The 5 Best IT Security Practices to Adopt for 2025

AI, cybercrime, Employee Training, Ophtek, secure IoT, security practices, supply chain security, zero trust architecture, , , , , ,
21
Jan 2025

2025 promises to be an exciting year for businesses, but cybercrime will remain a major threat. That’s why strengthening your cybersecurity is essential.

With the costs of cybercrime expected to hit $10.5 trillion in 2025, it’s evident that tackling cybercrime is a major priority for all businesses. However, it’s easy to become complacent with the quality of your defenses. You may feel that 2024 was a quiet year for you in terms of malware, so why change anything? Well, it’s this complacency that threat actors prey upon. Therefore, you need to constantly evolve your defenses to remain safe.

Start Enhancing Your Cybersecurity Today:

You may be wondering where to start, but this is where Ophtek has your back. We’ve pooled our resources and knowledge to bring you the 5 best IT security practices to adopt in 2025:

  1. Train Your Employees to Stay Safe: Your first line of defense against threat actors remains your employees. If your employees understand the threat of malware then you increase your chances of staying safe. However, if they don’t understand the telltale signs of ransomware and trojans, this manifests itself as a major chink in your armor. You can remedy this by conducting regular training sessions to educate and update your team on all the latest threats. This makes your staff less likely to fall victim to scams and protect your systems. 
  2. Use Zero Trust Architecture: Trust is crucial in business, but it can be dangerous when it comes to IT systems. Therefore, adopting a zero trust architecture (ZTA) model can enhance your security practices. ZTA involves enforcing strict identity verification – such as Microsoft Authenticator – and segmenting your networks to restrict access to only those who need it. These practices will minimize the risk of both external and internal threats, optimizing the security of your IT infrastructure.
  3. Secure Your IoT Devices: The number of connected IoT devices is set to grow significantly in the next five years, up to 32.1 billion devices by 2030. Start securing them by checking if any of them are still using default passwords – if they are, change these to strong passwords immediately. It’s also a good idea to segment IoT devices onto separate networks, this limits how far malware can spread through your IT infrastructure in the case of an infection. Finally, make sure that software patches and firmware updates are installed promptly.
  4. Implement AI Cybersecurity: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to detect and neutralize threats in real time. Capable of analyzing huge amounts of data and identifying unusual activity, AI excels at spotting sophisticated threats before they create a foothold in your networks. This automation allows you to stay ahead of the threat actors and safeguard your systems more effectively than ever. Consequently, exploring options such as IBM’s range of AI tools could make a vast difference to your defenses in 2025.
  5. Maximize Your Supply Chain Security: Threat actors are as innovative as they are dangerous, this is best evidenced by their attempts to target your vendors to gain access to your systems. To keep your business safe, audit the vendors you work with to verify their cybersecurity protocols and compliance. Working closely with your vendors will enable you to limit threat actors exploiting any gaps in security.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Cyber Crime as a Service – A New Threat

Security, Uncategorized, ,
08
Nov 2016

Computer crime concept

The latest evolution in hacking is here and it’s known as Cybercrime as a Service (CaaS) and it promises to create faster, more powerful hacks, but how?

Well, many people have a need to carry out hacking operations, but don’t have the technical skills to design or even launch these types of cyber-attacks. Therefore, there’s a niche in the market for those who do know how to design a piece of malware to monetize their skills. And this is what the foundations of CaaS are built upon – money and cybercrime.

How exactly does it work, though? And what does it mean for the future of cyber security?

What is CaaS?

Hacking has rarely been referred to as an ‘industry’ despite a few individuals willing to carry out cyber-attacks in exchange for money. However, with CaaS, hacking appears to be turning into an industry which means big bucks and nightmares for computer owners all over the world.

Say, for example, a disgruntled ex-employee wants to sabotage their previous employer’s website to cause disruption to their activities. Now, it’s highly unlikely that this employee would be skilled in the world of cyber-crime, so what would they do? Well, previously they would have tried reading a few online articles about hacking and then given up when they realized how difficult it was.

With the advent of CaaS, though, this ex-employee could easily purchase the software or the execution services of a skilled hacker. Naturally, this is a highly illegal act for both parties, so the resources for these types of services tend to be hidden on the dark web to lower the chances of identification.

Consumers can expect to find malware kits, access to infected computers and even botnet rentals which allow the initiation of Denial of Service attacks. Therefore, it’s somewhat of an Aladdin’s Cave for someone who is looking for quick, easy access to cybercrime e.g. exploit kits can be purchased for just $50 per day and, believe me, they can cause a lot of damage in one day.

What Does CaaS Mean for Hacking?

mobile phone crime concept of thief stealing money when mobile phone is on insecure network

CaaS is making hacking much more accessible for the average computer user whereas, before, it was purely the preserve of those who had the skill to design malicious software and carry out sophisticated attacks. This means that we can expect to see an increase in attacks in the future, so safeguarding your networks is more important than ever.

One of the most troubling aspects of CaaS, though, is that when a service becomes a business it drives competition amongst the vendors. And this means that those hackers who are designing exploit kits and various other hacking tools are going to have to up their game to remain in the market.

Therefore, we’re going to see a rapid evolution in the capabilities of hacking tools, so expect faster and more devastating attacks which are harder to stop. In order to protect yourself from these enhanced attacks you’re going to have to ensure that your cyber security protocols enhance visibility of such attacks and prevent them taking hold of your systems.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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