Your IT support provider in Manhattan should be asking this question: How many channels are hackers using to access your business's digital assets?
A typical small to medium business (SMB) gathers a ton of personal information about their customers. This includes payment information, PIN numbers, passwords, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, social security numbers, and addresses. This information is a goldmine for hackers and they'll use every avenue at their disposal to gain access to this information.
It's important to know what channels hackers use to try and gain access to your digital assets. That way, you can take steps to block them and protect your customers' information.
5 Most Common Hacker Channels
Here are five of the most common channels hackers use to access business data:
1. Web-Based Applications
Your web-based applications are a great convenience to your customers. However, they can also be leveraged by hackers to gain access to your customers' information. By using programming loopholes and weaknesses in your security, hackers can access information like credit card numbers and identity details. This information will allow them to commit fraud. It can also be sold to other hackers for quite a bit of money.
2. Servers
Your servers are where your business data lives. If a hacker can gain access to your databases, they have free rein to gather personal information on your customers. They can access your servers in a number of ways. A common avenue is to penetrate the network with malware and to gather admin passwords. That offers them free access to all your databases and the confidential data contained therein.
3. Wireless Devices
Your company and employee wireless devices are a continuing point of vulnerability. Increasing numbers of businesses are giving their employees wireless devices to help them do their jobs. Many businesses already allow employees to access the company network with their personal devices. Every wireless device that accesses your network is a point of vulnerability that hackers can exploit to find a way to your network. To protect your devices, seek professional help from a reputable IT support firm in Manhattan.
4. POS Systems
Your Point of Sale (POS) devices are one of those channels many companies don't think about much. They set them up and start processing customer sales. Unfortunately, many of these devices have preloaded software that's vulnerable to hacker attacks. So, as a customer's financial information is gathered for a legitimate sale, a hacker can simultaneously gather the credit card information and use it to make unauthorized charges. The hacker then moves on to the next customer and more unauthorized charges are made.
5. Email
Your email system offers a way for hackers to get malicious software into your network. The hacker sends an email that looks legitimate to one of your employees. The employee clicks a link in the email, which triggers the installation of malware onto your network. That malware starts replicating throughout your network. The hackers then use the malware to access your business data.
Hackers are going to use any channel available to them to gain access to your customers' information. You have a legal and moral obligation to take measures to protect that information. If you need assistance in protecting your company's data, contact us at Simplegrid today. We offer IT support for Manhattan businesses, as well as IT security services, cloud solutions, and more.