Cyber Threats (Project Theme)

At the present, smartphones are being a fundamental part of our lives. It is essential for daily tasks, such as shopping, online banking and social media. Therefore, it could expose personal information to risk cyber threats. Cyber threats define as ruin data or obstruct the digital prosperity and cohesion of a venture that is caused by virulent action (Roy, 2021). The perpetrators of Cyber threats have targeted many victims, which leads to negative short and long-term impacts, that include:

Short-term impacts:

1- Affecting the day-by-day activities of individuals and clients (for example influencing their capacity to receive contemporary data and doing banking operations, for example, pulling out cash from ATMs (CHOO,2011).

2- Affecting the daily activities of organizations and government. This can bring about critical monetary and different misfortunes to organizations, for example, openness to claims (for example in cases including breaks of clients' information, and expansion in operational expenses (for example financial losses because of the criminal activities and rise in security spending) (CHOO,2011).

Long-term impact:

1- Public security penetrates (for example the incident in 2010 where secret government data was spilled to Wikileaks (CHOO,2011).

2- Social discontent and turmoil (for example loss of public trust in the public authority regardless of whether the real harm brought about by the cybercriminal exercises was negligible (CHOO,2011)

  The severity of cyber threats might occur to major companies which led to a significant decrease in the company economy and notoriety (NIBUSINESS,2020). Examples of major companies that have been exposed to cyber threats:

1- NetSky and Sasser Worms:  In 2005, the computers were destroyed by a DDoS attack, around the quarter of the virus were resulting from Jaschan’s worms, the losses from that attack estimated by 20 billion dollars (TENINFO, 2020).

2- WannaCry Ransomware Attack: It is a notorious Ransomware attack, first the hackers requested an amount of $300 in Bitcoin or they will encrypt the company's data. However, after 3 days the amount doubled to  $600 due to the non-payment. The damages to decrypt cost more than $4 billion (TENINFO, 2020).

3- Sony PlayStation Network: Sony’s PlayStation Network faced a DDoS attack which disconnected the internet for around 3 weeks, the hackers exploited the defects in the system, and they succeeded in stealing from more than 77 million customers. Sony PlayStation lost more than £171 million to repay the customers for what was stolen. (TENINFO, 2020).

On the business side, how could a businessman manage the big risk of cyber threats with third parties? the risks associated with engaging third-party vendors is titled “Managing the Big Risk.” It is called the Big Risk due to that it is a massive risk, perhaps the most massive. Third parties introduce a variety of risks into virtually every environment. Small and large companies alike use multiple third-party vendors. Some companies use literally thousands of third-party vendors to assist in a wide range of operations. However, the FDIC suggests 10 essential examination contemplations (Ulsch, MacDonnell, and N MacDonnell Ulsch,2014):

1- Assess how the third party may represent a danger to your organization, not by the title or level of a position, yet rather by the level of access to data (Ulsch, MacDonnell, and N MacDonnell Ulsch,2014). 

2-  Ensure the outsider is open and receptive to addressing the individual verification measure. Trust yet confirm, as the saying goes (Ulsch, MacDonnell, and N MacDonnell Ulsch,2014). 

References:

 DEVRY, J (2017) Hunting for Needles in Haystacks. [Online image] Available from: Hunting for Needles in Haystacks - Cybersecurity Insiders (cybersecurity-insiders.com) [Accessed 23/04/2021].

 NCSC (2016) What is cyber security?. [Online]  NCSC. Available from: What is cyber security? - NCSC.GOV.UK [Accessed 23/04/2021].

 ROY, R (2021) What Is a Cyber Threat? Definition, Types, Hunting, Best Practices, and Examples. [Online]  TOOLBOX. Available from: What Is a Cyber Threat? Definition, Types, Hunting, Best Practices, and Examples | Toolbox It-security [Accessed 23/04/2021].

 NIBUSINESS (2017) Cyber security for business. [Online]  NIBUSINESS. Available from: Impact of cyber attack on your business | nibusinessinfo.co.uk [Accessed 23/04/2021].

TENINFO (2020) Top 10 of the World’s Largest Cyber Attacks. [Online] TENINFO. Available from: Top 10 of the World’s Largest Cyber Attacks - The Education Network (ten.info) [Accessed 23/04/2021].

CHOO, K (2011) The cyber threat landscape: Challenges and future research directions,Computers & Security. Australia :Mawson Lakes campus.

Ulsch, M, and Ulsch, N (2014) Cyber Threat! : How to Manage the Growing Risk of Cyber Attacks, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, Somerset. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central - Detail page [Accessed 23/04/2021].