Protection of Information Against Espionage: Detect & Prevent

It takes a lot of effort and time for the organizations to come up with new business ideas, make policy changes, or plan defence strategies. So, don’t you think it is important to be aware of the ways of protection of information against espionage? 

But, owing to the competitive mindset, everyone wants to win. For that, they are ready to cross any limit to remain in the first place, even if it’s through illegal means. 

Why did I say so? You might wonder.

Well, many different pieces of news regarding Espionage may have caught your attention. But, before moving forward, let’s discuss Cyber Espionage in brief. 

What is Cyber Espionage?

Espionage or commonly called cyber espionage is a type of cyber-attack followed by hackers. The main targets of cyber espionage are renowned companies, government entities, etc. These cybercriminals invade quietly to gain access to their confidential assets and use it for malicious purposes. 

Most importantly, the bitter truth is that these kinds of acts are increasing at an unexpected rate. 

After knowing this, a set of questions might come to your mind, such as:

• Why does cyber espionage take place? 
• Ways of prevention and protection of information against espionage
• Last but not the least, What are the cyber espionage examples?

Let me put some light on the same one by one.

Motives Behind Cyber Espionage

To start with, let’s take an example of an IT firm. 

The engineers keep on motivating themselves to develop a source code or design one-of-a-kind websites for the company.

But, their competitors try and secretly gather their years of hard work in the blink of an eye.

Similarly, let’s consider an instance related to the government organization. To benefit the citizens, the government makes policy changes from time to time or plans for a national event to launch new projects.

But, state-sponsored hackers leak this valuable information to their enemies.

What could be its outcome?

Let me tell you, besides national security at risk, the government could also face huge financial losses. That will directly impact the economic growth of the country.

Now, what about the invades made by foreign countries to monitor military movements? 

You guessed it right, the countries like the US, Russia, China are the ones cyber spying to perform these acts. 

But, how are they doing so? Well, they are achieving the goal by sending spy satellites.

To avoid losing your precious data, bear any financial loss, or prevent someone from spying on you, protection of information against espionage becomes necessary. 

How to Detect Cyber Espionage?

There are different ways in which cybercriminals perform the act of espionage. Through some of these methods discussed below, you can easily get to know the various tactics they follow, and how you can detect cyber espionage if you are a victim of it.

• The most sophisticated way of performing cyber espionage is through APT (Advanced Persistent Threat). Here intruders establish an undetected presence in the network to secretly take away the sensitive data for a long period of time. Their interest is in targeting Healthcare, Manufacturing, Telecommunication Industries. 
• Another tactic followed by cybercriminals is Social Engineering. This is more of an emotional attack than a technological one. Why? Well, here they manipulate an employee by making promises to fulfil all his desires thereby cleverly taking out all the vulnerable information of the company.
• Sphere Phishing, a common technique, used by hackers to target a particular individual with the aim of stealing login credentials. They are succeeding in doing the same by sending fraudulent emails, texts, or phone calls.

Whatever may be the size of the organization, nobody will ever want to compromise their reputation or hard work.

On the other hand, you could be safe from these attacks if you take precautions beforehand and thus, protect your information against espionage. 

Strategies for Protection of Information Against Espionage

1. Upgrade to Latest Operating System

Most of the companies use windows or MAC platforms for their official work. So, to be on the safer side, keep updating the system from time to time. 

A genuine IT security solution is always recommended.

2. Keep an Eye on the Information System

Everyday activities of your clients or employees could be easily traced nowadays.

Hence, try to change your passwords from time to time to secure your login credentials. Another way is to check your privacy settings. 

Furthermore, make sure that it is not open to the public. 

3. Using VPN is suggested 

A reliable VPN could do better when it comes to securing your browsing history.

Thus, makes it difficult for the hacker to gain access to the organization’s information from a single entry point. 

4. Maintain Separate Digital Storage Space

Cyber espionage is a high-level threat. Keeping the confidential data in one place would be risky.

Therefore, you can maintain different digital storage areas so that there will be minimal damage if an intruder tries and hack your systems.

Though, following the above measures could lessen your worry. 

But, have you ever thought, what will happen when cybercriminals invade virtual international borders to spy on military movements. 

The above-discussed measures will help in the protection of information against espionage, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. 

Thus, it’s time to take some strong preventive measures against espionage. 

How to Prevent Cyber Espionage?

Now, the world is facing a serious cyber security problem in the form of Espionage. Where companies’ confidential files, information regarding scientific research, defence strategies, etc are at stake.

Hence, this situation demands a full-proof solution for the protection of information against espionage.

So, to handle such sensitive cases, the role of cyber expert, Anuraag Singh comes to play.

In his 21 years of career, he conducted many workshops for educating Government entities regarding Cyber Security, Identity Theft, Digital Forensics.

In addition to that, his expertise in implementing SOC(Security Operation Centers) has successfully responded to many cybersecurity incidents.

Furthermore, you might be wondering, are there any real-life examples that involve reputed organizations being under cyber espionage attacks?

Certainly, there are a few articles related to cyber espionage for your reference.

Cyber Espionage Attacks or Trespassing Examples

The era of technology is evolving but sadly, not in a good way. Knowing the cyber espionage attacks that happened in history will help you in being cautious and thus protect your information against espionage. 

For example, Tech giant Google has revealed that “ Iranian backed-group tried to use its platform to execute espionage on behalf of the government in Tehran”.

But, what could be their target?

Well, it could be information related to their research and development, or client details, or marketing goals. 

Another instance involves a well-known software company SolarWinds.

Regarding a report by BusinessStandards in the year 2020, “ Hackers secretly gain access to the systems of a Texas-based IT firm SolarWinds. 

They added malicious code into their software system named ‘Orion’. This had impacted 33,000 customers who were using the platform.”

However, after reading these unfortunate incidents, you must have surely understood the importance of the protection of information against cyber espionage.