A New Year means new expectations, resolutions, and a newly resolved outlook for your business. Unfortunately, that also means that the threats to your network and security will be changing with the times as well. However, it’s not like these are entirely unknown threats. Cyber attacks, DDoS, malware, and password phishing are probably the things that come to mind the most, but here are two largely overlooked threats to your security that have seen more usage lately:

Social Engineering Attacks

These are way harder to deal with than a simple brute force attack or a DDoS case because these rely on psychological manipulation and human to human interaction. Simply put, it’s applying hacking to real life. While it’s certainly not new, but it has seen a recent spike and resurgence within the last year. Many companies, YouTubers, and other prominent figures were hacked because of a few phone calls to some unsuspecting customer support representatives. All it takes is the right tone of voice, a few phone calls, and the right questions for vital information to be leaked and exposed.

So, what can you do to defend yourself against this type of attack? Simply be aware of it. Hold a meeting with your staff on being more guarded on how they answer questions and ask that they know exactly who they’re talking to.

Cloud Attacks

There’s been a reason why people are starting to wince when they read anything related to cloud storage. Everyone’s information in one place? It’s a hackers paradise! It certainly doesn’t help that there have been some huge cloud-related leaks in the last year. So, how can you guard against this one? Well having the right managed service provider can certainly help. But using a private cloud is really what helps. That and having extremely strong passwords too. While it’s tempting to cut cost using a public one for free, that also means you get what you pay for. So why take the risk of losing everything at the cost of nothing?

At the end of the day, staying informed is truly the best weapon to have in your security arsenal.