5 Cybersecurity Attacks you Should Be Aware of and How to Prevent Them

According to Norton Security, almost 60 million Americans have been affected by cybercriminals. By 2023, it is estimated that cybercriminals will steal 33 billion records per year. Cyberattacks affect everyone, but small businesses are one of the most common targets. In fact, about 43 percent of cyberattacks target small businesses. Fortunately, there are software and internet security procedures that can help protect your business from cybercriminals.

What is a Cybersecurity Attack?

This is any form of malicious activity that targets information technology systems, or the people who use them, to gain unauthorized access to the systems and the data or information they contain. Cyber-attackers are almost always crooks looking to profit from the attack. In other circumstances, the goal is to disrupt operations by blocking access to IT systems or, in certain cases, causing physical damage to equipment. Cybersecurity attacks can be directed at specific businesses or persons, or they can be broad in scope, affecting several organizations across multiple regions and countries.

Nowadays, it is not uncommon to hear of banks, internet shops, credit card firms, phone companies, and other businesses having their systems hacked and their customers' personal information taken. Luckily, many businesses are working to improve their cybersecurity systems. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are always updating the software that runs on computers, servers, tablets, phones, and other devices. The following are the common types of cybersecurity attacks and how you can prevent them.

Malware

When it comes to cyberattacks, malware is one of the broadest terms. It refers to any malicious software that is meant to cause harm to a computer system. When malware infects a computer, it can steal, delete, or encrypt data, monitor a user's activity, or hijack essential computing processes. Malware is software that is meant to steal data, encrypt or delete data, alter or take over basic computer functions, or track a user's computer activity without their knowledge. Malware is most commonly distributed through physical hard drives, external USB drives, or online downloads. The most common form of malware is ransomware.

Ransomware is software designed to encrypt the victim's data storage drives, making them inaccessible to the owner. An ultimatum is then delivered to demand payment of the encryption key. If the ransom request is not met, the key will be deleted and the data on it will be lost forever. Other common types of malware include worms, viruses, Trojan horses, and spyware.

How to prevent a Malware attack

To prevent malware, the first thing to do is to ensure all hardware and software on your computer are up to date. Common security vulnerabilities include outdated software, drivers, and other plugins. Check with your IT service provider to see if this is happening on their servers. The next is to enable click-to-play plugins to prevent Flash or Java from running unless you click a link. This reduces the risk of running malware using Flash or Java, and the best way to protect yourself against malware is to install antivirus software. The antivirus will scan your computer for malware and clean it. It will also provide automatic updates to offer enhanced protection against newly created viruses.

Lastly, you need to remove outdated software, often known as obsolete applications. If your computer runs Windows 10, but you use programs built for Windows 7, these are known as outdated applications and can pose a security concern. Your software provider should be able to provide you with an updated version that is compatible with Windows 10.

Social Engineering

Social engineering attacks are based on human or social interaction. According to some reports, about 93 percent of company data breaches are the result of employees who unintentionally engage in a social engineering attack. The attacker tries to persuade an employee of the victim organization to divulge important information and account credentials—or to download malware.

The most frequent type of this attack comes in the form of an email that poses as the identity of one of the company's vendors or someone with a lot of power in the company. For instance, an attacker might say something like: "This is an alert from the IT department, the user account is showing suspicious activity. please click this link to reset and secure your password. A link in such an email often leads to a website that downloads malware onto the user's computer, putting their system at risk.

How to prevent Social Engineering attack

First and foremost, if you have a private server, make sure you secure the physical hardware in a locked room. If your building is robbed, this helps prevent theft and prevents unauthorized people from accessing it using a portable hard drive.

Next is to ensure that a database firewall and a web application firewall are in place. Your physical server and hardware are protected by a locked door, while your server on the internet is protected by firewalls.

 

Also, keep access to the server limited. Everyone with a login to the server is a potential leak, therefore the fewer the logins, the better. Lastly, encrypt the data on the server and keep a regular backup.

