Nowadays, all businesses, large and small, must be on the alert, as they can be targeted by malicious hackers and fall victim to cyber attacks. Therefore, IT staff must be constantly informed about new threats and risks.
Here are 8 types of cyber attacks that every security should know:
1. Intrusion into corporate network
Intrusion refers to any unauthorized activity on network your. There are many techniques that hackers to break into a network. Intrusions often present as unusual behavior, but are often difficult to detect.
2. Ransomware
One of the most common and dangerous threats is ransomware, which locks down and encrypts victims' systems or even entire networks and then demands money in exchange for the decryption key. A successful ransomware attack can net the attacker millions.
In most cases, hackers leave a message with victims informing them that their files have been locked and that they must pay a ransom to regain access. If victims do not pay, the decryption key will be destroyed, making the data inaccessible forever.
However, in recent months, ransomware attacks breaches data. Hackers steal victims' data and if they don't pay the ransom, they expose the data online.
3. Internal threats
We are talking about insider threats when someone within the organization (or a partner, supplier, etc.) with authorized access does things that put the data or other critical systems at risk.
4. Brute force attacks
Brute force attacks are very common and often the first stage of a more complex attack. Hackers try possible combinations of usernames and passwords until they find the right one that will give them access to accounts.
One of the best ways to deal with these cyber attacks is to use multi-factor authentication or frequently change passwords with complex combinations of numbers, letters, symbols, etc.
5. DDoS attacks
Such an attack occurs when an attacker attempts to disrupt the normal traffic of a network. Typically, this is accomplished by causing excessive “traffic” on the Internet. Think of it like a traffic jam blocking a highway, preventing normal traffic.
6. Data Export
Data exfiltration is the unauthorized transfer of data outside your organization. It is one of the most common cyberattacks . Data theft can be done in many ways (manually, by infecting devices with malware, etc.).
7. Malicious software
Malware is developed by criminals to gain access to networks or cause serious damage to data or systems. Malware is usually delivered in the form of a link or file via email and requires the user to click on the link or open the file to execute the malware. It is one of the oldest attack methods (first appearing in the 1970s), but it remains one of the most effective.
8. Credential stuffing attacks
This is one of the most widespread threats of 2020, responsible for the recent breaches of TurboTax, Disney + and Ring. Hackers try credentials that have been leaked from other data breaches. Credential compromise is very dangerous, so we should never use the same credentials on different accounts and services. Compromising one account will allow the compromise of the rest that have the same passwords.
