Hi, welcome to our blog post on top 10 most common types of cyber attacks.
Cyber attacks pose a significant threat in the digital age.
As more individuals and organizations rely on technology to store sensitive information and conduct operations, they become vulnerable to malicious actors seeking to infiltrate systems and steal data.
Understanding the most common types of cybersecurity attacks is crucial for improving security posture and reducing risk.
What Are Cyber Attacks?
Cyber attacks refer to deliberate exploits by hackers to compromise computer systems, infrastructure, networks, and devices.
The motives behind these attacks vary — from stealing sensitive data to disrupting regular operations. However, the repercussions can be severe, resulting in massive financial losses, privacy violations, and interrupted services.
Why Examine Common Cyber Security Attacks/Threats?
Being aware of common cybersecurity attacks and threats allows both users and organizations to better defend their systems and data.
Analyzing the methods, impacts, and mitigation strategies for the top 10 types of cyber attacks, allows the following recognition; red flags, hardening infrastructure, and responding effectively when faced with a breach attempt.
From a business perspective, understanding cyber trends and adversary tactics facilitates more strategic security planning and resource allocation to protect customers and operations.
The top 10 most common types of cyber security attacks are;
Phishing Attacks
Phishing represents one of the top 10 most common cybersecurity attacks today. These schemes aim to trick users into providing sensitive information or installing malware. Understanding how phishing works and learning prevention best practices is imperative for protection.
What are Phishing Attacks?
Phishing attacks use social engineering techniques to impersonate trustworthy entities via digital channels. Often camouflaged as legitimate emails, texts, ads or websites, these scams persuade victims to share login credentials, bank account details, or personal data.
By hijacking the brand recognition of banks, ecommerce companies and government agencies, attackers operate more covertly.
Skilled phishers now leverage extremely convincing messages and spoofed interfaces tough to decipher from real ones. Without scepticism, even tech-savvy people can fall victim by interacting with malicious links or attachments that launch malware.
How Do Phishing Attacks Work?
Phishing schemes rely on psychological manipulation, urgency creation and technological disguises.
Attackers distribute fraudulent emails or texts en masse, knowing response rates will be low. Using psychological triggers related to fear, curiosity, or a sense of limited-time deals, they coerce more users to bite.
These messages also leverage spoofed sender addresses and corporate branding to appear legit.
Links and attached documents launch credential harvesting sites and malware. Once users input information or infect devices, attackers gain access to accounts, networks and sensitive files.
Impact of Phishing Attacks
Successful phishing incurs major financial, operational and reputational damages. Participants can lose access to critical systems and data. Attackers selling compromised accounts and credentials on dark web markets further the breach impact.
Phishing also erodes public trust in targeted institutions when customers become fraud victims. And malware infections can cripple systems with loss of service, corrupted files, and backdoor access for future attacks.
How to Protect Yourself from Phishing
Protection starts with user awareness training to spot red flags.
Approaching messages from unknown senders with scepticism is key.
Verifying legitimacy by contacting supposed sources is prudent before interacting.
Technological protections like email spam filtering, anti-phishing software, and phishing site database blocklists also help interdict scam attempts.
Multifactor authentication prevents access compromise even with stolen credentials.
Malware Attacks
Malware represents another top 10 most common types of cyber attacks challenging individual and organizational security.
These malicious software programs infiltrate networks and devices to steal data, encrypt files for ransom, or destroy systems.
What are Malware Attacks?
Malware attacks involve hacking tools and techniques designed to breach defences and compromise computer systems.
Categories include viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, ransomware and crypto-mining malware.
Attackers utilize malware for unauthorized remote access to networks, data extraction, system disruption and even destruction.
Advanced malware leverages evasive designs invisible to antivirus software, while polymorphic strains mutate to avoid detection.
These characteristics allow malware attacks to persist within systems undetected for extended durations.
How Do Malware Attacks Work?
Most malware relies on some form of social engineering to infiltrate systems, such as phishing links, malicious ads or software bundles. Once executed, the infection escalates attack capabilities.
Viruses self-replicate by injecting code into files and applications.
Worms target networks by exploiting vulnerabilities to spread.
Trojans masquerade as legitimate programs while opening backdoors.
Spyware and adware track user activity and system data for harvesting credentials, files, and privacy violations. Crypto miners commandeer system resources for financial gain. And ransomware encrypts data to extort victims.
