8 Hidden Cyber Risks That Might Be Lurking Within Your IT Environment

While your business infrastructure may seem to be running relatively smoothly, do you know what security risks may be hiding in plain sight within your organization?

A vulnerability is any security weakness or flaw within an organization’s IT environment that can be exploited by cybercriminals. These vulnerabilities can range from using end-of-support (EOS) software to human error.

Just how vulnerable is your organization?

According to recent research:

• 51 percent of small businesses don’t have any cybersecurity controls in place, and of these, 59 percent believe they’re too small to be at risk for a cyber incident

• 36 percent of small businesses say they’re “not at all concerned” about cyberattacks

• 84 percent of businesses have high-risk vulnerabilities

• As of 2024, there were more than 40,000 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) recorded, reflecting a 38 percent year-over-year jump

From the data, it’s clear that not only are many small and medium-sized business unaware of possible hidden cyber risks, they’re also ill-prepared for a potential incident.

Related Article: How Do I Know If My Company’s Cybersecurity Measures Are Enough?

In this article, we’ll explore hidden security flaws that a vulnerability scan can expose within your IT environment and ways to correct those issues before they have a chance to cause major problems.

With this information, you’ll have a better understanding of the kinds of cyber risks that may be hiding within your organization and why it’s critical to implement robust security measures to protect your business from ever-evolving cyber threats.

8 Common Hidden Security Gaps Within Business IT Environments

A vulnerability scan (or "vulscan") can be used to uncover weaknesses in your IT environment, including your devices, files, applications, databases, and systems.

Vulscans can spot many different kinds of network misconfigurations. If not addressed, these security gaps can result in cybercriminals gaining unauthorized access to your network.

Related Article: What Does Vulnerability Scanning Tell You About Your Network Security?

Below we’ll take a look at some of the main network misconfigurations and effective ways to remediate security weaknesses commonly found during a vulnerability assessment.

1. Open and unsafe ports and protocols

Open and unsafe ports that aren’t regularly used are a potential entry point to allow hackers a way to infiltrate your network to possibly steal or compromise your sensitive data.

Solution:

• You can manage access and control communication between users and applications by blocking high-risk ports and protocols. You should only use authorized ports, protocols, and services. 
  
  
• In addition, you can also enable media access control (MAC)-address filtering so that only certain authorized devices can connect to approved ports within your network.
  
  
• Regularly check VPN (virtual private network) connections

2. Application security

Cybercriminals are often able to infiltrate systems through on-prem or cloud-based applications.

Undetected vulnerabilities are buried deep within an app’s coding then downloaded by unsuspecting users.

Solution:

• Perform an application assessment before using any applications in your environment.
  
  
• Many apps today come with security features that go unused because people don’t know about them. An app assessment ensures that you use the best tool for the job with the most security. It also ensures you enable and set up any security features that the application comes with.

3. Outdated or unpatched software

Using hardware or software that’s reached its end-of-life (EOL) lifespan is like sending an invisible signal to bad actors alerting them that your infrastructure is unprotected.

Hackers know when manufacturers stop providing technical support and critical security patches for legacy software and hardware, often taking advantage of this security lapse as a prime opportunity to strike.

Solution:

• Once a software has reached end of life, a vulnerability scan can detect it but there are no more patches available. So, it’s advisable to do a full upgrade of devices to eliminate those weaknesses.
  
  
• Any devices that can’t support the upgrade should be replaced or at the very least, isolated on the network so they can’t be easily accessed.
  
  
• You can also install automation tools to schedule and automatically perform patches and product updates for your devices and software. Be sure to check for any irregularities during the process.

4. Human error

Human error is the leading cause of most cyber incidents within organizations. There are many different ways an employee can create a security risk, such as:

• Using weak or old passwords
• Not changing factory-set default credentials (ex: admin, 123)
• Lack of multi-factor authentication
• Disabling anti-virus and anti-spam software
• Using personal devices for business without a secure network connection or sharing work devices with family members

Solution:

• The best way to combat human error and mitigate cyber risks is to provide employee security awareness training.

Related Article: Why Employee Security Awareness Training Helps Prevent Cyber Incidents

• Cybersecurity training should include providing regular learning modules and real-world phishing simulations, along with educating staff on your cybersecurity policies and procedures.
  
