Small business owners are often aware of cyber threats, but they often lack the will and resources to spend on cybersecurity. It is important to understand that cybersecurity is not just about compliance, and businesses don’t need a massive budget to stay protected against malware infections. For the uninitiated, trojan horse is a kind of malware. Here’s why companies should worry about trojans.
Knowing trojans
Cybersecurity threats are evolving with time, but trojans have been around for a while, and yet, people continue to fall prey to this common malware. A Trojan file comes off as a genuine software or download. For instance, you may get an email for downloading a software for free, even though it is a paid one. Since trojans look like genuine files or downloads, users do get tricked. Trojans are used for stealing, editing, modifying, or encrypting data, could be meant for spying, or may launch further malware attacks, by downloading something like ransomware. Unlike viruses, trojans are not typically attacked to a program.
Understanding the consequences
Trojans are often very dangerous for computer and network security. Hackers often rely extensively on trojans to create backdoors, which are used for doing various illegal activities. Backdoor attacks are often hard to detect, so by the time a company finds out about this cybersecurity issue, a considerable damage is done. Hackers may choose to leak data, ask for ransoms, or sometimes, just steal information for further use.
Signs of trojan infection
Malware infections are not very hard to detect. You may find that your network or system is crashing more often, there are frequent blue screens, or the system is usually slow. In many cases, files and apps are downloaded by trojans, so you may find add-ons and other things that are not usually found in the computer.
Having an incident response plan
If trojan is detected on a network, system or device, it is important to alienate the infected device and inform the cybersecurity team. There may be a need to inform all the authorities, especially if customer data has been compromised. Businesses need to have an incident response plan in place, as a part of their cybersecurity endeavors, so that managers and employees know the protocols that must be followed, after a breach.
The good news is cybersecurity measures and basic steps related to password and device protection can help in preventing trojan & malware attacks.
