Types of Cyber Attacks

In this article, we will learn about various types of cyber attacks. Security has always been a concern. It is crucial to protect our data from unauthorized and malicious hackers. The importance to cyber security is increasing day by day. Cybersecurity is important because it encompasses everything that pertains to protecting our sensitive data, personally identifiable information (PII), personal information, intellectual property, data, and governmental and industry information systems from theft and damage attempted by criminals.

There are a plethora of ways in which cyber attacks happen and these attackers are continuously devising new methodologies to perform attacks. Hence, it is necessary to keep security up-to-date.

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Now, let us explore the types of cyber threats

1. Malware

Malware is a general term used to describe the attacks performed due to the injection of malicious programs into the computer system such as Virus, Worms, Trojan horse, Spyware, Adware.

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A computer virus is a type of computer program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. When this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with a computer virus.

A computer worm is a malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. It usually uses a network to spread itself. It will use the target machine as a host to scan and infect other computers.

A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is a type of malicious code or software that looks legitimate but can take control of your computer. A Trojan is designed to damage, disrupt, steal, or in general inflict some other harmful action on your data or network.

Spyware describes software with malicious behavior that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send such information to another entity in a way that harms the user. In other words, it is a software that is installed on a computing device without the end user's knowledge. It invades the device, steals sensitive information and internet usage data, and relays it to advertisers, data firms or external users.

Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue for its developer by automatically generating online advertisements in the user interface of the software. In other words, it is a form of malware that hides on your device and serves you advertisements. Some adware also monitors your behavior online so it can target you with specific ads.

2 .Phishing

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Phishing is a cybercrime in which a target or targets are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as usernames, passwords and credit card details.

3 . Password Attacks

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A password attack is exactly what it sounds like: a third party trying to gain access to a system by cracking a user's password. In a brute force attack, a hacker uses a computer program to login to a user's account with all possible password combinations. Moreover, brute force accounts don't start at random; instead, they start with the easiest-to-guess passwords.

4 . DDoS Attacks

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DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service attack. It is an attack meant to shutdown a machine or a network, making it inaccessible to its intended users by flooding the target with traffic, or sending it information that triggers a crash.

5 . Man In The Middle attack

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MITM attack is a cyberattack where the attacker secretly relays and possibly alters the communications between two parties who believe that they are directly communicating with each other. One example of a MITM attack is active eavesdropping, in which the attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages between them to make them believe they are talking directly to each other over a private connection, when in fact the entire conversation is controlled by the attacker.

6 . Drive by download

A drive-by download refers to the unintentional download of a virus or malicious software (malware) onto your computer or mobile device. A drive-by download will usually take advantage of a browser, app, or operating system that is out of date and has a security flaw. In other words, downloads which a person has authorized but without understanding the consequences.

7 . Malvertising

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Malvertising is the use of online advertising to spread malware. It typically involves injecting malicious advertisements into legitimate online advertising networks and webpages.

8 . Rogue Software

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Rogue security software is a form of malicious software and internet fraud that misleads users into believing there is a virus on their computer and aims to convince them to pay for a fake malware removal tool that actually installs malware on their computer.

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