Top 10 Most Common Cyber Security Attacks
A cyber security attack can be defined as an action developed to target a computerized data system or a computer to alter, destroy, or seal information and exploit a network. These cyber threats are on the continuous rise with the digitization of brands, which have gained popularity in recent years.
These attacks can target a variety of victims starting from individuals to businesses as well as governments. When it comes to companies, the aim of the hackers is mainly to get access to sensitive data and resources or even payment details.
While there are different categories of cyber threats and attacks, this blog will discuss some of the popular cyber attacks that can affect your network.
What are the Most Common Types of Cyber Attacks?
The most common types of cyber attacks that businesses and individuals should be aware of are as follows-
1. Malware
Malware which is also known as malicious software is one of the most popular type of cyber attack. It can be defined as a code or a program which is created for handling a server or a computer. The term malware includes multiple subsets like trojans, ransomware, keyloggers, crypto-jacking, and more. In this type of cyber attack, software is leveraged in a malicious manner.
2. DoS and DDoS attacks
A DoS or a denial of service attack is developed for overwhelming the resources of systems to a state where they are not able to reply to authentic service requests. DDos attacks is a distributed denial of services attack where the resources of systems are drained. DDoS attacks start by using multiple malware-infected host machines under the control of attackers. These attacks are called denial of services because the victim is not able to provide regular services to the ones who are willing to access those.
In this type of attack, the site of the victim is flooded with illegitimate requests. As the website responds to every request, the resources are consumed during each response. It disables the site from severing its user as it does in normal circumstances, mostly resulting in the shutdown of the site.
3. Phishing
Phishing is a kind of cyber attack that happens via email, SMS, social media, phone, or techniques of social engineering. In the case of phishing the victim is enticed to share crucial or sensitive data like passwords, and account numbers. Victims are often forced to download malicious files which can hamper their systems by installing viruses.
Phishing attacks generally include spear phishing, whaling, smishing, and vishing. Spear-phishing is a type of phishing attacks that targets victims through mail. In the case of whaling, a senior executive of a business is attacked for the purpose of stealing valuable information or money. Smishing happens through scamming messages sent to track individuals for sharing sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, and more. Vishing happens through voice messages, where the attackers pretend to be a reputed organization and convince victims to share private information.
4. MITM attacks
MITM or Man-in-the-middle attacks are security breaches that enables the attacker to the visibility of the data transferred between two individuals, computers, and networks. This type of cyber attack is called a man-in-the-middle attack as the hackers is positioned in between two parties. Thus, the attacker in this case spies on the conversation or interaction between them.
In this type of cyber attack both the parties feel that they are doing normal communication. The best way to protect yourself from this kind of attack is to use a strong VPN or powerful encryption.
5. Spoofing
Spoofing is another popular type of hacking technique when the cybercriminal is disguised as a reliable source. This way, the attackers engage with the victim and get an access to their devices and systems for stealing money, and information or install dangerous software on their device.
Spoofing can be of various types such as domain spoofing, email spooking, and ARP spoofing. In domain spoofing, the cybersecurity attacker impersonates a well-known person or an organization with a fake email domain or a site for fooling people. Email spoofing includes attracting target businesses through emails by using forged sender addresses. While ARP spoofing is an attack where the attackers trick a device into sending them crucial information instead of an intended recipient.
6. Whale-phishing attacks
Whale phishing like it name suggests targets the whales or the ones in charge of organizations. The individuals possess crucial information that can be of great use to the attackers. These information can include anything related to business operation or any proprietary information.
The targeted ‘whale’ receives a ransomware and if they download the ransomware, they have to have the attacker prevent the news of the attack come out in public, hampering the companies’ reputation. These types of attacks can be prevented by carefully examining the links as well as attachments that come with the mail.
7. Identity-based attacks
These types of cyber attacks are very hard to detect. In identity-based attacks, the credentials of a valid user gets compromised and the attacker starts to masquerade as the valid user. In most cases, it is difficult to make a difference between the behavior of the user and the attacker by utilizing traditional tools and security measures. The common type of identity-based attacks include kerberoasting, pass-the-hash attacks, golden ticket attack, and more. In Kerberoasting attack attempts are made to crack passwords of an account in the Active Directory environment. In a Pass-the-hash Attack, the attackers steal the credentials of a ‘hashed user and uses it for creating a new user session on the particular network. Golden ticket attack includes getting an limited access to a business’ domain via accessing the data of the user stored in Microsoft’s Active Directory.
8. Spear-phishing attacks
This is a social kind of targeted phishing attack. In spear-phishing, the cyber attacker conducts thorough research of the intended targets and as per their research they send the target messages that are personally relevant. Most of the times, it is difficult to identify this kind of attack as the message seems legitimate.
Spear-phishing attackers often use email spoofing. In this type of mail, the information in the ‘From’ section is altered. The mail can be seen to be come from an individual that the receiver trusts. The cyber attackers also use site cloning for making the communication look genuine.
9. Code Injection attacks
This type of attack includes a hacker inserting malicious code into a network or a computer that is vulnerable to changing its course of action There can be code injection attacks like SQL injection, Cross-site scripting, malvertising, and data poisoning. SQL injection attacks utilize the vulnerabilities of a system or network for inserting malicious SQL statements into an information-driven application. In the case of a cross-site scripting, a malicious code is inserted into a legitimate website. Malvertising includes other strategies such as SEO poisoning for conducting the attack. In data poisoning, a data training set of an AI or ML model is compromised.
10. Ransomware attack
The next category is the ransomware attack where the attacker holds the victim’s system hostage until the victim agrees on paying a ransom. Once the payment is completed, the attacker instructs the victim on how to get back the control of their system. In this type of attack, the victim downloads the ransomware either from a mail or a website. The malware in this case is written for exploiting the vulnerabilities that have been ignored by the organization’s IT team or the manufacturer of the system.
Final Thoughts
Hence these were some of the most popular cyber attacks that individuals and organizations may face in this connected world. A strong cyber security strategy is necessary to protects users and data. It is best to hire a cyber security provider to help you keep your servers and network protected from security breaches. DC Technologies is one of the top-tier cyber security companies in Dubai, UAE and can help you develop a strdcong cybersecurity strategy that fits your business needs.