Cyber Security Challenges: Threats, Attacks, and Business Security

This report delves into the escalating cyber security challenges confronting organizations in the digital age. It explores the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks, including malware, phishing, DDoS attacks, and threats stemming from the Internet of Things and machine intelligence. The report examines the motives behind cyber attacks, the vulnerabilities exploited, and the impact on businesses, using examples such as the Sony Corporation hack. It provides an overview of the various types of attacks, including those involving mobile wallets, social media, and insider risks. Furthermore, it suggests strategies for enhancing cyber security, offering insights into how organizations can improve their defenses and protect their valuable data and assets. The report concludes with a call for proactive measures to mitigate risks and ensure robust cyber security practices.

Running head: CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES
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Business Research

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Project Objective........................................................................................................................4
Project Scope..............................................................................................................................4
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................5
Reason for Cyber Attacks......................................................................................................5
Lack of Security.................................................................................................................5
Mobile Wallet.....................................................................................................................5
Popularity of Social Sites...................................................................................................5
Negligence..........................................................................................................................6
Cyber Security Challenges for Business....................................................................................6
Malware..................................................................................................................................6
Inside Risk..............................................................................................................................7
Hacktivism.............................................................................................................................7
Phishing..................................................................................................................................7
Dronejacking..........................................................................................................................8
DDoS Attack..........................................................................................................................8
The Internet of Things............................................................................................................8
Machine Intelligence..............................................................................................................8
Recent Cyber Attacks.................................................................................................................9
Suggestions for Better Security..................................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12
Appendix..................................................................................................................................14

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 2
List of Figures
Figure 1: Cyber Crimes Attacks...............................................................................................14
Figure 2: Increase in Phishing..................................................................................................14
Figure 3: Targets of Cyber attacks...........................................................................................15
Figure 4: Various Cyber Attack Methods................................................................................15

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 3
Introduction
With the advancement in digital age, the infrastructure of industries is improving as well.
Organisations are implementing modern technology in their processes to provide their
customers more facilities. Generally, the core of such facilities is the internet based system.
The popularity of the internet has provided new opportunities to business, to increase their
number of customers by providing better services. Peoples prefer internet based services
because it saves time, money and gives more options to consumers. Due to the popularity of
its services, hackers are using the internet to attack the data of organisations and persons.
Cybercrimes has become a matter of national security in many countries. Many governments
are using internet based systems to secure their confidential data and leakage of such data can
be a significant threat to national security.
Individuals are also using internet services to communicate and share personal data more than
ever. It is important for peoples, companies, and government to protect their data from
hackers; therefore, it is necessary to implement cyber security policies. This report will
discuss the problems faced by organisations why maintain their cyber security. The report
will take the example of cyber-attack on Sony Corporation and other organisations to
understand the motives for cyber-attacks and reason of the failure of an organisation to
maintain proper security measures.

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Project Objective
The primary objective of this report is to understand the challenges encountered by
organisations while maintaining their cyber security. The example of Sony Corporation and
various other companies will be analysed to understand the impact of cyber-attack and reason
for cyber security. Further, the report will provide suggestions to improve organisational
policies regarding cyber security.
Project Scope
The usage of internet based services and their impact on security will be evaluated in the
report. The theories of technical experts to enhance cyber security will be discussed in the
report. Various cyber risks and their solution will be discussed in the report from the
perspective of different corporations.

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Literature Review
According to Knapp and Samani (2013), modern organisations are using internet based
services at a significantly high rate. With the use of latest technology, corporations are
providing better facilities to their customers. The modernisation of internet based technology
has also increased the number of cyber-attacks on corporations (Figure 1). Due to this threat,
corporations are realising the importance of cyber security in their organisation.
Reason for Cyber Attacks
In past few decades, the threat of cyber-attacks has substantially been grown, the reason for
that is modernisation of technology. According to Waxman (2011), the advancement of
technology allows companies to easily implement internet services to their business
processes, which provide better services to customers. The popularity of internet is one of the
reasons for the increase in a number of cyber crimes but there several other reasons as well
(Figure 1).
Lack of Security
Most of the organisations do not prefer to implement cyber security due to its heavy
expenditure. The cost for various security software are high for small or even medium
corporations, therefore, companies do not apply strict procedures for online security. The lack
of security makes corporations easy target for hackers, and they take full advantage of such
situation (Sridhar, Hahm and Govindarasu 2012).
Mobile Wallet
With the easy availability of internet in people’s smartphones, many organisations provide
their services through the internet straight to smartphones. Mobile wallet or e-banking are
some of the examples of such services. People use their smartphones as wallets by using them
for payments, booking or performing other internet based transactions. For example, PayPal,
Google Wallet, and Apple Passbook act as wallet which allows users to pay for things. As per
the research of Arabo and Pranggono (2013), banks also let their clients perform banking
activities straight from their smartphone, which reduce the requirement of visiting banks. The
banking details safe in smartphones are targeted by hackers to gain access to people’s bank
accounts. The banking corporations are also targeted because they shifted their business on
online platforms.