Advanced malware employs stealth tactics like sound triggers, time bombs, and source code transformations to operate covertly after infections. Remote access tools even allow attackers to control systems through backdoors.
Impact of Malware Attacks
Malware incurs severe financial, operational and reputational damages. Stolen credentials, embezzled funds, and fraudulent transactions carried out from infected systems compound issues.
System crashes, disabled services, corrupted data and files also disrupt operations. Ransomware locking mission-critical information creates massive business continuity threats. And malware often persists undetected for months before being discovered.
Insider Threats
While external hackers pose significant cybersecurity concerns, insider threats present equally detrimental attack vectors to organizations.
Whether through malicious intent or accidental mistakes, authorized personnel with access to systems and data can inflict immense damage.
This is why “insider threats” are among our top 10 most common types of cyber attacks.
What are Insider Threats?
Insider threats encompass current or former employees, contractors, partners or anyone with authorized access who misuse privileges to compromise security.
Categories range from intentional sabotage, data theft and collaboration with external parties to unintentional policy violations exposing networks and sensitive information.
These attackers possess intimate knowledge of internal processes, network layouts and protection gaps facilitating stealthy persistent attacks. And most organizations focus more resources on defending against external bad actors.
How Do Insider Threats Work?
Malicious insiders leverage several techniques to covertly abuse access for personal gain or revenge.
Data aggregation through incremental extractions evades oversight. Database queries, screen captures and credential sharing aid unauthorized data harvesting.
Accidental insider threats also emerge through policy violations like misconfigured cloud storage, inadequate access controls and poor security habits.
These mistakes unintentionally expose confidential data and systems to external threats.
Impact of Insider Threats
Insider attack damages include proprietary data and IP loss, financial fraud through illicit transactions, reputational harms from public breaches and business continuity disruptions if mission-critical systems are sabotaged.
But unlike external threats, the intimate system knowledge of malicious insiders enables precise targeting of sensitive information most valuable in black markets. Investigation/remediation costs to uncover threats already operating inside networks often exceed those from external attacks.
Mitigating Insider Threats
Robust insider threat programs combining advanced user monitoring, activity analysis and risk mitigation capabilities provide detection and response solutions. Strict least-privilege access controls, separation of duties policies and augmented user awareness training also help manage risk.
Integrating strong data loss prevention safeguards offers an additional layer against insider data theft.
DNS Tunneling
Domain Name System tunnelling represents an increasingly prevalent threat that abuses integral web infrastructure for covert communications and data exfiltration. By tunnelling unauthorized data within DNS traffic, attackers avoid firewalls while hiding in plain sight. It is also one of the top 10 most common types of cyber attacks.
What is DNS Tunneling?
The Domain Name System (DNS) facilitates hostname lookups and IP address translations critical for connecting users to websites and web services.
DNS tunnelling exploits this capability to open encrypted channels for concealing unauthorized communications over these DNS queries and responses.
Attackers embed sensitive data like stolen files within DNS fields. This tunnels them through networks masquerading as legitimate activity. External DNS requests also avoid internal firewall reviews, enabling data exfiltration.
How Does DNS Tunneling Work?
DNS tunnelling works by establishing connections with receiving servers controlled by attackers. Client malware or tunnelling tools encode data into DNS TXT or CNAME fields. Queries sent to receiving domains tunnel the data over allowed DNS traffic.
Servers decode messages, extract data and respond, enabling two-way tunnels. This disguises unauthorized communications as permissible DNS activity bypassing security controls.
Types of DNS Tunneling
Tunnelling methods include basic encapsulation schemes encoding data directly into fields. More advanced techniques like DNSCAT or Iodine split data across multiple fields and then reassembled them. Some exploit record padding spaces for stealth.
Impacts of DNS Tunneling
Attackers exploit DNS tunnelling to establish command and control channels, exfiltrate sensitive data like financial records, passwords or trade secrets, and issue commands to malware.
The covert nature avoids firewall reviews, allowing threats to lurk within networks despite security efforts.
Mitigating DNS Tunneling
Defending against DNS tunnelling requires layered monitoring, analysis and filtering capabilities.
Traffic inspection to detect abnormal encapsulation and encryption flags tunnelling behaviour.
Machine learning models further discern suspicious patterns. Once identified, DNS tunnelling filters block overt threats while quarantining deeper analysis for more advanced attacks.
IoT-Based Attacks
IoT-based attacks is also among the top 10 most common types of cyber attacks.
