When it comes to security threats, they are more often than not considered to be software attacks, theft of intellectual property, identity theft, or even theft of equipment and personal information that could be used against the owner. A threat can be anything that can take advantage of a user’s vulnerability. That results in a breach of security and negatively alters, erases, and harms objects of the user’s interest. Today, with the help of this article, we are going to discuss the various types of security threats and how you can deal with them to keep your system and data secured. So let’s get it started, shall we?
6 Major Cyber Threats you should be aware of In 2022
As a person who is continuously using the internet to access, send, and retrieve data. You must know the different types of threats and how you can make your system secure from these attacks. so as to keep on working without having to worry about a data breach.
1. Malware
Malware is intrusive software that is developed to damage or destroy your computer and its applications. Malware is a short form of malicious software. Some of the most common examples of malware are viruses, worms, Trojan viruses, spyware, adware, and even ransomware can fall into the category of malware. It’s been 30 years since malware has been causing disruption in the data sets, causing trouble and even costing millions of dollars. Unfortunately, there is a tonne of malware out there, but if you are able to characterize different types of malware, you can protect your data with a much better plan.
Keeping Safe From Malware
One of the most common signs that your PC is infected by malware is a slowdown in performance. You are getting browsing redirects, infection warnings from your antivirus, and error messages when you turn on or shut down your system. The best way to keep yourself protected from malware is to regularly update your software, operating system, and antivirus. Cybercriminals are looking for vulnerabilities in your outdated software version. So if you don’t have them, you have already won half the battle.
2. Emotet
The Emotet is a banking Trojan that was discovered in 2014; it was originally designed to be banking malware that would infiltrate your computer and steal sensitive data related to your banking details.The later versions of this threat saw spamming and malware delivery services in addition to other banking trojans. It uses functionality that helps the software evade the detection of anti-malware detectors. It even has worm-like capabilities, which can be spread to other computers as well, if they are interconnected via a network.
As a result, homeland security determined that Emotet is one of the most expensive and destructive malware samples available to date. The harm it can cause could be colossal. It has the potential to affect the government and private sectors, including individuals and organizations. The cost of the incident clean-up can go as high as $1 million if you are not careful.
Keeping Safe From Emotet
When it comes to protecting yourself from Emotet, the first thing you need to do isn’t download any suspicious attachments or software or click on shady-looking links. With these, Emotet is able to get a foothold on your system. You should also create strong passwords and use two-factor authentication to make your accounts more secure from the online breach.
Removing Emotet
The first thing you need to do is immediately get yourself off the network. Turn off the WiFi and disconnect from any form of network; it doesn’t matter, even if it’s your home network. Once your system is isolated, start patching up and cleaning up the infected system. But you are not done yet, as emotets can quickly spread over the network.
The next step would be to clean each computer and other devices in your network one by one while keeping all of them offline. It is a tedious process, but you have to go through it. To be sure that you are not affected by it anymore,
3. Denial Of Service (DOS)
The main aim of DOS attacks is to make your computer completely shut down, and the same goes for the network. This makes your network and computer inaccessible to work with. DOS attackers can accomplish this by flooding the target system or the web with a massive amount of traffic that is of no use. As a result, it will deprive legitimate users of access to the network and its resources.
DOS attacks typically target high-profile organisations such as banks, commerce, large media companies, trade organizations, and even government agencies.DOS won’t affect any theft of personal information. It still results in significant asset, time, and information loss. This can cost victims of the attack a great deal of time and money to get back on track. The longer the attack continues, the more damage you will sustain.
DOS Attacks Types
There are two main categories of DOS attacks. The first one is a buffer overflow, where an attacker will send an immense amount of traffic to the network address that can’t be handled.
Then we have ICMP flood, where an attacker takes advantage of misconfigured devices by sending them spoofed packets to ping every computer on the target network instead of a single system. The network will get triggered, and it will amplify the traffic. This type of attack is also known as the “ping of death.”
Synthetic Flood will send a request to be connected to the server. But it will never complete the handshake process. This results in opening all the ports on the networks and saturating them with requests. This will block legitimate users from accessing the ports, and the server will experience downtime.
Securing PC From DOS Attack
To keep your servers running and protect them from DOS attacks, you need to be more vigilant than installing an antivirus or a firewall. Make a DOS response plan where you will have step-by-step instructions to help administrators work around the DOS attack. In addition to this, you need to ensure high levels of network security, have intrusion detection systems, network segmentation, web security tools, endpoint security, and more.
On the other hand, you need to make your servers redundant. So hackers can’t access the entire server in a single attempt. Lastly, it would help if you looked out for the warning signs such as poor connectivity, a slowdown in performance, crashes, high demand for a single page or endpoint, a spike in traffic, and others like it.
4. Man In The Middle (MITM)
This happens when a perpetrator positions himself in a conversation that is taking place between a user and a client. They can impersonate the other parties or eavesdrop. They are making it look like it’s a typical exchange of information between the two. The main goal here is to steal the information, like credentials, account details, and even credit card numbers. The target is mostly financial applications, SaaS businesses, e-commerce websites, and others alike.
