Most Dangerous Cyber Security Threats and How To Prevent Them

Cyber security threats mean the risk of experiencing a cyber attack by cybercriminals. A cyber attack is a malicious effort by a hacker to infect the systems of another organization with malicious code. This is done for different motives which can be a personal, financial purpose, or professional war or it could be destructive. These attacks have several negative consequences, as a result of data breaches organization goodwill suffers, data is manipulated, customer trust gets affected, and financial loss. Such attacks need prevention by proper cyber security measures.

Cyber Security Threats and their Prevention

Phishing or Social Engineering Attack

Phishing is one of the social engineering types of attack. This attack is based on human interaction by creating trust between different personalities. It tricks another party and gains sensitive information resulting in a cyber attack. Based on trusted contact, fake emails are sent to the victim. The victim considering a trusted contact opens the email and its attachment. Victims on its downloading attachments give access to cyber criminals with confidential data.

Phishing attacks can be avoided by carefully checking for such phishing emails, and scanning different links carefully on their receiving. Often such emails are having a number of spelling mistakes. Anti-phishing, toolbars can also be installed. Phishing emails are the same as other genuine emails; it is difficult to find the difference. Therefore, the firm has to be cautious at its end.

Man-in-the-Middle Attack

This Attack is popularly termed session hijacking. It is a form of eavesdropping where a stranger modifies the communication between two parties by hijacking the session and stealing sensitive information. The attacker seems to be positioned between the two parties in an unauthorized way to keep a check on the communication. In this attacker intercepts the communication between the users. Here the attacker has the capability to modify the data before transferring it to the receiver end.

It can be prevented by using a secure wifi connection and secure website links for communication. VPNs can be used and strong encryption can be applied to give clients access to conversations. A firm should avoid the use of the public network for sensitive communication.

Malware Attack

This is one of the common types of threats to cyber security and is used by cybercriminals. Malware enters the system when a user clicks a malicious link or email, opens attachments with a malicious file, or downloads it. Malware attack takes over the system through malicious actions. Entering malware into the system can stop the functioning of the system and could be a great loss to the company. It steals sensitive information from the system. There is a number of malware attacks exist such as Trojans, Worms, Ransomware, Spyware, Adware, etc.

To prevent such types of viruses from attacking your system, all the applications must be updated and proper antivirus software installed into the system. Working employees to be properly warned about such malware links entering into the system through emails. Employees are to be cautious while opening or downloading suspicious links.

Password Attack

This is an attack where the attacker gets access to a secret password code and thus invades the firm by using the password. This technique is often used by cybercriminals. Access to password details hacker gets details of crucial details of the company.

Preventing such attacks need strong passwords with special characters and numbers. Regularly passwords must be changed and different sites must have different login credentials instead of making it the same for all for easier access.

DoS Attacks

Denial of Service attacks disrupts the computer network through illegitimate requests and make the system overloaded so that it is not able to respond to legitimate service requests. The attackers attempt to distract the security team while they carry out the attack elsewhere using this method.

To prevent this attack organization needs to have a cloud-based DDoS service which is required to respond to a large number of malicious requests, scanning traffic to identify malicious emails. Making a plan in advance for such attacks and ensuring security teams can handle such traffic provided by DDoS attacks. Adopting suitable measures without much delay.

Fileless Malware Attacks

Fileless Attacks are a type of malicious activity, which uses files already in the system. Whereas traditional malware requires files to be installed in the system, it used already installed software as a target. Fileless attacks are memory-based not file installation based. It cannot be detected and nothing is installed for antivirus software to detect it.

Wiper Attacks

Wiper is a type of malware attack that involves wiping off that is removing data from the system. These types of attacks are destructive in nature. This attack does not leave any chance of data recovery in the future. It is a cyber security threat as it works by infecting the system’s important files necessary for proper functioning. It works by completely deleting the data from the system.

To get rid of this attack, one needs to set up a proper recovery plan in case of data loss due to any malware attack. Proper backup of each and every content of the data is mandatory. So that if such attacks hit you one can get data back from backups created. Detection plans should be formed in advance to detect such attacks to cause any harm.

SQL  Attack

SQL is another top cyber security threat, which involves the insertion that is putting injection of malicious SQL query code in the system. Its successful injection can read information from the sensitive database. The SQL injection into the system can also modify and delete the data. The attacker gains rights to access the database, it involves loss of customer trust in the company as their personal details are leaked.

Preventing SQL injection involves the detection of unauthorized access to the client’s network. Carrying the validation check of data supplied to the user. All the input receivable has to go through regular scrutiny.

Insider Threat

Small businesses face insider threats. The risk is caused by the actions of insiders (employees) of the organization. Inner employees have access to important data of the company. They can be harmful due to their ignorance. Small businesses have more insider threats as most of the employees have access to all the details than larger organizations. To prevent this small organizations should have security awareness programs. Employees must be trained for analyzing inner threats.

Conclusion

This blog provides details of all the top cyber security threats faced by the system. Understanding cyber threats can be a better solution to protect your system and network. Businesses can protect themselves from cyber security threats by installing security tools in the organization. Security awareness training is to be given to employees for creating maximum awareness of cyber attacks and their preventive measures.