  
• With proactive cybersecurity training, staff are armed with the necessary information to know what to look out for and how to avoid creating an opening for hackers to compromise or steal your sensitive information.
  
  
• Other effective mitigations against human error include using an email filtering tool and adding firewalls to block employee access to certain data.
  
  
• You should also use a secure, third-party password manager (NOT the web browser default one) so that users can securely save their passwords and create strong ones.

5. Poor data management

Not having a data management plan means you don’t have the necessary data classification, storage, backups, and updates to safeguard your sensitive information.

Solution:

• Perform a disaster recovery test (DRT)
  
  
• Ensure the different types of data are properly marked and only accessible by authenticated and authorized users.
  
  
• Use secure data storage solutions
  
  
• Ensure you have updated data backups

6. Lack of access control

A lack of access control means that your systems don’t have enough guardrails in place to limit access to your data and systems. This could allow unauthorized individuals to find a backdoor way to get access to your network.

Solution:

• You should implement secure data access measures to restrict access to your network by job and role, known as role-based access control (RBAC), which follows the Zero Trust principle of least privilege.
  
  
• Since Zero Trust centers around the idea that a breach has happened or is imminent, it follows the notion that nothing and no one should be trusted. So, it requires every user, device, or system to authenticate their identity before being granted access, and then requires continual reverification to maintain access.

Related Article: How Zero Trust Can Streamline NIST & CMMC Compliance For Your Business

• Use “least functionality” for systems and services acting on behalf of users (to perform actions or access data). This means they should only perform the essential actions for which they were intended, blocking any non-essential functions to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access.

7. Unencrypted data

A lack of data encryption is a main reason businesses lose sensitive data. Data encryption involves protecting data that’s at rest when stored on a device and while it’s in transit across your network.

This means that hackers could easily intercept and expose any unencrypted information being transmitted between your devices and systems (such as WiFi or IP addresses).

Solution:

• Proper data encryption ensures that your data is scrambled and undecodable to unauthorized individuals.
  
  
• Verify that you’re using secure, updated data encryption algorithms and methods.
  
  
• Sometimes companies try to encrypt data, but use weak and outdated encryption algorithms or methods. For this reason, make sure that the type of encryption you’re using is secure and not easily cracked.

8. Unrestricted code execution

This common system vulnerability happens when unverified programs or scripts run without any security checks.

Cybercriminals use a variety of methods to gain initial entry into your systems. The most common method is a phishing attack, where an employee is tricked into divulging sensitive information or clicking on a malicious link.

Once inside your system, this allows them to remotely inject random code into your system to get unfettered access and gain control over it.

Solution:

• Whitelisting applications is an effective mitigation control. This means you would only be able to access applications explicitly approved by your organization’s security team, blocking access to everything else.
  
  
• Encryption is also an important mitigation tool here. If the data on the backend is properly encrypted, then when malicious users run code and are successful at snatching that data, it will be completely useless to them.
  
  
• An input validation and sanitization system can also be used to authenticate user inputs and remove any harmful code to ensure data safety and integrity.
  
  
• Buffer overflow protections also need to be put in place so that existing data cannot be overwritten by an adversary.

The Bottom Line With Hidden Vulnerabilities Within Your Infrastructure

After reading this article, you now understand why vulnerability scans should be a regular part of your IT security toolbox to proactively detect and resolve potential security gaps within your infrastructure before cyber predators have a chance to exploit them.

What’s more, developing an effective risk mitigation plan with actionable strategies is essential to strengthening your organization’s security posture.

As a managed IT services provider, Kelser can perform a vulnerability scan to uncover hidden security gaps within your IT environment. We have decades of experience helping businesses like yours implement comprehensive, advanced cybersecurity solutions to mitigate cyber threats and protect sensitive data. 

We know that managed IT support isn’t right for every organization. We publish articles like this so that business leaders have the information they need to keep their data and infrastructure safe, whether or not you choose to work with us.

If you have a large in-house IT staff with cybersecurity expertise, you may have all the internal resources you need to put in place the right security measures to protect your sensitive data and ensure that you meet regulatory security compliance.

If you don’t have the internal staff to implement strong security measures and you’d like to learn more about how we can help you with your cybersecurity and compliance needs, reach out to us now.

We’ll schedule a 15-minute chat to learn more about your business, current IT issues, and compliance goals.