The massive expansion of connected IoT devices presents a booming attack landscape.
Their embedded nature coupled with security gaps facilitates large-scale breaches with catastrophic disruptive potential.
What are IoT-Based Attacks?
IoT devices encompass connected sensors, monitors, and controllers across critical infrastructure sectors like energy, transportation, healthcare and more.
However minimal built-in security exposes these devices to attacks aimed at network infiltration, service disruption or infrastructure manipulation.
Attack categories include:
- Reconnaissance – Mapping devices and connections to identify targets
- Vulnerability exploitation – Hacking flaws in code, configurations or outdated software
- Propagation/infection – Spreading malware to stages of mass attacks
- Command and control – Issuing instructions to compromised devices
- Data exfiltration – Funneling out stolen information
- Manipulation/sabotage – Impacting physical processes controlled digitally
How IoT Attacks Work
Attackers first scout networks to identify vulnerable IoT devices like outdated models lacking updates.
Vulnerability exploits leverage hardcoded passwords and unpatched flaws to gain access.
From infected nodes, malware self-propagates laterally to infect more devices across internal networks.
This botnet of compromised devices connects with attacker command servers to enable large-scale denial of service attacks or infrastructure manipulation like opening dam floodgates.
Data theft is also common for industrial espionage.
Impacts of IoT Attacks
Disrupting critical infrastructure and services like power grids, manufacturing operations or hospital systems proves extremely devastating. Cascading failures cripple functionality as repairs take time. Release of hazardous substances is also possible.
Breached proprietary data, trade secrets or personal information also sparks legal, financial and reputational damages.
Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware attacks are also ranked among the top 10 most common types of cyber attacks.
Ransomware stands out as one of the most financially destructive malware threats. These attacks encrypt system files and data until ransom payments are made.
With devastating impacts across private companies and public infrastructure, understanding ransomware is key.
What are Ransomware Attacks?
Ransomware encompasses malware threats designed to extort money by preventing access to mission-critical files, systems and data. Advanced variants encrypt documents, images, databases and even backup stores on infected devices and networks.
Access restoration is only possible with decryption keys provided after paying ransoms. And “leakware” threats disclose data publicly if demands go unpaid. As cryptocurrencies enable anonymous payments, ransomware continues escalating.
How Ransomware Attacks Work
Most ransomware campaigns rely on social engineering like phishing emails to trick users into launching malware. Once executed, the infections propagate across networks searching for accessible file shares and backups to encrypt.
Systems are locked down with ransom payment instructions.
Some strains employ “time bomb” detonation techniques remaining dormant before simultaneously encrypting enterprise-wide resources during attacks. Multi-stage variants steal data first before activating file encryption.
Impact of Ransomware Attacks
Monetary losses surpass $20 billion annually across ransom payments and business/system downtime. Manufacturing plants, hospitals and school systems endure major care and service disruptions.
Lawsuits related to privacy breaches or infrastructure failures spark further financial damages.
And if mission-critical data becomes irrecoverable after advanced encryption, whole companies risk shutting down entirely. Quick ransom payments cannot even guarantee file recovery when dealing with malicious threat actors.
Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks
MitM cyber security attacks are very common. They are one of the top 10 common cyber security attacks you can find. MitM attacks represent sophisticated threats that intercept communications between users and services.
By positioning themselves in data streams, attackers can steal information and manipulate transactions without detection.
Safeguarding against MitM is crucial for data security and integrity.
What are MitM Attacks?
MitM attacks infiltrate channels between users and external endpoints like websites, databases or application servers.
This “eavesdropping” allows intercepting and even altering sensitive data exchanged in both directions.
Positioned between victims and legitimate destinations they communicate with, MitM threats quietly manipulate sessions. Warning signs only emerge if transactions behave unexpectedly for users based on MitM tampering.
How MitM Attacks Work
Attackers leverage spoofed wireless networks, malicious software on devices or compromised routers to insert their surveillance undetected into traffic flows. Encryption keys between senders and receivers get stolen or recreated to facilitate deception.
From within data streams, MitM tools copy, manipulate, block or reroute sensitive information for identity theft or service disruption. Inserting new commands is also possible for request forgery.
Impact of MitM Attacks
Financial fraud through stolen account credentials or manipulated transactions inflicts immense damages. Medical record and government service manipulation also prove dangerous.