Two Phases Of MITM
Interception
The first thing an attacker is going to do is intercept the traffic from his network before it reaches its destination. This can be done by making a simple malicious WiFi hotspot, which is commonly found in public. These aren’t password protected. Once a user connects with them, they have complete visibility of the online exchange that is taking place on another system. An attacker can take a more active approach and use IP spoofing, ARP spoofing, and DNS spoofing.
Decryption
Once the interception is done, the attacker can use two-way SSL traffic, which needs to be decrypted without alerting the user or even the client. This can be achieved via HTTPS spoofing, SSL BEAST, SSL hijacking, SSL stripping, and more.
Preventing MITM Attack
There are several practical steps that need to be taken from the user’s end. This needs to be done with a combination of encryption and verification methods on the client end.
Avoid any unknown WiFi connection that isn’t password protected. Also, please pay attention to the browser notification when it reports a website is not secured. Log out of the application when you’re not using it. Don’t use any of the public networks when you are conducting a sensitive transaction or exchange of information online. For clients, you need to implement secure communication protocols like TLS and HTTPS. These two will help in mitigating spoofing attacks by robustly encrypting and authenticating transmitted data.
5. Phishing
With the use of phishing attacks, the attacker will send you fraudulent communications. That seems like they have come from a reputable source and can be trusted. Phishing attacks are primarily conducted via email and mobile SMS with a link. The main goal here is to steal sensitive data such as your credit card credentials and login information. In addition to this, these links can also install malware on your machine.
Types Of Phishing Attacks
Deceptive Phishing
This is the most common form of phishing; it is used to obtain sensitive information from victims. That can be used to steal money or to launch other types of cyberattacks. It could be a female bank employee asking you to click on a link that will ask you to provide the details of your bank accounts and more.
Spear Phishing
In this attack, the attacker will target a single person rather than a broad group of people. Attackers will do proper research on their victims before making a move. This way, they will be able to customize their communications and make them look as authentic as possible. Spear phishing is one of the first steps that attackers like to take to penetrate a company’s defenses and then carry out targeted attacks.
Whaling
Even in cyberattacks, whales are considered the big fish in the sea, and that’s just what whaling means. Here, the attacker will target the CEO or another higher-level individual of a company. The attacker will spend a long time profiling the target in order to find the right opportunity to steal away the login credentials. This is quite a risky one because it allows attackers to get their hands on a high level of information that can only be accessed by higher-level executives.
Pharming
Just like phishing, pharming also takes place when an attacker sends links to fraudulent websites that appear to be completely legitimate. However, in this case, users will not have to click on the link or go to the website to open the bogus website. Attackers will straight up attack the server of a company or website to redirect users to the fake site even if the correct URL is typed in.
How to Prevent Phishing?
One of the best things you can do to protect yourself is to educate yourself. Even on a company level, everyone should be aware of phishing and needs to report it to the network administrator when they get one. High-level executives are the favorite targets. As a result, teach them how to recognize a phishing email or message.
Apart from this, there is no single cybersecurity tool that can prevent a phishing attack. Thus, an organization needs to take a layered approach in order to reduce the number of attacks. So the impact will be much less when it occurs. There should be malware protection working, web security in place, user behavior monitoring, and an access control management system. to stop the attacker from getting tonnes of information.
6. SQL Injection (SQLi)
The SQLI is a common attack vector that manipulates backend data using malicious SQL code. It can also be used to access the information that is stored in your SQL database. The information stored in the database could be a number of sensitive items, such as the account details of your clients, the transaction amounts, and more.
The impact of an SQLI could be far-reaching. A successful attack can result in the attacker viewing the lists of users and their other personal information, such as passwords and whatnot. An attacker can gain administrative rights to the database, which could be highly detrimental to a business.
Types Of SQLi
In-band SQLi
This attacker will use the same communication channel to launch their attack and to gather the results. It is pretty simple, and most of the time, it brings success to the attacker. As a result, this is a common type of SQLi attack.
Inferential (Blind) SQLi
In this attack, there will be tonnes of data payloads sent to the server in order to understand its working and behavior. This method will help attackers understand the structure of the database and how it processes the information behind the scenes. This is called “blind” because the attacker isn’t able to access the data or any of the information. These are more inclined towards the behavioral patterns of the server, so they are typically slow in the attack. But they are just as harmful as the other ones.
Out-of-band SQLi
To carry out this attack, certain features need to be enabled on the database server that is being used by the web application. This is more of an alternative to the in-band attack. It is performed when an attacker is not able to use the same channel to launch the attack and gather the information. Or when a server is just too slow to respond to the actions required by the attacker.
How to Prevent SQLi
The optimal defense for this type of attack is to follow the layered approach that comes with data-centric strategies, which also focuses on protecting the data itself as well as the network and other applications that are built around it. You also need to monitor the data access activity to see who has got the right to see the data.
Wrapping Up
Some of the security risks that you should be aware of when working online are discussed above. The prevention steps or guides that we have provided can assist you in securing your system and working on it without fear of these threats. However, it is always best to be cautious and ensure that whatever you click on the internet is trustworthy.