The internet is an ever-changing landscape. As new technologies are created, hackers find ways to exploit them for their gain. Sometimes the damage can be minimal, but other times it can be devastating. In this blog post, we will look at 5 of the most dangerous types of cyber-attacks that your business may face and how you can protect yourself against them.
Denial-of-Service (DOS)
One of the most common cyber-attacks is a denial-of-service or DOS attack. This type of attack occurs when hackers send an overwhelming number of requests to your website/server, overloading it and causing service interruptions that can last for hours.
Mitigation techniques
There are several mitigation techniques that you should put into place, including using cloud-based servers that provide high availability, failover capability in case one server goes offline, and utilizing load balancers to distribute traffic across multiple machines so if one fails, another will take its place.
Recent DOS attacks
Wikipedia is an unparalleled treasure trove of knowledge translated into more than 250 languages and viewed by over one billion people. However, this didn’t stop them from being targeted in a DDoS attack back in 2019, which caused the site to be down for European, Middle Eastern, and American users for over nine hours.
Phishing
Phishing attacks are one of the most dangerous cyber-attacks because hackers prey on unsuspecting users by sending emails that appear to be sent from a trusted source to get personal information or an account password.
Mitigation techniques
You can protect yourself by training employees not to click links within emails but instead go directly to websites using bookmarks or typing them into their browser.
Recent phishing attacks
One of the best-known security breaches in recent history was caused by phishing emails sent to Sony employees. After posing as employees they found on social sites like LinkedIn, hackers were able to gain over 100 terabytes of data, costing them an estimated 100 million dollars.
Man in the Middle (MITM)
A man-in-the-middle attack is when a hacker inserts themselves between you and another person so they can intercept traffic such as emails, instant messages, or passwords.
Mitigation techniques
You must always be vigilant about what websites your employees visit, including their connection security which means knowing if SSL certificates have expired or not, among other things.
Recent man in the middle attacks
A recent hacking incident has been reported, in which hackers pulled off a man-in-the-middle attack to steal from an Israeli startup. The hackers ended up intercepting a $1 million wire transfer from a Chinese venture capital firm that was meant for the startup.
Malware
Malware attacks occur when a hacker inserts malicious software on your computer or network that can come in many different forms.
Mitigation techniques
You can protect yourself by installing anti-malware tools such as antivirus solutions that have an active protection component built into it where they work constantly scanning files for threats before they get a chance to execute.
Recent malware attacks
Hackers exploited the fear brought on with COVID-19 by creating the CovidLock ransomware. The app seemed to be a COVID tracking tool, alerting individuals of hot spots and areas with a higher infectivity rate, but it was a front for a vicious malware attack.
The app infected users’ phones and locked their data until they paid $100 in bitcoin for recovery services. By asking users to give administrative access to their devices, the cybercriminals had access to a slew of personal information from their victims.
Injection Attacks
An injection attack is when hackers exploit code in your website to access sensitive information such as login credentials or financial data.
Mitigation techniques
The best way you can protect yourself from these types of cyber-attacks is by logging everything that happens within your network, including suspicious activities, whether this is on a gateway, server, or any other device connected with some being able to provide real-time alerts if something does happen.
Recent injection attacks
A hacker back in 2017 was able to hack government agencies and 63 different universities across the globe using SQL injection attacks. Though it’s not entirely known which systems were compromised, the information stolen could include private data about staff and students, intellectual property such as research findings, or patented inventions.
Conclusion
As a trusted provider for managed IT services, Innovative Network Solutions can help you implement security measures that will keep hackers away. If your business is interested in learning more about how to stay protected from some of the most dangerous types of cyber-attacks out there, contact our cybersecurity experts today.