How to Prevent Malware Attacks and Send Secure Text Messaging

The growth of mobile devices in the past few decades has made mobile phishing an extremely significant threat for organizations and consumers. So, in this article we want to identify the most common types of cyber attacks and how to protect your organization and customers by sending secure text messaging.

Phishing can come in various forms, from emails to unsecure text messaging. Phishing is usually sent by cyber attackers to infect computer or mobile networks.

As a result, organizations have worked harder to protect against suspicious emails and warn users to verify the legitimacy of each email, regardless of who the sender is.

Emails are not the only way to send malicious content. Whatever channels an organization is using to communicate with customers could be a potential threat. Cyber attacks are increasing drastically every year with attackers improving in efficiency and sophistication.

Types of Cyber Attacks

Preventing malware infections is not the easiest thing. It requires a multi-pronged approach. We’d like to shine a light on the most common types of cyber attacks and give you tips on how to prevent them:

• Malware – type of application that can perform a variety of malicious tasks. Potentially the most common is ransomware which is a program designed to encrypt the victim’s files and ask a ransom in order to get the decryption key.
• Phishing – this attack is where the attacker tries to trick the victim into handing important information such as passwords, credit card details, intellectual property, and so on.
• Man-in-the-middle attack (MITM) – this is where the attacker ambushes the communication between two parties in an attempt to spy on the victims, steal personal information, and harm them in some way.
• Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack – in this case, the attacker floods the target service with traffic in an attempt to disrupt or bring down the target.
• SQL injection – this attack is specifically targeted at SQL databases and they are usually executed via a form or web page.
• Business Email Compromise (BEC) – the attacker targets individuals who have the ability to authorize financial transactions in order to trick them to wire money into an account controlled by the cyber-attacker.
• Cryptojacking – means compromising someone’s computer or mobile device to use it to mine cryptocurrencies.
• Drive-by attack – is a very common type of attack where the victim visits a website which in turn infects their device with malware. It might be served in content such as banners, advertisements, or other files.
• Cross-site scripting (XSS) attack – very similar to SQL injection attacks, this is typically used to infect other users who visit the website. For instance, the comment section of a website can contain malware via a malicious script published on the page.
• Password attack – happens when the attacker guesses or cracks the user’s password.
• Eavesdropping attack – occurs when the attacker looks for unsecured network communication to intercept data that is being sent across the network.

How to Prevent Cyber Attacks

Protection against cyber attacks is no longer an option. Doing nothing is unacceptable when working within an organization which puts customer security first.

Also as an individual, you should take all the steps not to get targeted or tricked into sharing important details.

Preventing, detecting or disrupting any potential cyber attacks starts by educating the user or employee on how to recognize potential threats.

Fortunately, there are effective and affordable ways to reduce your organization’s exposure to the most common cyber attacks. Here are a few tips that will help you diminish the risk of getting attacked:

• Ensure you have an anti-malware/spam protection software installed on your computer or mobile device
• Ensure that your staff is trained to identify malicious emails and websites
• Have a strong password policy, and use multi-authentication
• Keep your software patched and up-to-date
• Control access to systems and data
• Monitor your network frequently for malicious activity, including file encryption, inbound-outbound network traffic, and so on
• Don’t give access to any person outside your organization
• When unsure about someone’s identify, make sure you verify their identity
• Don’t download any files from suspicious sites
• Be on top of the game by doing security awareness training regularly
• Use a VPN service when connecting to your network, especially if you are using a public Wi-Fi hotspot
• Look out for emails with a fake domain that impersonate a vendor, display a sense of urgency, has typos, and anything that might look suspicious
• Have a strong password policy in place

What is SMS Authentication?

SMS is one of the oldest channels. Although it’s generally a reliable and inexpensive form of communication, SMS messages aren’t encrypted.

However, SMS is still used by many organizations to send reminders, appointments, promotions, and emergency notifications.

Lots of businesses rely on using SMS to communicate with customers. At the same time, 90% of customers prefer text messages over direct phone calls. So, it’s important to make it a secure text messaging option.

By 2023, it is forecasted that 8.2 billion people worldwide will use mobile phones. With this increasing popularity, it’s imperative to secure text messaging as much as possible.

The good new is that with SMS authentication also known as SMS-based two factor authentication (2FA) and SMS one-time password (OTP) – allows users to verify their identities with a code that is sent via text message.

This form of authentication is quite simple. After signing, the user receives a text message with an SMS authentication code. All they need to do is enter the code on the app or website to gain access.

SMS authentication is more secure than using only passwords because it minimizes the reliance on passwords and makes it more difficult for bad actors to steal logins or hack accounts.

Wrapping Up Secure Text Messaging

As a communication provider of secure messaging solutions, VoiceSage encourages organizations to have SMS authentication in place.

Adding an extra layer of security to your messages is recommended to avoid cyber attacks which are growing more sophisticated every day.

Educate yourself on the latest cybersecurity attacks and be able to recognize a harmful message or email when you receive one.

As a company, we follow extensive practices to track and protect your information through a comprehensive certification program. From the top down, we have prioritised security as a core business principle that we actively promote everyday.