Reputational losses emerge if companies cannot ensure communication integrity with customers. MitM positions in infrastructure networks even enable larger utility and public works disruption via manipulations.
MitM Attack Protection
Encryption using secure protocols makes deciphering intercepted data impossible. Digital signing of messages and files validates sender identities and data integrity.
Authentication safeguards like multi-factor verification increase session security.
An advanced network monitoring paired with deep packet inspection spot potential manipulation patterns indicating MitM presence to stop threats in real-time.
Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks
Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks aim to make systems and resources inaccessible to legitimate users by overloading or crashing them. As a prevalent attack vector, understanding DoS is key for security teams. DoS attacks also form part of our list of the top 10 most common types of cyber attacks.
What are DoS Attacks?
DoS attacks focus on disrupting the availability of networks, devices and digital services by flooding them with bogus traffic. These artificial loads overwhelm capacity, prevent access and degrade performance to render services useless.
Attack categories include volume-based floods leveraging botnets to initiate tidal waves of requests from many sources. Asymmetric attacks craft minimal malicious payloads that trigger system crashes. And multi-vector campaigns combine techniques for amplified impacts.
How DoS Attacks Work
Network-based floods use botnets of infected computers and devices to initiate avalanches of connection requests to web application servers and networks. Domain name system (DNS) amplification technique exploits public DNS servers to multiply payloads.
App-layer attacks include low bandwidth requests targeting resource management flaws and bugs. SSL renegotiation, authentication function and buffer overflow attacks leverage flaws to maximally disrupt targets.
Impacts of DoS Attacks
With businesses losing $22 billion annually from site outages, DoS tangible damages are severe. Intangible losses also arise through reduced trust and eroded reputation after customers face access issues.
For organizations, even brief outages severely impact revenue and productivity given modern dependence on internet connectivity and services. Manufacturing shutdowns, healthcare access limits and frozen supply chains show DoS can threaten human lives.
SQL Injection Attacks
SQL injection (SQLi) gives attackers unauthorized access to databases to extract sensitive information or corrupt/delete crucial data. These exploits remain highly prevalent today, necessitating SQLi threat awareness and prevention education.
What are SQL Injection Attacks?
SQL injection attacks exploit vulnerabilities in web application code interfacing with backend databases. By injecting malicious SQL snippets into input fields or URLs, attackers can bypass authentication to access, modify and destroy sensitive database contents.
Successful SQLi provides complete control over database servers housing sensitive customer and business data from financial, healthcare and government web applications. These critical stores demand stronger safeguarding against SQLi code exploits.
How SQL Injection Attacks Work
Attack tools and scripts injected as user input field data or parameters identify exploitation points. Insecure code passes unsanitized data into SQL database queries allowing attacker commands to manipulate responses.
Bypassing authentication, escalating privileges, extracting/manipulating records and corrupting tables are all possible. Attackers often first target site user tables, with compromised credentials enabling deeper system access.
SQL Injection Impacts
Unauthorized data theft fuels fraud and ignites compliance violations when customers’ sensitive information is breached. Manipulation of records also introduces healthcare treatment, financial service and supply chain operation integrity issues.
Deleted databases cripple dependent applications while injected malware establishes persistence for repeated access. Public breaches cause reputational damages beyond immediate losses.
SQL Injection Protection
Input sanitization strips dangerous syntax preventing embedded scripts from processing. Web application firewalls analyze requests blocking detectable SQLi attempts. Rigorous coding practices coupled with scanning tools surface code vulnerabilities for patching.
Access control segmentation limits data exposure from compromised accounts. Monitoring for SQL errors indicating potential injection attacks also aids in timely response.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attacks
Cross-site scripting (XSS) gives attackers influence over web application functionality through injected scripts. Among application security risks, XSS remains highly pervasive and potentially devastating.
What are XSS Attacks?
XSS attacks inject malicious scripts into vulnerable web apps. When executed, these enable bypassing access controls, spreading malware, and hijacking user sessions for account takeovers. Crafted scripts also freely manipulate site content or steal sensitive browser-based data.
Stored XSS persists within databases to inflict repeat compromise over time. Reflected XSS delivers malicious payloads with compromised site links tricking users. Dom-based XSS carries out browser data theft.
How XSS Attacks Work
Attackers probe apps for insufficient input validation and output encoding issues enabling embedded script injections directly on site frameworks. Scripts often first steal session data like cookies for impersonation access.
Added links then deliver further malicious scripts to site visitors that access local storage, transmit input data or alter page content. Admin rights provide total site influences.
