Can you live in a home with a high fence but no locks on the doors and windows? It makes no sense because burglars could scale the fence and still attack your home. Cybersecurity Tools You Need Apart from Firewalls are something like same When someone says a firewall system is enough security for a device, the person fits the description of an individual willing to live in the aforementioned house.
Firewalls aren’t useless when it comes to the issue of cybersecurity. They’re very useful in keeping out suspicious data packets out of your device. A firewall is considered the first line of defense in preventing malicious software from breaching your device.
Cybersecurity Tools You Need Apart from Firewalls- Guide
Online Threats that Firewalls Cannot Protect you from
However, there are certain cyber threats that firewalls cannot protect you from. For one, if you run a business, you can experience DDoS attacks from your competitors. This type of attack is facilitated through a botnet in an attempt to shut down the normal flow of traffic to your network. The bots making up the network are hundreds and possibly thousands of compromised devices.
DDoS attack stands for Distributed-Denial-of-Service attack and typically targets your IP address. Firewalls are also ineffective at protecting you from phishing attacks. A phishing attack is a form of attempted hack where you’re directed to a cloned website.
After visiting the bogus website and fixing your login credentials, it gets sent to the hacker. The criminal then proceeds to login to your account on the real website to change your password or perform malicious activity.
Certain types of malware can slip through your firewall’s defense. Hackers constantly look for ways to beat the system and sometimes create malware codes that can bypass a firewall’s security measures.
Other Tools and Cybersecurity Measures
- Anti-Malware Programs
Think of anti-malware software as the locks on your doors preventing burglars from getting into your home after getting past your fence. If your firewall fails to spot a malware’s signature, anti-malware will prevent it from infecting your computer system.
- VPNs
VPNs provide tunnelled security when you browse the internet. It provides your internet session with an advanced level of encryption, preventing third parties from viewing your data.
How a VPN works is by changing your IP address once you connect to one of its servers. This is highly useful against DDoS attacks because the hacker would be seeing the spoofed IP address. Sending traffic to your VPN’s IP address would prove futile, essentially securing you against DDoS attacks.
- Self-Education on Phishing
You have to educate yourself on how to prevent phishing by learning how scammers do it. First, they send scam messages over text and email services. These messages look like they’re from legit sources but on closer inspection, are discovered as fakes.
In the messages, there are claims of suspicious activity, account problems, and links. You can activate multi-factor authentication to prevent a successful breach of your account. Also, learn to scrutinize email addresses and links before clicking on them.
