2,365 cyberattacks took place in 2023 and affected 343,338,964 people around the world as per data. This data is for only a particular year, there have been many such incidents of cyberattacks over the years. Data breaches, cyberattacks, and hacking, all these terms are related to cybersecurity incidents.  

Today, cybersecurity incidents are widespread, and they haunt even large organizations like Microsoft, Google, and Meta. Such incidents cost organizations a lot in terms of money, reputation, and disruptive business operations. Hence, understanding cybersecurity incidents, how they unfold, and methods to prevent cybersecurity incident is crucial for CISOs.  

This article helps you understand cybersecurity incidents and talks about some measures to prevent it like vulnerability scanning, least access privilege, employee training, and more. Keep reading for useful information.  

What is a Cybersecurity Incident?  

In simple words, a cybersecurity incident occurs when the system or data of an organization has been compromised. It occurs when the security of a network or system is breached to gain unauthorized access and cause disruption, data theft, or data manipulation.  

Let’s understand it with a scenario. Suppose an organization has a legacy system that has a vulnerability. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to the system. After this, the attacker can steal sensitive data or disrupt the system.  

This event is considered a cybersecurity incident as the data of the affected organization is exposed and the defense mechanism fails.    

What are the Causes of Cybersecurity Incidents? 

Understanding various reasons for cybersecurity incidents will help CISOs make an effective strategy to defend their digital assets. It will help them identify the weak spots and fill the gaps that could adversely affect security.  

Often security breaches occur internally due to weak access policies. However, external factors like hacking are major reasons for such incidents. Let’s explore the common causes of cyber security incidents below.  

Accidental  

A cybersecurity incident might occur accidentally when employees in an organization are negligent or perform unintended actions. Often, negligence or human error contribute to data breaches or sensitive data exposure incidents. Indeed, as per data, in 95% of cybersecurity breaches, human error is the main cause.  

A human error is a mistake or action that causes a security breach to occur. For example, failing to use a strong password is a common human error that results in compromised systems or data. Another example of such mistakes includes downloading a malicious file attached to an email.  

Organizations can avoid such problems by investing more in employee training and ensuring stringent access controls.  

Intentional 

Accidental and intentional are both internal factors that occur within an organization’s periphery. In some cases, a malicious employee can intentionally allow a cybersecurity incident to happen. It could be an act of revenge, or the employee might be doing this for monetary gain. 

It is commonly known as an insider threat. Moreover, such a malicious employee can steal data and sell it to adversaries. There are many examples of such incidents, like an X (formerly Twitter) employee had shared some X users’ data with the officials of Saudi Arabia in 2022.   

You need strict security measures to mitigate the risk of insider threats. For example, adopting a zero-trust architecture will minimize the risk of unauthorized access to data. With this architecture, users are always authenticated and never trusted to access a system or application.   

Cyberattacks 

External threat vectors can exploit vulnerabilities in systems or applications to cause security breaches. Vulnerabilities are security flaws or logic flaws. For example, improper input validation is a common security vulnerability that makes a web application susceptible to cyberattacks.  

Attackers often use different tactics to breach the security of a system or application. For example, an attacker can use a social engineering tactic like phishing to steal data. These tactics allow them to bypass security controls and gain unauthorized access to the target system or application.  

You need to strengthen your security posture to fend off cyberattacks. However, vulnerabilities create a loophole in your system or application. Hence, identifying and removing vulnerabilities is important to ensure robust security. You can use DAST tools to discover and remediate vulnerabilities.  

DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) tools will identify common vulnerabilities like OWASP Top 10. You can fix vulnerabilities by discovering them with DAST tools.  

Stolen Credentials 

Another common reason for cyber security incidents is compromised passwords. Often, many users use the same password for multiple applications or accounts. When an attacker successfully steals credentials for such a user, all other accounts can be rendered compromised.  

The attacker can easily gain access to multiple accounts with the stolen credentials. The situation can be worse if the user has administrative-level access to the application. In this case, the attacker can manipulate the configuration and gain full control of the application.  

Organizations must implement strong password policies and adopt multi-factor authentication to ensure optimal protection. Even some organizations also adopt password less authentication to meet this end.   

Ways to Prevent Cybersecurity Incidents 

Organizations can adopt various measures to prevent security breaches and safeguard their data and systems. These measures require them to make some changes in security policy and introduce stricter protocols. The following are some ways to prevent cyber security incidents. 

• Implement Least Privilege: Consider the principle of least privilege when implementing IAM (Identity and Access Management) functionality. It will ensure that a user can access data or the system when the necessary permissions are given.  

• Keep Systems Updated: Make sure that your systems are up to date with necessary security patches. It will help prevent vulnerabilities in your systems.  

• Vulnerability Assessment: Continuous threat monitoring with vulnerability assessment will ensure that your systems don’t have weaknesses that could result in compromised security.  

• Employee Training: Regular employee training to keep them updated with the threat landscape will help avoid internal risks. Make them aware of security policies and procedures.   

Final Note 

The news of cybersecurity incidents is commonplace today. Plus, securing your digital infrastructure is becoming more challenging with the increasing use of sophisticated techniques by attackers. Hence, it’s imperative that you gather the necessary knowledge and improve your security tactics to protect your digital infrastructure. Hope this article was helpful and added to your knowledge to meet those ends.  

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