Your MSP clients’ cybersecurity posture is only as strong as your weakest link. The question is, do you know where your weakest link is?

Is it an unsecured endpoint that a third-party vendor has access to?

How about those unfamiliar SaaS apps your remote team is using without IT approval? 

Or maybe it’s that unpatched software quietly running on a server you haven’t checked in months?

A single high-risk vulnerability can give an attacker everything they need to infiltrate your network. What you have on your hands is a potential breach in the making. In this blog, we’ll break down 5 common ways cybercriminals gain unauthorized access to your network and how you can prevent them. Ready? Let’s go.

5 Common Ways Cybercriminals Gain Unauthorized Access to Your Network

1. Phishing attacks: Do your employees know how to properly spot a fake email? Not according to data taken from Fortra’s 2023 Gone Phishing Tournament. The study revealed that 33.2% of untrained end users will fail a phishing test. Things get even uglier for remote workers. Research found that 47% of employees cited distraction as the reason for falling for a phishing scam while working from home. Phishing attacks are becoming tougher to detect every day. Without advanced email security and training, your employees could accidentally open a malicious URL or give away sensitive PII data by replying to the scammer’s email. Not ideal.

How to prevent it: Conduct routine phishing simulations and invest in employee training. Ensure that all employees are well-trained in spotting suspicious-looking emails, URLs, and file attachments. Encourage them to raise a red flag if they suspect something “phishy” because it can help spare your organization from a costly phishing attack.

Have I Been Pwned is a great resource that lets you check if your email has been compromised for free.

2. Compromised passwords: Are your employees still writing down their passwords on sticky notes? Do they use weak passwords such as “123456” or their birthdays which can be cracked with a brute force attack in a matter of seconds?

There’s also a very good chance your employees might be reusing the same password to access multiple accounts, both for work and personal use. Kaspersky analyzed over 32 million emails and found that only 23% of passwords are strong enough to resist hackers. Compromised passwords can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive systems and applications. Attackers can also leverage reused passwords to escalate privileges and move laterally within your network, causing further damage.

How to prevent it: Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) and enforce strong password policies across the organization. Go over security protocols and ensure that all employees understand best practices, such as increasing the level of difficulty of their passwords and using a mix of both letters and numbers that exceed 16 characters. Require password changes every 60-90 days. And if you see any sticky notes or pieces of paper with passwords on someone’s desk, shred them!

3. Excessive permissions: When was the last time you checked user permissions? A month ago? 3 months? Longer? Excessive permissions pose a serious security risk. Privilege creep refers to the gradual accumulation of network access levels beyond what an individual needs to perform their job.

For instance, it wouldn’t make much sense for someone in HR to have access to cloud databases or be set up as an AWS cloud user. Employees and third parties who are no longer with the company must have their permission sets revoked immediately. Don’t let those stale accounts linger. Excessive permissions can lead to account hijacking and unauthorized network access. You know what usually comes next, right? A headline-worthy data breach. No one needs that.

How to prevent it: Conduct a regular access permission inventory across all of your accounts to minimize the threat surface. Revoke access for inactive accounts the second an employee leaves the company or when your contract ends with a third-party vendor or supplier. If an employee changes roles, they should be granted temporary access and permissions during the transition period to ensure that they have access only to what is needed and nothing more.

4. Unsecured endpoints: Data taken from Verizon showed that 90% of successful cyberattacks and as many as 70% of successful data breaches originate at endpoint devices. The question your IT team needs to answer is which devices are connected to the company network from a personal laptop or iPhone?

A single compromised endpoint can serve as a point of entry and give an attacker carte blanche to wreak havoc over your network. But this is where the real security concern begins. Do you know which devices are being managed and which are flying under the radar waiting to be compromised? Something as small as a USB drive that is either lost or stolen can cause a massive breach.

How to prevent it: Perform device posture checks to verify that all devices accessing the network meet security policies. This is especially important for enforcing BYOD policies for remote workers accessing the company network from personal devices. You should also conduct a thorough cyber risk assessment to identify potential vulnerabilities related to endpoint devices and ensure that security measures are in place to address them.

5. Shadow IT: Did you authorize that new cloud app, or better yet, do you even know about it? Shadow IT presents a real security threat for organizations. Without visibility into these unapproved apps, sensitive information might get leaked, resulting in data loss and other security risks.

A study by Capterra found that 57% of SMBs have had high-impact shadow IT efforts occur outside the purview of their official IT department. Let’s face it, IT professionals certainly have their work cut out for them, but if they don’t have a clear understanding of all the tools and applications in use, their ability to enforce security policies and protect sensitive data is severely compromised. The introduction of more unknown apps to the network translates into more security gaps that could be exploited by malicious actors.

How to prevent it: Implement DLP tools to monitor, detect, and block the unauthorized transfer of sensitive data through unsanctioned apps. This will help ensure that even if shadow IT applications are being used, the risk of data leakage is greatly minimized.

Prevent Unauthorized Network Access with Guardz Cloud Data Protection

Keep malicious actors and critical assets out of your network with Guardz Cloud Data Protection. Guardz helps prevent data exposure by scanning cloud accounts for excessive permissions, inactive users, risky cloud misconfigurations, and any suspicious user behavior through advanced machine learning capabilities.

Guardz helps prevent data exfiltration and alerts your IT team once an incident has been identified so you can apply the necessary security policies immediately. Streamline cloud data protection and permission visibility with Guardz.