A blended threat propagates using multiple paths, with methods such as worms, viruses, trojans, and phishing scams used simultaneously in a multi-pronged attack. Infection rates are high, and blended threats tend to be designed to cause serious harm. With that in mind, it’s clearly vital to avoid falling foul of a blended threat.
Combine Countermeasures
Blended threats use a wide array of attack methods. It’s the shotgun approach – creators simply hope that one of those methods will find a chink in your digital armour. So, the main thing to do is keep all security countermeasures up to date, including:
- Firewalls
- Anti-Virus
- Spyware Detection
If a single one of those measures isn’t up to scratch, it won’t matter how effective the other ones are.
Create Multiple Firewalls
Though all of the countermeasures mentioned above should be utilised, you’ll want to pay particular attention to your firewalls. These will block access to your IT network’s internal services, so they block many of the more common propagation paths used by blended threats. You should also consider having internal firewalls created to authenticate internal users. If a blended threat accesses one part of your network, an internal firewall can prevent it from spreading.
Install Updates and Patches
The vast majority of blended threats that managed to achieve mass infection did so by taking advantage of known vulnerabilities in widespread software. In the online world, the vulnerabilities of even the latest software become known quickly. Patches are released regularly to address them, so make sure you install them.
Educate Your Team
Finally, make sure you bring your employees up to speed. They need to know the dangers blended threats pose and how to spot them. Keep in mind that such threats tend to strike very quickly; if you want to prevent them from gaining a foothold, you’ll need to rely on your employees alerting you to potential problems as readily as possible.
