With technological advancements, the world is experiencing both positive and negative outcomes. Specifically, in the context of cybersecurity, there are new threats and viruses developed by cybercriminals every day. These malicious actors spend hours to create sophisticated enough that can cause a company or its systems significant damage. There are many types of malware, but this article will throw light on Rootkit.
A Rootkit attack is a malicious type of software that provides root-level access without revealing its existence or its actions. Its low-profile nature is very detrimental because cybercriminals can cause significant damage without drawing attention. They can also use a rootkit to deactivate the anti-malware and antivirus software and damage user-mode applications. Along with this, it’s also used to spy on users’ behavior, launch DDoS attacks, and steal away sensitive information.
While rootkits are definitely dangerous, you may already be wondering how to prevent them. This article will discuss possible ways you can follow to stop these attacks and keep your systems safe. Keep reading to learn more.
5 Ways to Protect Yourself from Rootkit Attacks
Rootkits can be purchased by anyone on the dark web, therefore frequency of these attacks can be high. Keeping your systems protected and secure is the only way to stop this. This article will throw light on effective ways that can mitigate the risk of rootkit attacks. From scanning your systems, avoiding phishing attempts, updating the software, to monitoring the traffic, it will cover everything.
Here are five ways to defend against rootkit attacks.
1. Regularly Scan Your Systems
Before doing anything else, the first thing is to scan all your systems. Rootkit scanners can be utilized for this to detect and remove application rootkits. However, they are not effective against the bootloader, kernel, and firmware attacks. Kernel levels scanners are only effective against the malicious code when the rootkit is inactive.
Therefore, to perform this, you will have to stop all your system processes and boot into safe mode to effectively scan the system. Security experts claim that scanning alone isn’t enough to guarantee the complete security of a system because of these limitations.
2. Be Aware of Phishing Attempts
Phishing has been here for years now, and unfortunately, companies are still facing negative consequences because of it. Cybercriminals still use it as a way to get their malware into the company’s systems by tricking employees. Be it through a professionally sounding email or making the users click on a malicious link.
These emails can be anything from Facebook asking you to update your login credentials or other fake messages. The infected attachments usually come in formats like Excel, word documents, or an executable program.
3. Update Your Software
While you may not know this, most pre-existing software in systems contains vulnerabilities and bugs that allow cybercriminals to exploit them. Specifically, in the older and legacy software, this is more common. Software developers continuously release updates to fix these bugs and patch loopholes.
However, not all software receive updates, once a software has reached a certain age, the developers may stop supporting them. Such software shouldn’t be kept in systems that contain your sensitive information. For other software, ensure that you continually update as soon as the developer releases a new version.
4. Monitor Your Network Traffic
Monitoring network traffic is the key to keeping your systems and networks safe. Analyzing all the incoming and outgoing traffic will help you identify if there is anything suspicious. Specifically, in the case of rootkit malware, you need to regularly monitor the traffic because cybercriminals actively try to gain access.
Additionally, you can let professionals do this because they use specific monitoring techniques to identify malicious network traffic. Through this, such threats can be easily mitigated because they can isolate the network segments and prevent the attack from spreading into different parts.
5. Opt for Professional Cybersecurity
While the discussed ways are helpful, they still are not enough to guarantee complete protection. This is because cybercriminals actively work together to find ways to breach the systems. Thus, relying on a rule-based antivirus or firewall isn’t effective enough to keep such threats at bay and promise reliable security.
By partnering up with professional cybersecurity services, you can acquire powerful solutions that can effectively safeguard against such attacks. Professional companies always stay a step ahead of cybercriminals to ensure the company’s data and assets remain safe. This also provides business owners a relief knowing they are protected 24/7 by field experts. Considering this, organizations refer to cybersecurity companies in Abu Dhabi to opt for effective solutions.
Keep Rootkit Attacks at Bay with Professional Cybersecurity
It’s true that these attacks can have adverse effects on your company’s reputation and finances. With professional cybersecurity, you can sit back and relax while experts secure all your systems. Feel free to contact professionals anytime to discuss the implementation of powerful solutions that promise reliable protection.
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