This guest post was contributed by Penelope Wells.
More and more small businesses are falling victim to cyber attacks that can severely affect their operations and reputation. Indeed, CNBC notes that 43% of all cyber attacks have targeted small businesses, and only a handful of these organizations have proper security infrastructure to defend themselves. Additionally, having security vulnerabilities cost businesses of all sizes at least $200,000 on average, and most find it extremely hard to bounce back after a cyber attack.
While you might take measures to protect your business from common threats like ransomware, phishing, and malware, there are other lesser known but sophisticated digital adversaries that you have to keep a close eye on. In this regard, business owners should be more proactive in improving their security infrastructure to holistically safeguard their organizations. With that being said, we’ve listed below 4 security vulnerabilities that you need to be aware of to protect your business.
SQL Injection Attack
Simply put, an SQL injection attack is an insertion of a SQL query from the data input by a client to an application. This occurs when an application uses suspicious data as a part of its database query, like those that come from web form fields. This allows cybercriminals to oversee and take control of an application’s database — giving them access to sensitive data in the application and the ability to modify how an application behaves. In order to protect your organization from this cyber threat, you have to make sure that your website is sufficiently fortified and there’s no weak point in the code of your website. Furthermore, keeping your software tools and website plugins up-to-date can help you fend off an SQL injection attack.
PCB Hacking
Without a printed circuit board (PCB), all modern electronic devices wouldn’t work. PCBs are used to provide mechanical support and electrical power to a device’s electrical components — from simple gadgets such as your garage door opener to something as advanced as your smartphone. However, today’s PCBs contain a lot of data that can be stolen by hackers. PCBs are mainly made of five pieces: small components, power controller, LPC bus, super I/O chip, and BIOS flash memory. A hardware Trojan can be attached to PCBs by replacing one of its main components with a maliciously altered version during production or while the device is being repaired. In order to avoid compromising your organization through your devices’ PCBs, it’s best to purchase trusted and secure devices that have denser and more complex PCBs.
Improper Error Handling
You should be more cautious of your system’s error messages. If your error messages are detailed enough, it can reveal sensitive data that can be used by cybercriminals to exploit your system. Sometimes, error messages include important information such as stack traces, database dumps, and other internal memory issues that can give an attacker hints which they can use to get into your system. So, be sure to talk to your IT department on how to modify your error messages so that they can relay important data without exposing your system.