Cybersecurity is one of the biggest concerns of modern
businesses and even for individuals. While the internet is a blessing, it can
be a curse in the form of cybersecurity attacks such as phishing scams,
malware, ransomware, etc.
Sadly, these attacks are increasing every day with the
advancement of technology. According to this report, 36 billion records were
exposed in 2020’s first half due to data breaches.
To add fuel to the fire, Covid-19 further increased cyber
crimes as people from across the world embraced the online work culture. This
gave cyber attackers an opportunity to launch sophisticated phishing campaigns
and other threats, increasing cyber crimes to 600%.
A cyberattack is a malicious and deliberate attempt by an individual
or organization to breach the information system of another individual or
organization. Usually, the attacker seeks some type of benefit from disrupting
the victim’s network.
Whether you are a small, medium, or large business, you need
to secure your network, system, and devices to block harmful intent and prevent
your company from data loss, reputation damage, or penalties.
Malicious actors often look for ransom, or other kinds of
economic gain, but attacks can be perpetrated with an array of motives,
including political activism purposes.
1. Phishing
Phishing attacks are extremely common and involve sending
mass amounts of fraudulent emails to unsuspecting users, disguised as coming
from a reliable source. The fraudulent emails often have the appearance of
being legitimate, but link the recipient to a malicious file or script designed
to grant attackers access to your device to control it or gather recon, install
malicious scripts/files, or to extract data such as user information, financial
info, and more.
Phishing attacks can also take place via social networks and
other online communities, via direct messages from other users with a hidden
intent. Phishers often leverage social engineering and other public information
sources to collect info about your work, interests, and activities—giving
attackers an edge in convincing you they’re not who they say.
There are several different types of phishing attacks,
including:
Spear Phishing—targeted attacks directed at specific
companies and/or individuals.
Whaling—attacks targeting senior executives and stakeholders
within an organization.
Pharming—leverages DNS cache poisoning to capture user
credentials through a fake login landing page.
Phishing attacks can also take place via phone call (voice
phishing) and via text message (SMS phishing). This post highlights additional
details about phishing attacks—how to spot them and how to prevent them.
2. Malware
The term “malware” encompasses various types of attacks
including spyware, viruses, and worms. Malware uses a vulnerability to breach a
network when a user clicks a “planted” dangerous link or email attachment,
which is used to install malicious software inside the system.
Malware and malicious files inside a computer system can:
Deny access to the critical components of the network
Obtain information by retrieving data from the hard drive
Disrupt the system or even render it inoperable
3. DDoS Attacks
A denial-of-service (DoS) attack is designed to overwhelm
the resources of a system to the point where it is unable to reply to
legitimate service requests. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is
similar in that it also seeks to drain the resources of a system. A DDos attack
is initiated by a vast array of malware-infected host machines controlled by
the attacker. These are referred to as “denial of service” attacks because the
victim site is unable to provide service to those who want to access it.
With a DoS attack, the target site gets flooded with
illegitimate requests. Because the site has to respond to each request, its
resources get consumed by all the responses. This makes it impossible for the
site to serve users as it normally does and often results in a complete
shutdown of the site.
4. Password Hacking
Passwords are the access verification tool of choice for
most people, so figuring out a target’s password is an attractive proposition
for a hacker. This can be done using a few different methods. Often, people
keep copies of their passwords on pieces of paper or sticky notes around or on
their desks. An attacker can either find the password themselves or pay someone
on the inside to get it for them.
Access to a person’s password can be obtained by looking
around the person’s desk, ‘‘sniffing’’ the connection to the network to acquire
unencrypted passwords, using social engineering, gaining access to a password
database or outright guessing. The last approach can be done in either a random
or systematic manner:
Brute-force password guessing means using a random approach
by trying different passwords and hoping that one work Some logic can be
applied by trying passwords related to the person’s name, job title, hobbies or
similar items.
In a dictionary attack, a dictionary of common passwords is
used to attempt to gain access to a user’s computer and network. One approach
is to copy an encrypted file that contains the passwords, apply the same
encryption to a dictionary of commonly used passwords, and compare the results.
In order to protect yourself from dictionary or brute-force
attacks, you need to implement an account lockout policy that will lock the
account after a few invalid password attempts. You can follow these account
lockout best practices in order to set it up correctly.
5. Man-in-the-Middle
(MitM) Attacks
Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks, also known as
eavesdropping attacks, occur when attackers insert themselves into a two-party
transaction. Once the attackers interrupt the traffic, they can filter and
steal data.
Two common points of entry for MitM attacks:
1. On unsecure public Wi-Fi, attackers can insert themselves
between a visitor’s device and the network. Without knowing, the visitor passes
all information through the attacker.
2. Once malware has breached a device, an attacker can
install software to process all of the victim’s information.
6. . Cryptojacking
The term Cryptojacking is closely related to cryptocurrency.
Cryptojacking takes place when attackers access someone else’s computer for
mining cryptocurrency.
The access is gained by infecting a website or manipulating
the victim to click on a malicious link. They also use online ads with
JavaScript code for this. Victims are unaware of this as the Crypto mining code
works in the background; a delay in the execution is the only sign they might
witness.
Cryptojacking can be prevented by following the
below-mentioned steps:
Update your software and all the security apps as
cryptojacking can infect the most unprotected systems.
Have cryptojacking awareness training for the employees;
this will help them detect crypotjacking threats.
Install an ad blocker as ads are a primary source of
cryptojacking scripts. Also have extensions like MinerBlock, which is used to
identify and block crypto mining scripts.
7. SQL injection
This occurs when an attacker inserts malicious code into a
server using server query language (SQL) forcing the server to deliver
protected information. This type of attack usually involves submitting
malicious code into an unprotected website comment or search box. Secure coding
practices such as using prepared statements with parameterized queries is an
effective way to prevent SQL injections.
When a SQL command uses a parameter instead of inserting the
values directly, it can allow the backend to run malicious queries. Moreover,
the SQL interpreter uses the parameter only as data, without executing it as a
code. Learn more about how secure coding practices can prevent SQL injection
here.
8. Cross-site
scripting (XSS)
A cross-site scripting attack sends malicious scripts into
content from reliable websites. The malicious code joins the dynamic content
that is sent to the victim’s browser. Usually, this malicious code consists of
Javascript code executed by the victim’s browser, but can include Flash, HTML,
and XSS.
For example, an XSS attack may change the parameters of a
transfer request sent through an online banking application. In the falsified
request, the intended recipient of the transferred money has their name
replaced with that of the attacker. The attacker may also change the amount
being transferred, giving themselves even more money than the target initially
intended to send.
One of the most straightforward ways of preventing XSS
attacks is to use a whitelist of allowable entities. This way, anything other
than approved entries will not be accepted by the web application. You can also
use a technique called sanitizing, which examines the data being entered,
checking to see if it contains anything that can be harmful.
Conclusion
Mounting a good defense requires understanding the offense.
This article has reviewed the 10 most common cyber-security attacks that
hackers use to disrupt and compromise information systems. As you can see,
attackers have many options, such as DDoS assaults, malware infection,
man-in-the-middle interception, and brute-force password guessing, to trying to
gain unauthorized access to critical infrastructures and sensitive data.
This is why it’s essential to employ security measures
against cybersecurity attacks like the ones just discussed and protect your
reputation, business and user data, and avoid penalties.
At IDMEdge, our specialized team of IAM Architects &
Consultants offer efficient and high-quality advisory services, strategic
planning, or technical implementation of IAM solutions.
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