The cybersecurity industry landscape is ever-changing and innovative, in some respects. More so, it is affecting almost all entities, both private and public ones.
But, to protect entities and ourselves, we must know the most common and effective attacks used by today’s cybercriminals. By doing so, we can prioritize security measures in place.
So in this article, we will cover the most common and effective cyber-attacks in use today in the cybersecurity industry.
Most Common & Effective Cyber Attacks in the Cybersecurity Industry
Social engineering
Social engineering is one of the oldest and most effective ways to compromise an organization’s network. The attacker can gain access to a network by deceiving an employee into believing that the attacker is an insider.
Phishing, for example, is a form of social engineering that aims to obtain information or credentials by impersonating a trustworthy entity via email or SMS message.
DNS hijacking
A DNS hijack occurs when a malicious actor manipulates the Domain Name System (DNS) settings of a target domain. This allows the attacker to control how users reach a particular website. The most common way this takes place is by using an “unregistered” DNS setting to point the targeted domain name to another IP address with a malicious web server.
A popular example of this attack is the Google Redirect virus, which hijacked Google web searches and redirected them to a malicious web page with an ad banner and malware download links. A variant of this attack was recently used against MSPs in Australia, which took advantage of their partner portal login pages.
Malicious email attachments.
Phishing attacks are another way hackers use malicious email attachments as bait. Typically, they will send out an email message that appears to be from a legitimate company or organization. But that message contains either a malware-laden attachment or a link to a malicious website hosting spyware, ransomware, or other malware.
In some cases, these attacks are so sophisticated. That users don’t have any idea they’ve been infected until it’s too late. An example of such an attack was recently in use against small businesses. For instance, employees receive messages from their “accountants”. Such as requesting payment via online banking. For instance, because their accounts are under hack due to a vulnerability in their network software package.
The emails are from cybercriminals who are pretending to be real accountants with real businesses. Also, they are manipulating recipients into downloading and paying for fake invoices via spoofed websites. These sites contain login details for online bank accounts – all by design to trick users into paying money through banking channels so it could be transferred directly into cyber criminal’s accounts.
So we can see how devastating these attacks can be. That is, if we don’t do our part in protecting ourselves and our corporations from them.
Protect Yourself from these Attacks
You can protect yourself, and your business from these effective and most common cyber attacks. For example, by ensuring you have the right level of protection in place and that the people in your organization are aware of how to stay safe.
In addition, update yourself on the latest trends in cybersecurity to help ensure you can take advantage of new solutions as they become available.
Cyber attacks will continue to be a major threat, especially for small businesses and companies that don’t have the resources of large corporations.
