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IT security is one of the most important issues in the world right now. Due to the excessive amount of data that is now available digitally, hacks and data theft have become extremely lucrative and widespread.
The most common targets of these hacks are companies and data centers. The problem is that these hacks are quite creative and use either unique or overlooked approaches.
That’s why today we are going to review some common yet easily overlooked IT threats that security teams should address pronto.
Overlooked IT Threats in The Workplace
1. Overlooked Network Exposure and Misconfigurations
We all use the internet; we wouldn’t have to, but somebody thought it was a good business idea to make software work online instead of offline and require an internet connection at all times (so inconvenient). Then it was dressed up under the fancy term “Software as a Service” or SaaS, or you might say “sass” because you can’t tell me they were being sassy when they coined that term.
Anyway, the problems with SaaS and networks in big companies are numerous. Take a look below to find some of them.
- Many forgotten services, legacy remnants, and old test environments remain reachable long after their “official” use ends.
- Routine changes in cloud settings or software updates unintentionally expose new ports.
- Old authorized devices that haven’t had their elevated access revoked remain accessible via the network.
These are easy to overlook, and a savvy infiltrator can exploit them to access your internal company network and data. To deal with these problems, IT experts can do the following things:
- Revoke access from older machines and inactive accounts. Always keep a list of active machines and accounts to cross-reference with.
- Use a port scanner to check for unwanted open ports and close them
- Always do a full audit after making changes or updates to your company’s software and infrastructure.
This way, overlooked security risks can be mitigated in advance.
2. Monitoring Blind Spots
Security blind spots can occur in large networks and infrastructures relatively easily. It is the security team’s job to be aware of such blind spots and come up with ways of monitoring them.
Here are some common blind spots that can occur in any moderately large company.
- Systems considered “low priority” and receive minimal logging or attention often become blind spots. If they have elevated access that was supposed to be revoked, then they become more dangerous.
- Gaps in log forwarding leave whole areas of the infrastructure unobserved. This is terrible because, on paper, you have a logging system active, but in reality, the delays in forwarding mean that affected systems can remain infected for quite a while before anyone notices.
- Alerts drowned in noise, causing early signs of compromise to be missed. This happens when your monitoring system is overloaded and not segmented properly. So, make sure that your system shows security alerts as high priority and makes them impossible to miss.
You can discover some of these blind spots by getting a vulnerability assessment done on your IT infrastructure. After that, it is a matter of implementing the right monitoring protocols to ensure you never miss these spots ever again.
3. Quiet Weaknesses in Third-Party Connections
Remember that discussion about SaaS? Well, what we didn’t mention is that SaaS software is almost always closed source, so you cannot see how it stores, processes, and secures your data. By using SaaS software, you are putting your trust in a third party to secure your data.
So, if there are any security flaws in a SaaS company’s infrastructure, you are putting your data at risk by using that company’s software. Those 3rd party companies have their own security protocols, logging systems, and monitoring/reporting algorithms.
They might not be as good as the ones you are using, or they may have their own blind spots that can leak your data.
To mitigate such risks, only work with companies that you trust and whose security you can vouch for.
4. Hidden Architectural Issues
Some commonly overlooked security threats are hidden architectural issues. In large companies where the IT infrastructure is huge and has had several years’ worth of updates applied to it, you can run into two major problems.
- Unintentional access pathways.
- Legacy components buried inside newer layers, carrying unresolved vulnerabilities.
This means that a significant portion of your data is accessible to people who shouldn’t have access to it. Once again, a vulnerability assessment can help you here by potentially identifying these hidden issues and making your security team aware of them.
5. Shadow IT
One of the common yet overlooked problems in modern security infrastructure is shadow IT. This refers to software and applications that employees install on their work computers without the permission or knowledge of your security team.
The problem with shadow IT is that you cannot vouch for the security of the software and apps installed by employees. If they have any data leaks or security vulnerabilities, then your entire network is at risk.
To deal with shadow IT, you can do the following things:
- Use the Windows organization control features to prevent the installation or download of any apps or software without admin access.
- Create an accessible system whereby employees can request that IT managers install an app or software they need.
- Provide training about this procedure and the various risks of not following it.
That’s how you can control shadow IT.
6. Social Engineering
Social engineering is a non-technical way of gaining access to information or systems that lets bad actors infiltrate a closed system or network. It involves meeting people who have access to the closed systems and somehow fooling them into giving out sensitive information, or simply stealing it from them.
Social engineering can happen in a lot of ways. For example, if you have a customer support team and somebody calls them on the telephone, and while making their support requests, the caller also starts some small talk and, in a normal conversation, makes the agent spill where they take their break.
Then the caller can use the knowledge to stake out the place and find an opportunity to steal or clone the employee ID of the agent, or try to steal other sensitive information from their person. Then that information can be used to compromise the company in some way.
To deal with social engineering, you have to hold regular classes/meetings/seminars where you do the following things:
- Enlighten employees in customer-facing roles on what kinds of things they can or cannot discuss with customers
- How to identify social engineering attempts
- How to report if they feel they have been compromised
This kind of regular meeting will keep these things at the forefront of the employees ‘ minds and prevent or at least minimize data leaks through social engineering.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, some of the overlooked security threats an organization can face and how you can prevent them. Do keep in mind that these might not be the biggest security threats, but the fact that they can be overlooked makes them very dangerous.
If you want to read about more overt threats, then you can read our blog post on the Biggest Cybersecurity Challenges to bring yourself up to speed.
Security is always about keeping up to date with new challenges and finding ways to handle them before they get the better of you, so never stop researching security exploits and their countermeasures.