Types of Cyber Attacks

In the digital world, everybody is accessible to applications, digital systems, and software. We get the details of the things we want easily on the internet today, so it is a positive change in our lives. But compared to the positive one, we should deal with the negative thing also. And the main challenge is cyber-attacks. It has been increasing every year when people try to access vulnerable sites. The main objective of cyber-attacks is data manipulation, stealing of data, and decreasing the performance of the system. There are many types of cyber-attacks and some of them are given here.

Cyber Attacks

When a system is accessed by some third party or unauthorized persons, it is referred to as a cyber-attack. The people who do this attack are termed as the attacker or hackers. When an attack happens, it will lead to loss of data or misuse of data and also the manipulation of data. So, everyone needs to protect their systems with cyber security.

1. Malware Attack

One of the most common cyber-attacks is a Malware attack. It performs some malicious software actions. The three main types of malware attacks namely Trojan horses, viruses, and worms. It gets installed when you click any link or email attachments. Once the malware enters the system, the ransomware will block access to the network. And it will install some malicious software.

Prevention of Malware Attack

To secure the system from Malware attacks, one needs to install antivirus software or use Firewall.

2. Man-in-the-middle Attack (MITM)

In this attack, the hacker places themselves between the user and the software that makes the new connection for the theft of information and tracks the user’s activity. Their main objective is to steal the personal data and credentials of the user. There are two phases in MITM, they are interception and Decryption.

Prevention

We can avoid this cyber-attack, by avoiding using public Wi-Fi networks like coffee shops or restaurants that are not password protected.

3. Password Attack

The Passwords that we put for creating accounts on any website are being attacked by attackers. For this purpose, they use various password-cracking tools like Cain, Air crack, etc. Some of the easy ways to get prevented the attacks are using a strong password that includes alphanumeric values, Changing the passwords often so they are less prone to attacks, and avoiding the password choices given by the respective passwords.

4. SQL Injection Attack

SQL stands for Structured Query Language. This SQL query is scripted mainly for databases. With this SQL injection attack, the attackers will enter the database website and insert some malicious code into the entire script, and will take over the functions of the website.

When the attack happens, the hacker will change the functions of the database by editing it, viewing, changing, or deleting the tables in the database. Some of the ways to prevent it are by using an intrusion detection system if any unauthorized login occurs.

5. Phishing

A phishing attack is a type of cyber-attack that attempts to steal personal data, information, or login details. It happens mostly in the Email when you reply to fraudulent emails. Phishing happens when you click any attachment, enable macros in the word document, use a WIFI hotspot, responding to a request from social media.

There are some common types of phishing; spear phishing, whaling, Email phishing, Smishing, and Vishing. Spear phishing means malicious emails to some specific persons. The whaling attacks a specific person in a high position namely the CEO or Chief Executive.

6. Denial of service

It is the attack that most companies have been attacked. They target the servers, systems, and networks and push them to congestion or network traffic. Due to this network traffic, the website will face exhaustion of the resources allocation and there will be no space for receiving the acknowledgment. So due to this, the server will slow down and even shuts down. So, the request from legitimate requests is also avoided by the user.

Some of the ways to prevent them are, running the network traffic analysis and identifying the attacker websites.

7. Crypto Jacking

The Crypto-jacking attack is one of the major cybercrimes. This attack is mainly implemented to get the third parties computing resources for mining cryptocurrency. This attack happens when you click on any ads that are coded mostly with JavaScript or by clicking any link.

The attack can be prevented by updating the software and using ad blocker software.

Conclusion

The most common types of cyberattacks are discussed and the ways to prevent them. Adding to it, we should keep the software and operating systems up to date which is the primary step to keep our systems from cyber-attacks. Making use of the Virtual Private network for secured connection.