Understanding the five key phases of a hacking attack to fortify your business IT

Threat actors can be anyone, ranging from a single person attempting to obtain stolen credentials and hold them for ransom, or organised criminal gangs looking to steal money, assets or data, through to a state-sponsored contingent looking to disrupt operations on foreign soil.  

Whatever the motivations of the parties involved, to effectively prevent a hacking attack, you need to understand the stages involved and how a hacker operates to undermine your systems. Unfortunately detection isn’t always easy, as many attacks rely on stealth tactics that enable actions to be carried out covertly without any disruption or obvious red flags. However, the earlier you can detect a potential attack and put measures in place to defend your systems, the harder it is for a hacker to be successful.

The typical pattern of a hacking attack 

To protect your organisation effectively, you also need to understand the typical pattern of attack. Whilst the specifics can vary, a hacker’s attack will typically follow a set overall pattern as it infiltrates and ultimately compromises your organisation’s IT systems.  

Countermeasures to help prevent or disrupt a hacking attack 

To successfully repulse a hacking attack, it is important that your business’ security regime operates to block most, if not all these key stages. There are fundamental steps you can take at each stage to frustrate a potential cyber-attack to either neutralise or manage the threat. 

How a hacker will attack your organisation: 

How Konica Minolta can help

Instigating these hacking defence measures can be somewhat daunting, which is where the assistance of an expert security partner is invaluable. Konica Minolta provides Enterprise-grade IT security support for SMBs and understands your IT security requirements, your pain-points, and your operational needs. 

Martin Mølvig, Head of Security Services at Konica Minolta Europe commented, “We believe that comprehensive information security is only possible if areas such as IT security, data security, the protection of multifunctional print systems, and the security of any video security systems, as well as building and perimeter protection, are considered together.” This is important for tackling cyberthreats and can also help your organisation to meet its compliance obligations too, such as the new NIS2 regulations for example.” 

Konica Minolta's experts first analyse the current security status of your business IT systems, analysing the effectiveness of firewalls and antivirus solutions, along with network access, mobile systems, encryption concepts, the access and data security of MFPs (multi-functional print devices), the protection of building access and security in relevant areas, organisational principles, and the level of awareness of employees. From this, the expert team will develop a full cybersecurity concept that eliminates any current weak points and ensures protections are in place to meet your future security threat requirements.