By R2 Unified Technologies
Data breaches are not new, nor are they “caused” by technology. Stealing or misusing hard copies has been possible since the introduction of records. That said, the increasing reliance on digital platforms has brought the issue to a new level - and scale.
According to Cyber Defense Magazine: "The damage costs of ransomware will rise to $10 billion in 2019." Protecting data is a must. The first step: being aware of the various types of security breaches to which your organization may be vulnerable.
Network Security Issues and Solutions
According to the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) - a nonprofit open community committed to helping organizations create, develop, acquire, run, and maintain trusted applications - the most common types of security breaches are:- Injections. This is when an attacker sends an “injection of code” - or invalid data - that the application then executes. Injections compromise security, privacy, and even data correctness and can steal data or bypass authentication and access controls.
- Broken Authentication. Here, attackers use flaws in the authentication function (e.g., passwords, session IDs, etc.) to impersonate users. This can allow them to gain control over accounts within a system - or even over the entire system itself.
- Sensitive Data Exposure. When an application does not sufficiently protect sensitive data (e.g., passwords, credit card data, health records, etc.), it’s left vulnerable to exposure. This can happen when developers prioritize producing a workable application and forget/neglect to go back and install planned protections.
- XML eXternal Entities (XXE). In this type of breach, an attacker can cause Denial of Service and access files and services by exploiting XML parsers (parsers allow browsers to access and manipulate XML).
- Broken Access Control. Access control regulates who can access what content. Over time, this can become a tangled mess as applications grow in size. If not centralized and carefully managed, this can lead to data vulnerability as it’s easier for attackers to enter your applications and systems.
Rounding out OWASP’s list of common network breaches are: security misconfigurations, cross site scripting (XSS), insecure deserialization, insufficient logging and monitoring, and using components with known vulnerabilities.
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