.
• Sabotage means destroying company’s website to cause loss of confidence on part of its customer.
• Information extortion means theft of company’s property or information to receive payment in exchange. For example ransomware may lock victims file making them inaccessible thus forcing victim to make payment in exchange. Only after payment victim’s files will be unlocked.

With each day that passes there are new and more malicious threats. Below is the brief description of these new generation threats.

• Technology with weak security – With the advancement in technology, new technology gadgets are being released in the market, and most of them provide some sort of networking or remote access capabilities. Very few have any secure built in or have any thought about following information security principles.
• Social media attacks – the adversary identifies and infects a cluster of websites that persons of a particular organization visit, allowing the adversary to steal information.
• Mobile Malware – the reality is that malware is not limited to desktop/laptop systems. With the plethora of apps that are available from the mobile device app stores, there is a huge opportunity for user’s to inadvertently download malware onto their mobile devices.
• Outdated Security Software – with new threats emerging everyday, updating a system with the latest patches, especially security patches should be a high priority in order to maintain a fully secured environment.
• Corporate data on personal devices – many organizations allow employees to “bring your own device” (BYOD). Devices like laptops, tablets, even the use of USB drives, and cloud storage in the workplace can create serious security breaches.
• Social Engineering – is the art of manipulating people so that they give up their confidential information like bank account details, password etc. These criminals can trick you into giving your private and confidential information or they will gain your trust to get access to your computer to install a malicious software- that will give them control of your computer. For example email or message from your friend, that was probably not sent by your friend. Criminal can access your friends device and then by accessing the contact list he can send infected email and message to all contacts. Since the message/ email is from a known person recipient will definitely check the link or attachment in the message, thus unintentionally infecting the computer. There is an AWESOME video example of social engineering – it is only about 3:00 minutes long. ( I apologize for the single curse word that is used right at the end of the video)

Adapted from: “Malware” by Multiple Contributors, Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 “Threats to Information Security” by rashi_garg, Geeks for Geeks is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

What is the main cause of data breaches which is so successful?

What is targeted in Data Breaches? – Although a data breach can be the result of an innocent mistake, real damage is possible if the person with unauthorized access steals and sells Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or corporate intellectual data for financial gain or to cause harm.

Malicious criminals tend to follow a basic pattern: targeting an organization for a breach takes planning. They research their victims to learn where the vulnerabilities are, such as missing or failed updates and employee susceptibility to phishing campaigns. Hackers learn a target’s weak points, then develop a campaign to get insiders to mistakenly download malware.

Sometimes they go after the network directly. Once inside, malicious criminals have the freedom to search for the data they want — and lots of time to do it, as the average breach takes more than five months to detect. Common vulnerabilities targeted by malicious criminals include the following:

Weak credentials. The vast majority of data breaches are caused by stolen or weak credentials. If malicious criminals have your username and password combination, they have an open door into your network. Because most people reuse passwords, cybercriminals can use brute force attacks to gain entrance to email, websites, bank accounts, and other sources of PII or financial information. Stolen credentials. Breaches caused by phishing are a major security issue and if cyber criminals get hold of this Personal information, they can use it to access things like your bank and online accounts. Compromised assets. Various malware attacks are used to negate regular authentication steps that would normally protect a computer. Payment Card Fraud. Card skimmers attach to gas pumps or ATMs and steal data whenever a card is swiped. Third-party access. Although you may do everything possible to keep your network and data secure, malicious criminals could use third-party vendors to make their way into your system. Mobile Devices. When employees are allowed to bring their own devices (BYOD) into the workplace, it’s easy for unsecured devices to download malware-laden apps that give hackers to data stored on the device. That often includes work email and files as well as the owner’s PII.

Which one of the following are common causes of breaches?

Breaches are commonly associated with human error at the hands of a workforce member.