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 6
Popularity of Social Sites
Social media sites are significantly popular in between people, making it an ideal place to
advertise company’s products and services. People also share a large amount of personal
information on social sites. According to the research of Youmans and York (2012), hackers
use social media sites to collect data regarding users and use them to hack their accounts.
Social sites have various flaws such as anyone can create a fake account, no way to know
who is using an account and lack of privacy.
Negligence
Most of the security breaches are conducted due to the negligence of employees. As per
Amoroso (2012), employees intentionally or unintentionally failed to perform their security
duties which make it easier for a hacker to gain access to information. Many IT employees do
not have enough knowledge or skills to stop a cyber-criminal from hacking into their
accounts.
Cyber Security Challenges for Business
Modern technology has increased the risk of cyber crimes on the organisation; hackers are
finding new methods to attack a business data. Corporations are facing various problems in
maintaining their security of their online information (Figure 4). Few examples of their
challenges are provided below:
Malware
Malware is the virus used by cyber criminals to gain access or collect information from
another computer. There are different types of malware used by the hacker. Following are
few examples:
 Adware: This malware display advertisement on a person’s computer which redirects
them to hackers serves. They restrict the access of users from their computer and
collect their data. Most notable attacks have been on eBay and Red Bull, where cyber
criminals use fake advertisement to hack users (Zhu, Joseph and Sastry 2011).
 Spyware: This makes spy on its users and collects information regarding their online
activities. After determining the activities, this malware also provides an
advertisement to the user (Denning and Denning 2010).
 Ransomware: This is a modern malware which is popular between various cyber
criminals. The hackers use this malware to gain access to a person’s data and after

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 7
that demand, ransom to give back the access. Usually, after paying the ransom, they
do not give back the access. Some application of ransomware includes GoldenEye,
CryptoLocker, and Crysis (Sanatinia and Noubir 2015).
 Smartphone Malware: Smartphones are significantly popular nowadays and most
people use them to perform various financial tasks. Hackers attack smartphones using
internet advertisements or back doors, to collect personal details of its user. Most
people using smartphones does not have full knowledge regarding protection of their
privacy on smartphones, which makes them an easy target for cyber criminals.
Example of smartphone malware includes, ‘DroidDream’ which released as an
application in play store and affected various devices. Another example is
‘HongTouTou’ virus, which installed in other application to affect the smartphones of
users (Seo et al. 2014).
Inside Risk
As per Carr (2011), usually, the cyber-attacks are performed with the help of inside
employees. According to a study conducted by IBM, more than 60 percent of cyber-attacks
are conducted by the inside employees instead of outside hackers. Generally, to gain some
profit, employees give access of company’s computer to hackers. Edward Snowden is a good
example; he leaked the data of CIA in public.
Hacktivism
Many cyber criminals hack another company’s system not to gain profits; instead their
objective is to expose the company’s information in public. As per Hampson (2011), these
hackers are more dangerous since their motive is to destroy the reputation and business of an
organisation. These hackers usually target giant corporations who work with public money,
such as banks, insurance firms, and charitable institutes. Popular attacks of hacktivism
include the attack on Bank of America, to expose the loan frauds conducted by the company.
Another popular hacktivist attack was on Sony Corporations, due to the objection against
their lawsuit relating to Play Station.
Phishing
It is another method of cybercrime, in which hackers send emails to random users as
reputable organisations. The emails contain some kind of offer or lottery prize to lure the user
into clicking on such emails. After clicking on such mail hackers usually give them false
hope of winning a lottery and ask for a small prize to get such amount, or they redirect them

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 8
to their servers to hack their accounts. As per the research of Anti-Phishing Working Group,
as compared to previous years, the number of phishing attacks has grown up to 65 percent in
2016 (Rid and Buchanan 2015) (Figure 2).
Dronejacking
Drones have become popular in past one year and many drone manufacturing companies are
making cheap drones for families. As per the research of O’Malley (2017), this popularity
raises the risk of dronejacking since drones are connected to a particular network, it is easier
for hackers to hack such network and take control of the drone. Organisations such as
Amazon are using a drone in new existing ways, such as home delivery of products or pizza,
but the threat of drone hacking has raised the level of risk.
DDoS Attack
Various giant corporations like BBC and Dyn has become the victim of a Distributed denial
of service or DDoS attack. Hackers gain the access of a business computer and prevent them
from performing their activities. The most recent attack of DDoS has been on Donald Trump
and Hillary Clinton’s election campaign (Li et al. 2012).
The Internet of Things
With the increase in the number of mobile devices, organisations also started to focus on
mobile services. Most large organisations in customers business have their application in play
store and app store. This benefits company by enhancing their reach to a large number of
users which eventually increase their customer’s base as well. These services require the user
to share their personal information through smartphones which assist the company in
analysing their buying pattern and their preferences. Cyber criminals also focus on collecting
such data to blackmail or leak such data. A recent attack on Apple cloud service called the
cloud, leakage more than 500 private photos of celebrities. This incident shows the high risks
of hacking smartphones (Sadeghi, Wachsmann and Waidner 2015) (Figure 3).
Machine Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is their future of technology; it has been used by the organisation in
consumer demand predictions, market plan analysis, large data analysis and virtual
assistance. Google, Facebook, and Apple have been investing heavily in machine learning
technology to gain an advantage over one another. This shows the importance of AI in future
technologies. But like another technology, it can be hacked as well. Cyber criminals can use

