Cyber threats are a constant challenge for organizations and can lead to financial losses, lost customer trust, and reputational damage in the long term. Businesses have adopted new technologies to stay competitive and increase efficiency, but this has also increased the attack surface. Isolated point products from different vendors expand the attack vector, making it difficult to manage and secure systems efficiently.
Criminally motivated attackers target organizations for monetary theft, identity theft and extortion. These attacks may include hacking into a bank account to steal money, stealing credit card information to commit fraud and selling data on the dark web or holding an organization for ransom.
In addition, hackers attack companies to disrupt their operations. This can include tactics like denial of service attacks, where hackers flood a company’s systems to take them offline and stifle business activities. Attackers also seek to expose trade secrets, which can hurt a company’s competitive position and impact profitability.
Other cyber attacks are launched for political purposes, such as hacktivism or state-sponsored attacks. Famous hacktivists like Anonymous and WikiLeaks have raised awareness about issues like government surveillance, internet regulation and censorship and more.
Cyber threat actors are developing more sophisticated attack techniques and exploiting new vulnerabilities. Zero-day exploits, for example, are exposures in a software system that attackers exploit before a patch is released. Attackers can also leverage multiple tools and techniques, such as malvertising — embedding malware in advertising content that appears on websites — to target users and deliver phishing emails, banking trojans and more.