Impacts of XSS Attacks
Compromised user accounts fuel frauds and cybercrimes using reputable identities. Injected advertisements and links tarnish credibility while malware cripples sites. Stolen data violates compliance mandates resulting in legal actions and terminated user trust.
Deleted or altered content proves extremely disruptive for sites dependent on accuracy. Attackers also leverage XSS as launch points for expanded network exploitation.
XSS Protections
Input validation sanitizes untrusted data before processing to websites. Output encoding interprets special characters harmlessly preventing successful injection attacks. WAFs block known script patterns while CORS access controls shield browser data flows.
Script-disabling features offer additional hardening while patch management eliminates latent XSS bugs.
Social Engineering Attacks
Social engineering attacks manipulate human weaknesses like curiosity, fear and helpfulness to breach defences. Policies and software security offer incomplete protection given human factors remain highly exploitable. Understanding social engineering informs robust safeguards.
What is Social Engineering?
Social engineering employs psychological tricks circumventing cybersecurity policies, software protections and access controls.
These exploits leverage emotional triggers, authority pressures and deception to manipulate staff into surrendering credentials, data or unauthorized system access.
Attack categories include phishing, baiting, tailgating/piggybacking, pretexting and quid pro quo scenarios. Criminals pose as IT needing passwords or executives mandating sensitive data. Even friends or existing contacts facilitate schemes through trust.
How Social Engineering Works
Skilled social engineers first research targets through reconnaissance to identify vulnerabilities like outdated software, unpatched systems or employee activities. This informs attack strategies exerting specific psychological leverage tailored to targets.
Deceit facilitates phishing links or enticing USB drops to breach networks. Playing roles of authority figures or those needing assistance bypasses learned controls. Each scheme works by exploiting human inclinations.
Impacts of Social Engineering
Account compromises and network infiltration inflicted by social engineering enable secondary cybercrimes through access to financial, healthcare and communications systems. Stolen credentials also tarnish brands significantly when customers lose faith.
Monetary losses escalate given the intimate unauthorized access severely threatening data integrity, service continuity and IP security from social-enabled breaches.
Protecting Against Social Engineering
Training establishes awareness inoculating staff against common tricks and deception tactics. Reporting channels encourage notifying infosec teams of all suspicious encounters. Authentication procedures verify identities and authorizations before providing any access or information.
How To Stay Protected Against Cyber Attacks
Individual Safeguards
Bolstering cybersecurity postures is crucial for hardening defences across attack vectors. Combining software protections, vigilant monitoring and response protocols with robust user training works best for risk reduction. Prioritizing controls based on specific threats and vulnerabilities is key.
For individual users, installing comprehensive antivirus suites on all devices establishes a critical safeguard for blocking known threats through blacklists, behavioural analysis and anomaly detection. Enabling firewalls provides additional inspection against suspicious network traffic and communications.
Keeping systems patched and updated closes off vulnerabilities that new malware exploits before fixes become available. Password managers facilitate the use of complex, unique credentials for every site lowering odds of account compromises through reused passwords. And privacy tools like VPN and Tor projects shield online activities.
Organizational Safeguards
For organizations, technical controls include next-gen endpoint detection and response platforms powered by machine learning to identify advanced threat behaviours missed by legacy antivirus software.
Email security gateways detect embedded links, attachments and impersonation attempts through a comprehensive inspection of patterns, behaviours and signatures.
Web application firewalls counter injection attacks, cross-site scripting and other application layer exploits seeking to penetrate via internet-facing services.
And SSL inspection stops threats concealed through encryption like malware callbacks and data exfiltration.
Governance Controls
Governance controls like security awareness programs, incident response plans and compliance audits also significantly lower risk.
Training conditions employees fending off phishing lures and social engineering schemes. Simulation exercises validate response readiness when breaches inevitably occur.
Conclusion
Cyber threats continue to grow in scale and sophistication, making awareness and preparedness imperative for all digital entities.
This blog has covered 10 of the most prevalent attack categories plaguing users and corporations today – from phishing and malware to denial-of-service attacks. By examining the methods, impacts and key protections for these top threat vectors, individuals and organizations can make more informed security decisions to harden defences.
Implementing layered safeguards across governance, operations and technology realms works best alongside relentless user education.
With vigilance, proactive planning and robust security postures, the damages from common cyber attacks can be drastically reduced over time
