What Is Unauthorized Access?
What is unauthorized access? Unauthorized access means access to networks, applications, data, or devices without permission. Normally, the actors initiate this move to compromise network integrity via some security leaks and misconfigured authentication mechanisms.
Strangers can take advantage of the vulnerabilities to access people’s systems by verifying their identity. The following vulnerabilities can make chances for unauthorized access:
- Weak passwords or leaked password information
- Compromised accounts
- Click unknown links or enter malicious websites
- Imperfect privacy settings
Apart from that, nowadays, many hackers develop their ways to break authentication mechanisms and initiate unauthorized access to gain what they want. Some common cyber-attacks aimed to steal user credentials include brute force attack, insider threats, social engineering, credential stuffing, etc.
Those attackers can steal your sensitive information, break your data integrity, make your data lost, and damage your reputation. More than that, once the infiltration succeeds, they can do whatever they want via any bugs.
Security risks by unauthorized access include:
- Data leak and data loss
- Identity theft
- Intellectual property theft
- Monetary loss because of fraud
- Reputational damage and loss of trust
- Compromised systems
- Costs of damage control and breach investigation
So, is there any method to prevent unauthorized access? Of course, the following methods will be useful.
How to Prevent Unauthorized Access?
Want to prevent unauthorized access? The following tips you can apply.
Use Strong Password
Many people would like to use some simple numbers or symbols to combine their passwords. It is not safe at all. There is an attack specifically designed to crack the password and hackers will keep trying different combinations according to your information shared on the public platforms.
Apart from that, it is hard to make the password as one shield of protection because anyone who knows about you can reason out the answer. It can also put you in danger if you use repeated passwords all the time.
Set up Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication is used to log an account, verifying a user’s identity for a login by multiple authentication methods from separate certificate classes, such as a password, a security token, or some biometric verification methods.
These authentication methods can add layered defenses that make it more difficult for an unauthorized person to access a target. When one factor is compromised, other factors can be other barriers to prevent unauthorized access.
Monitor User Activity
How to track user activity? Is it necessary? Yes, if you want to know if your system has been infected with malware, you can track Windows user activity.
There are some methods to help monitor user activities.
- Video recordings of sessions
- File capturing
- Keystroke logging
- Log collection and analysis
- Network packet inspection
- Kernel monitoring
Enhance Security Protection
You may enhance the security protection for your system and data:
- Encrypt all devices.
- Delete redundant data.
- Update your programs regularly.
- Pay attention to insider threats.
- Back up your data regularly.
How to Protect Your Data from Unauthorized Access?
You may have tried multiple methods to prevent unauthorized computer access, but those cunning hackers can be everywhere waiting for your laches. If you have any valuable data, it will be the first being attacked.
In this way, we highly recommend you backup data with MiniTool ShadowMaker to protect your data from unauthorized access. This tool can back up anything you want, such as your system, files & folders, and partitions & disks.
When in demand, you can perform an automatic backup with different schemes or use Clone Disk to clone SSD to larger SSD as well as cloning HDD to SSD.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Bottom Line:
This article has given you a guide to figuring out what unauthorized access is and how to prevent unauthorized access. Hope this article has resolved your concerns.
User Comments :