Latest reports show a significant rise in cyber-attacks across individuals and companies. Sadly, sometimes company insiders facilitate these attacks without knowing. That’s why any organization should teach all their employees about cyber threats and how to keep their data safe. It’s also important to boost cybersecurity healthcare as this is one of the places with crucial information and requires a high sense of accuracy.
What is a Cyber Attack?
A cyber attack is when an individual or a group of individuals maliciously try to access another person or organization’s IT system to steal crucial information, disrupt, or extortion.
How Often Do Cyber Attacks Occur?
Different businesses and individuals across the globe suffer cyberattacks daily. However, some victims do not realize when they are under attack; hence some cases may not be reported. Research conducted on these cases showed a fourfold increase between January 2016 and October 2017.
Why Do People Launch Cyber Attacks?
Attackers conduct cyber-attacks for different reasons. In some cases, these attacks are meant to ask for ransom from the victim, disrupt their operation, or access critical information, like login or credit card details. In one way or another, they aim to benefit from the action either directly or indirectly.
Most Common Types of Cyber Attack
1 Malware
Malware is malicious software that attackers remotely install in your system to perform several tasks. It includes spyware, viruses, ransomware, or virus. It can help the attacker gain consistent access to your system, spy on your credentials, or extract important data. The attacker can also use it to disrupt the system’s operations or for extortion.
2 Phishing
Phishing is one of the most common types of cyberattacks. In this case, the attacker sends fraudulent communications, especially through emails, that seem to come from a reputable source to convince the victim to share information or taking a certain action. Their main aim is to persuade you into sharing sensitive data with them, including credit card information or login details. They can also use the attack to install malware on your computer.
It’s very difficult to deal with, especially in the case of spear phishing. Here, the attacker researches their target and sends a very relevant and personalized email. They also use email spoofing and website cloning to convince you that they’re legitimate.
3 Man-in-the-middle attack
In a Man-in-the-middle attack, the invader inserts themselves in the middle of a transaction. If they succeed in interrupting the traffic, they can easily steal and manipulate the data.
These attacks majorly occur when you use public Wi-Fi or malware has previously breached your device. The common types include session hijacking, IP Spoofing, and Replay.
4 Denial-of-Service attack
In this case, the attacker overwhelms their victim’s systems, networks, or servers with traffic, making it unable to respond to service requests. They can use the attack to steal information and disrupt the session. While the system is inactive, the attacker may also be able to stage another string of bout.
It comes in different types, including teardrop attack, ping-of-death attack, botnets, TCP SYN flood attack.
5 SQL injection
In a Structured Query Language (SQL) injection, the invader inserts a malicious code into a server using SQL and compels it to disclose information that it normally doesn’t. It can easily occur when the attacker submits a malicious code to the website’s search box, especially if it’s vulnerable.
Cyber-attacks are on the rise everywhere. However, keeping your systems up-to-date could help you limit access.