Understanding Common Types of Cyberattacks

Cyberattacks are increasingly common and becoming more sophisticated. Every user and organization are a potential target. When an individual or an organization purposefully and maliciously attempts to enter the information system of another individual or organization, this is referred to as a cyberattack. Cyberattacks are deliberate with malicious actors seeking financial gain, but these assaults can also be carried out for other reasons, including political or social activism and espionage.

The Singaporean government and the Cyber Security Agency are stepping up its efforts to build up the country’s defenses against cybercriminals. But implementing cyber security measures is still your responsibility when it comes to protecting your devices and company networks.

John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco, once ominously quoted

“There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.”

Cybercriminals are becoming smarter, and their techniques are becoming more resilient to traditional cyber defenses, so business leaders can no longer rely only on out-of-the-box cybersecurity solutions like antivirus software and firewalls. To decrease the number of assaults and lessen their impact when they do happen, businesses must take a multi-layered approach. Email and online security, malware protection, encryption, two-factor authentication, user behaviour monitoring, and access control are all network security technologies that should be adopted.

Businesses, regardless of size, can no longer neglect the burning issue of cybersecurity. Security events strike organizations of all kinds on a regular basis, and they frequently make news headlines causing lasting reputational and financial damage. Cyber risks can originate at any level of your company, so it is imperative to educate users on the different methods used to steal intellectual property or personal information. Although the types of cyberattacks are countless, understanding the most common attack vectors is the first step in developing robust cyber security strategies.

Malware

Malware such as viruses, worms, adware, spyware, and ransomware are all malicious software. Malware infiltrates a network or device by exploiting security vulnerabilities, which includes users clicking on a malicious link or email attachment. Malware comes in different forms to achieve different objectives. Examples include:

• Preventing access to key parts of the network
• Secretly retrieving information
• Disrupting systems or destruction of data

Recent high-profile attacks have used ransomware and spyware. Ransomware encrypts data until the attacker receives a ransom payment, which is usually made in cryptocurrency. Once the ransom is paid, the victim’s data will be decrypted. In recent years, a lot of ransomware versions have emerged.

Spyware may sound like something out of a James Bond film, but it is a type of malware that infects your computer or mobile device and collects information about you, such as the websites you visit, the files you download, your usernames and passwords, payment information, and the emails you send and receive.

Phishing

Phishing is an attack strategy that sends false emails appearing as a legitimate source. The intent is to steal sensitive data or to infect the victim’s computer with malware. Phishing is widespread. It begins with a deceptive email or other kind of communication intended to entice a victim. The message is designed to look like it came from a known sender. If the victim is duped, they unwittingly provide private information usually through a scam website.

For financial benefit, attackers may be satisfied with obtaining a victim’s credit card details or other personal data. But phishing emails are sometimes sent in order to collect employee login information or other details for use in a sophisticated assault on a specific company. Phishing is a common starting point for cybercrime attacks such as advanced persistent threats and ransomware. Whaling, spear phishing, and pharming are examples of phishing attacks that employ diverse tactics to collect login passwords and data.

Man-In-The-Middle

Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks (also known as eavesdropping) occur when an attacker inserts himself into a two-party transaction. After interrupting the network traffic, the attackers can filter and steal data. Attackers can put themselves between a visitor’s device and the network over an unsecured public Wi-Fi network, which is the most common point of entry for an MITM assault. The visitor unknowingly transmits all information to the attacker and they can also install software to process all of the victim’s information.

Password Attacks

Obtaining passwords is a prevalent and highly effective attack approach because passwords are the most common way in which users are authenticated to access a system or device. Searching a network connection for unencrypted passwords, employing social engineering, acquiring access to a password database, or simply by guessing are ways attackers gain access to passwords. Guessing can be done randomly or systematically. It’s critical to have a strong password policy in place, as well as an account lockout policy that blocks the account after a few failed login attempts.

Denial of Service (DDoS)

During a distributed-denial-of-service assault, traffic is flooded into systems, servers, or networks to exhaust resources and bandwidth. As a result, authentic requests cannot be fulfilled. This attack can also be launched using many compromised devices and DDoS attacks are very common occuring daily around the world.

Zero Day Exploit

A zero-day exploit occurs after a network or software vulnerability is publicly announced, but before a patch or solution is developed. In this period, cybercriminals focus on these publicly revealed exposure points, so it is crucial for companies to be constantly on alert when security vulnerabilities are made public.

Securing Your Company Documents

KRIS Document Management System (DMS) features a secure web portal gateway that uses 256-bit TLS security to authenticate and allow users to access the central data repository. It provides a range of security functions that include the ability for companies to activate or disable mobile access, prevents multiple logins and simultaneous access from a single user login, offers secure integration with third-party applications and support two-factor authentication. These are just some of the security attributes designed to give you peace-of-mind when storing and sharing company documents.