Types of cyber attacks

Cyber attacks are on the rise. 32% of businesses have identified cyber security breaches or attacks in the past 12 months.

But how do these attacks manifest themselves, and what are the most common cyber threats to organisations today?

1) PHISHING

What is phishing?

Phishing is a form of social engineering where a criminal hacker tries to trick the user into clicking a malicious link or downloading an infected attachment or divulging sensitive or confidential information.

2) RANSOMWARE

What is ransomware?

Ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to deny access to files until, or threaten to publish the victim’s data unless, a ransom is paid (although there is no guarantee that access will be restored, or that the criminal hacker will destroy the data).

3) DDOS ATTACKS

What is a DDoS attack?

A DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack attempts to disrupt normal web traffic and take a site offline by overwhelming a system, server or network with more access requests than it can handle.

DDoS attacks typically serve one of two purposes:

1) An act of revenge against an organisation.

2) A distraction that allows cyber criminals to break into the organisation while it focuses on restoring its website.

4) COMPUTER VIRUSES

What is a computer virus?

A computer virus is a type of malicious code or program written to alter the way a computer operates. Much like a flu virus, it is designed to spread from one computer to another (but without the user’s knowledge) by:

  Opening an infected email attachment;

  Clicking an infected executable file;

  Visiting an infected website;

  Viewing an infected website advertisement; or

  Plugging in infected removable storage devices (e.g. USBs).

5) ATTACK VECTORS

Attack vectors are used to gain access to a computer or network in order to infect it with malware or harvest data.

There are four main types of attack vector:

Drive-by

A drive-by cyber attack targets a user through their Internet browser, installing malware on their computer as soon as they visit an infected website.

It can also happen when a user visits a legitimate website that has been compromised by criminal hackers, either by infecting them directly or redirecting them to a malicious site.

MITM (man in the middle)

An MITM attack is where an attacker alters the communication between two users, impersonating both victims to manipulate them and gain access to their data. The users are not aware that they are communicating with an attacker rather than each other.

Zero-day attack

Outdated (unpatched) software often contains vulnerabilities that criminal hackers can use to bring entire systems down. Where they exploit a vulnerability made public before a patch or solution has been rolled out by the developer, this is referred to as a zero-day attack.

Patch management is one of the five basic cyber security controls contained in the UK government’s Cyber Essentials scheme.

SQL injection

A SQL (Structured Query Language) injection occurs when an attacker inserts malicious code into a server that uses SQL (a domain-specific language).

SQL injections are only successful when a security vulnerability exists in an application’s software. Successful SQL attacks force a server to provide access to or modify data.