5 Most Common Types of Cyber Threats 

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common types of cyber threats

Nowadays most of the stuff is online or in digital form, Covid-19 constraint everything to the digital world, technological advancements are increasing by leaps and bounds, every hour innovations are approaching in the market, increasing utilization and rapid acceleration of digital transformation coincides with the rise of cyber threats, we store a lot of data in our pc or computer system and feel like it’s safe but it isn’t, ample risks are associated with the digital platform. Cyberattacks can be in several forms and engender cyber threats. 

 

WHAT ARE CYBER THREATS?

Cyber threats also refer to the possibility of a successful cyberattack that aims to gain unauthorized access, damage, disrupt, or steal an information technology asset, computer network, intellectual property, or any other form of sensitive data. 

Cyber threats come from 

  • Hostile nation-states: it poses the highest risk because of their high ability to effectively hack the most difficult target with the amazing tools and technologies, they used to steal data like classified networks and critical infrastructures like electricity grids and gas control valves.
  • Terrorist groups: these groups are increasing day by day, they purloin the sensitive which is against the interest of the state or country. 
  • Corporate spies and organized crime organizations: mainly try to gain access to the most sensitive data which can be used for blackmailing, and helps them to earn money. They seem to be riskier due to their ability to conduct industrial espionage to steal trade secrets or large-scale monetary theft. 
  •  Hacktivists: Their main aim is to support any political agenda, political ideals and issues are their rudimentary objective, rather than any large enterprise. 
  •  Disgruntled insiders: this is the most common cyber threat, basically they are traitors, employees, or any workers with authorized access, dispense data with any third party or introduce malware in the system. 
  •  Hackers: Hackers are the cybercriminals who use technology to commit malicious activities on digital systems or networks to steal sensitive company information or personal data and generate profit.
  • Accidental actions of authorized users: sometimes the idiocy or sloppiness of the authorized user and laxity by the organization results in the data leak, rather than hackers or disgruntled insiders it takes place because of the recklessness of employees. 

Cyber threats are posed by cybercriminals via hacking, to purloin sensitive data and get unauthorized access. Mainly cyber threats come within the organization by assigned employees or from some unknown parties. 

 

TYPES OF CYBER  THREATS

The list of common types of cyber threats is so huge it would be difficult to make one, but here are some cyber threats that persist largely Malware, Phishing attacks, Spyware, Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, Ransomware, Zero-day exploits, Advanced persistent threats, Trojans, Wiper attacks, Intellectual property theft, Theft of money, Data manipulation, Data destruction, Man-in-the-middle attack (MITM attack), Malvertising, Drive-by downloads, Rogue software, DNS Tunneling, SQL injection, Unpatched software, Datacenter disrupted by natural disaster. 

53 percent of cyber-attacks resulted in damages of $500,000 or more.

 

5 MOST COMMON CYBER THREATS 

  • Malware: it is the most common cyber threat and encompasses many specific types of attacks such as ransomware, Exploit kit, spyware, Malicious websites and drive-by-downloads, Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack, Man-in-the-browser (MitB) attack, Social engineering and malware attacks, Malvertising, command and control, Trojan horses, and more. This attack inserts malicious software in the target device to gain unauthorized access to personal information and to damage the device or manipulate the information. It disrupts certain components and renders the system inoperable.  Malware attacks can occur on all sorts of devices and operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

 

  • Phishing: it is the most common cyber threat which is done to steals login credentials and credit card numbers. Phishing is often used to gain a foothold in corporate or governmental networks as a part of a larger attack, such as an advanced persistent threat (APT) event. During this attack, an email is received by the victim or target system and after clicking on that malicious mail, it instantly malware installed in the system and freezes the system, reveals all the data whether sensitive or not.

 

  • DNS Tunneling: It is a cyber threat that encodes data or DNS protocol to get in touch with non-DNS traffic over port 53, they are used to disguise outbound traffic Hackers can also control a domain and a server that can act as an authoritative server with the purpose to execute the server-side tunneling and data payload executable programs. DNS concealing data can be shared through the internet, to manipulate, control, or command the data, 

 

  • Denial-of-service attack: it disrupts the system and overflows the server or network with web traffic and takes a site offline by overwhelming a system, server, or network by the more anonymous amount of access requests than it can handle. For this attack, attackers use multiple compromised devices. It is an explicit attack to prevent legitimate use of a service. Generally, there are 2 types of dose attacks. First, the server crashed and flooded with the traffic, second is the most serious one & the consequences would be financial loss and consumer loss too. 

 

  • Ransomware: During this attack, the system gets locked and demands a ransom to get unbind, the ransom demanded from individuals varies greatly but is frequently $200–400 dollars and must be paid in virtual currency, such as Bitcoin.  the data that leaks depend on the type of ransomware, either the entire operating system or individual files are encrypted got stolen. There are several types of Ransomware like wanna cry Ransomware attack, Petya, locky, luck, bad rabbit, Teslacrypt, jigsaw, crypto locker, and many more. 

 

RECENT CYBER THREATS

 Here is the list of some cyber attacks of  2021 

  1. Channel Nine
  2. Harris Federation
  3. CNA Financial
  4. Florida Water System 
  5. Microsoft Exchange Mass Cyber Attack 
  6. Airplane Manufacturer Bombardier
  7. Computer Maker Acer
  8. University of the Highlands and Islands
  9. Sierra Wireless
  10. Accellion Supply Chain Attack

List of some biggest Cyberattacks

  1. Cloud Vulnerability
  2. AI Fuzzing
  3. AI-Enhanced Cyberthreats
  4. Machine Learning Poisoning 
  5. Smart Contract Hacking 
  6. Deepfake
  7. Social Engineering Attacks 

These attacks may result in a threat for the organization, it sows the seeds of fear amongst the large enterprises.

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