 

Phishing

Phishing attacks are very frequent, and they entail sending a large number of bogus emails to unwary users, disguised as coming from a trusted source. The fraudulent emails often appear to be legitimate, but they contain a link to a malicious file or script that allows attackers to gain access to your device in order to control it or gather information, install malicious scripts/files, or extract data such as user information, financial information, and many more.

Phishing is frequently employed as part of a wider attack, such as an advanced persistent threat (APT) event, to obtain a foothold in corporate or government networks. In this scenario, employees are compromised to obtain a foothold in business or governmental networks. Employees are compromised in this scenario in order to bypass security perimeters, distribute malware inside a closed environment, or get privileged access to protected data. There are several different types of phishing attacks including Whaling, Spear Phishing, and Pharming.

How to prevent phishing

First, keep an eye out for instant messages and strange emails. Instead of your name, they may begin with strange wording, such as Dear Customer, use poor grammar, or a generic signature.

The next point is to be careful when clicking on links or providing sensitive information. If in doubt, contact the source directly to confirm that the message was sent by them.

 Finally, anti-phishing toolbars should be installed on internet browsers. These toolbars notify you when you visit a website that contains phishing content.

Denial-of-Service (DOS) Attack

This is a cyber-attack in which the attacker tries to render a computer or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disabling the services of a network host. As a result, the system is no longer able to process and fulfill legitimate requests. In addition to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, there are also Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

DoS attacks flood a system's resources in order to slow response time to service requests. A DDoS assault, on the other hand, is launched from a number of infected host machines with the purpose of accomplishing service denial and putting a system offline, allowing another attack to penetrate the network/environment. TCP SYN flood attacks, smurf attacks, teardrop attacks, ping-of-death attacks, and botnets are the most common types of DoS and DDoS attacks. The numerous types of DDoS attacks include the following:

ICMP (Ping) Flood: a sort of DDoS attack in which the attacker overwhelms the victim's computer with pings, causing it to crash (ICMP echo requests). As a result, the target will be unable to reach the normal traffic.

UDP Flooding: When an attacker floods ports with IP packets containing UDP datagrams, this is known as a UDP Flood. As more UDP packets are received and responded to, the system becomes overburdened and unresponsive

HTTP Flood: an attack designed to overwhelm a targeted server with HTTP requests.

How to prevent a DoS attack

Having a plan in place is the best way to mitigate the effects of a DDoS attack. This is because DDoS attacks have become more common and intense in recent years, it's always a good idea to prepare ahead of time. Setting up a plan entails examining your website and identifying any potential vulnerability. It's also a good idea to set clear steps for how you will respond in the event of an attack. Make sure everyone in your company understands their responsibilities in the event of an attack and who to contact if the situation escalates. Make a list of internal and external contacts who can help. 

 

SQL Injections

This happens when an attacker injects malicious code into a server using Server Query Language (SQL) to force the server to divulge protected information. This form of attack usually entails inserting malicious code into an open comment or search box on a website. SQL injections can be avoided by using secure coding methods such as using prepared statements with parameterized queries.

When an SQL command uses a parameter instead of entering the values directly, it can allow the backend to execute malicious queries. Also, the SQL interpreter uses the parameter only as data, without running it as code. The three main types of SQL injection are In-band SQLi (Classic), Out-of-band SQLi, and Inferential SQLi (Blind).

In-band SQLi: The most prevalent SQL Injection attack is an in-band SQLi attack. This happens when a cybercriminal launches an attack and collects data using the same communication channel.

 Inferential SQLi: this sort of attack entails reconstructing the structure of the database by sending payloads and monitoring the response of the web application and the behavior generated by the database server.

Out-of-band SQLi: This type of attack can only be carried out if certain functionality on the online application's database server is enabled.

How to prevent SQL Injections

To prevent SQL injection, Input validation, parameterized queries, stored procedures, and escaping are all effective methods for preventing SQL injection attacks.