Today, nearly every business operates in some form on the internet. With that understanding, every business is at risk of being targeted and victimized by sophisticated cyber-attacks. Common victims include vital information, secured systems/networks, and the integrity of said companies. However, there’s another affected party that may not be addressed enough; our children. Securing your business infrastructure from cybercriminals protects our most important assets.
An example of this can be found in the arena of “Smart Toys”. The 2015 breach of Vtech compromised vital information (name, gender, birth dates, etc.) of over 6 million parents and children. The successful attack was attributed to the lack of cybersecurity Best Practices such as keeping up with industry standards with encryption algorithms. Implementing internal network appliances is one example of counteracting malicious attempts on secured networks.
More recent instances of cybercriminal activity can be found in the video game industry. Referenced from content delivery network Akamai; “web application attacks against gaming companies rose by 340 percent between 2019 and 2020 and by as much as 415 percent between 2018 and 2020”. Different types of techniques were used to include SQL Injection (SQLi), Local File Inclusion (LFI), and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). These attacks can extract data, inject malware, and gain access. Worst of all exposing our children to content without proper guidance.
Cybersecurity is a never-ending endeavor that grows in complexity with each passing year. Even though its success is largely measured in the meeting room and seen through the lens of man hours and uptime. Cybersecurity is also an ally in the protection of an unquantifiable metric, our future.