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 9
machine learning to gain an advantage by illegal activities. Therefore, the proper measure of
security is required before implementing this technology in people’s devices (Barford et al.
2010).
Recent Cyber Attacks
 Sony Pictures Entertainment: In November 2014, the hackers of North Korea attack
on the servers to Sony to get access to their confidential data. The reason for such
hack was a movie produced by Sony which depicts North Korea as a negative nation.
The cyber criminals take terabytes of private data from Sony and leaked their
sensitive information on the web. These attacks cause huge loss to Sony
entertainments due to leakage of their movies and data (Walters 2015).
 GoDaddy: In 2014, the Syrian-based hackers group attack the servers of GoDaddy to
gain access to Domain name of giant corporations such as CNBC, Forbes. PCWorld
and the Chicago.
 Yahoo: The data breach of Yahoo is world’s largest data breach where a billion
accounts were affected. In this breach, the hackers gain access to Yahoo’s user’s
personal data and their account information, which affected the site negatively.
 Morgan Stanley: An employee of the company steals data of more than 350,000
clients and posts some of the information online. The employee was fired from the
organisation and data was removed from the online websites as well.
Suggestions for Better Security
This risk of Cyber security is enormous and many companies have already faced the negative
effects. It is important for organisations and individuals to protect their information from
cyber criminals. Following suggestions can assist the organisation in securing their data
online:
 Dedicated Budget: Most companies avoid cyber security policies due to their high
costs; this eventually increases the number of cyber crimes. It is necessary for
companies to prepare a dictated budget for their cyber security expenses and
implement such money on improving their cyber security (Liu et al. 2012).

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 10
 Physical Protection: It is necessary for organisations to physically protect their
computers and software from hacker’s access. The employees working on the
computer should be checked properly before entering or exiting the computer lab.
 Encryption of Data: Hacker usually attacks the remaining information which
transmitting the data by company. By encrypting their data, the company can avoid
such risk. Encrypting s data does not take a long time and provide a high level of
security.
 Antivirus: Use of antiviruses in all computer devices will assist the corporation in
preventing any virus from entering the server. Antivirus is created to protect the
computer from cyber-attacks and scan its data. Organisations should invest in good
quality antivirus software’s to avoid any viruses.
 Passwords: The password use by individuals while using social media or banking
services should be different and strong. To ensure a high level of safety, people
should change their passwords every week. The password should not be obvious such
as date of birth or some personal details.
 Checking of Details: While using credit cards or debit cards for the online transaction
the user should enable real time notification service which is provided by banks. In
this service, a notification is sent to user’s mobile after completion of each activity.
Also, a person should check their transactions details every week.
 Security Culture: The security measure must be adopted by organisations as an
essential part of their organisational culture. The employees of the corporation should
be trained to avoid any accidental data leakage and should also perform their due
diligence in data security (Gavas, Memon and Britton 2012).
 Other Measures: Implementation of various other security measures to ensure the
protecting of data. For example, log out of users after inactivity of 5 or 10 minutes
will avoid the misuse of employee’s computer in a break. Use of security camera is
also necessary to avoid any illegal activity by employee or third party.

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 11
Conclusion
The above report provided that the internet has become an essential part of an organisational
strategy to increase their customers. The popularity of internet and smartphones has created a
new market of opportunities for corporations but at the same time, it has introduced several
risks. Corporations are required to properly implement security measure to avoid any cyber
crimes. Hackers are using the internet to attack new people and organisations to gain unfair
advantages. Cyber criminals use a new method to attack organisations such as Hacktivism,
drone jacking, malware, Phishing and Distributed denial of service. The companies are
required to use modern technology for protection against cyber crimes. Prepare
implementation of security policies and preparing a dedicated budget for security investments
is mandatory for protecting. Individuals can protect their data by using strong passwords and
smarting brewing the web. The awareness regarding online security should be spread
between corporation’s employees and effective implementation of security policies is
necessary.

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Appendix
Figure 1: Cyber Crimes Attacks
(Source: Cyber Guardian 2014)
Figure 2: Increase in Phishing

CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES 15
(Source: BBC 2008)
Figure 3: Targets of Cyber attacks
(Source: Passeri 2012)
Figure 4: Various Cyber Attack Methods
(Source: Nayak 2016)