How Cybersecurity Technology Protects Businesses As Phishing Emails and Botnet Modules Target Healthcare
Cybersecurity is one of the greatest concerns for businesses in the modern era. While moving a business online can lead to benefits like increased efficiency and profits, there’s the new threat of cybercrime to consider. While measures have been taken to protect businesses, cybercriminals are more effective than ever before, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Don Baham, a healthcare IT services professional with Kraft Technology Group shares how cybersecurity technology protects businesses as phishing emails and botnet modules target health care.
Emotet Botnet
The Emotet botnet is a suite of modules used for cybercrime activity such as stealing emails and credentials. During the pandemic, these modules have been reworked and redesigned in an effort to optimize their performance for what is likely a new spam campaign. It’s more dangerous than ever before, with specific features designed to dodge common cybersecurity measures used by a variety of companies all across the country. One of these measures is known as hash busting, which essentially gives a bit of malware a different means of identification on each individual system it infects. With that changing ID, detection systems based on hash recognition are useless.
To protect yourself against these new attacks, you’ll have to take a few measures and adopt some common practices to decrease the chances of infection. Any email attachments that are a .exe or .dll file should be blocked, as should any .zip files because they can’t be scanned by antivirus software. This policy should be spread to all your employees along with firewall rules and frequent updates to antivirus software. The email gateway for your business should have its own firewall in which shady email addresses are blocked entirely.
New Phishing Emails
Phishing emails have always been a problem, but the latest editions are out to target health-care providers during the pandemic. They use subject lines specifically mentioning COVID-19 to play on people’s fears during the pandemic to spread malware through attachments like .exe and .zip files. Even MS Word files can contain malware that serves as a way for cybercriminals to get a foot in the door for more extensive system infiltration at a later point.
Typically, you and your team will be wary of the most basic kinds of phishing attempts, but heightened fears during the pandemic can cause some to forget basic practices and open something they really shouldn’t. Common subject lines on these emails are along the lines of “COVID-19 UPDATE !!” and “Information About COVID-19 in the United States.” More effective headlines include “Business Contingency Alert COVID-19,” which strives to appear as if it’s providing information about the pandemic that’s unique to one’s business rather than something you would find on a news site. Whatever the subject line, these emails will always come with a .exe or .7z type of attachment that should be blocked.
Keeping Yourself Safe
With these new threats knocking on the door of your business, the best way to stay safe is to optimize your IT efforts. Given the new features of malware attacks and phishing attempts, the latest technology and proper education for your employees are key to keeping your business safe from cyberattacks.
Managed IT services may be your best bet if you’re looking for protection that will prevent any business interruptions. By outsourcing your IT department, you can get your company equipped with the latest and greatest technology specifically designed to thwart cyberattacks alongside a support team that’s always there to help day and night.
Stuart Crawford serves as Managing Partner with Ulistic LP, a specialty MSP Marketing firm focused on information technology marketing and business development. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience pertaining to how technology business owners and IT firms can use marketing as a vehicle to obtain success.