Cyber Security Threats and Attacks

Cyber Security Threats and Attacks: All You Demand to Know

Corporate Espionage, Business Disruption, or Financial Gain. Whatever the motivation, cybersecurity threats have become pervasive and continue to upend every facet of the digital realm.

According to Verizon's 2020 Data Breach Investigations Study (DBIR), 86% of cybersecurity breaches were financially motivated, and 10% were motivated past espionage.

Beyond causing severe financial damage, cyberattacks can lead to regulatory penalties, lawsuits, reputational harm, and business organization continuity disruptions.

No business organisation and Information technology organization are safe in the present cyber world. As cybercriminals increasingly rely on sophisticated technologies, organizations often feel hopeless as their confidential data and critical avails fall prey to malicious attacks.

Moreover, the rapid adoption of emerging technologies, including AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing, have added new cyber threats for organizations while adding complexity to existing risks.

What is a Threat in Cybersecurity?

A cybersecurity threat is a malicious and deliberate attack past an individual or organization to gain unauthorized access to another individual's or organization's network to damage, disrupt, or steal IT assets, computer networks, intellectual belongings, or any other course of sensitive data.

Types of Cybersecurity Threats

While the types of cyber threats continue to grow, at that place are some of the virtually common and prevalent cyberthreats that nowadays-24-hour interval organizations need to know. Superlative 10 cyber security threats are as follow:

Types of Cybersecurity Threats

one) Malware

Malware attacks are the most common cyber security threats. Malware is defined as malicious software, including spyware, ransomware, viruses, and worms, which gets installed into the system when the user clicks a dangerous link or email. In one case within the system, malware tin block access to critical components of the network, damage the system, and gather confidential data, among others.

According to Accenture, the average cost of a malware assail is USD two.six million.

2) Phishing

Cybercriminals send malicious emails that seem to come from legitimate resources. The user is then tricked into clicking the malicious link in the e-mail, leading to malware installation or disclosure of sensitive data similar credit card details and login credentials.

Phishing attack accounts for over 80% of reported cyber incidents.

3) Spear Phishing

Spear phishing is a more sophisticated course of a phishing attack in which cybercriminals target merely privileged users such as system administrators and C-suite executives.

More than 71% of targeted attacks involve the use of spear phishing.

iv) Man in the Middle Assail

Human being in the Middle (MitM) attack occurs when cyber criminals identify themselves between a two-political party communication. Once the attacker interprets the advice, they may filter and steal sensitive data and render different responses to the user.

According to Netcraft, 95% of HTTPS servers are vulnerable to MitM.

5) Deprival of Service Assail

Denial of Service attacks aims at flooding systems, networks, or servers with massive traffic, thereby making the system unable to fulfill legitimate requests. Attacks can also employ several infected devices to launch an attack on the target system. This is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assault.

The year 2019 saw a staggering eight.4 million DDoS attacks.

6) SQL Injection

A Structured Query Language (SQL) injection attack occurs when cybercriminals effort to access the database past uploading malicious SQL scripts. Once successful, the malicious actor can view, modify, or delete information stored in the SQL database.

SQL injection accounts for nearly 65.1% of all spider web awarding attacks.

7) Zero-day Exploit

A cipher-day attack occurs when software or hardware vulnerability is announced, and the cybercriminals exploit the vulnerability before a patch or solution is implemented.

It is predicted that naught-day attacks volition rise to one per day past 2021.

eight) Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)

An avant-garde persistent threat occurs when a malicious actor gains unauthorized access to a system or network and remains undetected for an extended time.

45% of organizations feel that they are probable to exist the target of an APT.

9) Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware attack in which the attacker locks or encrypts the victim's data and threatens to publish or blocks access to data unless a ransom is paid. Learning more most ransomware threats can help companies prevent and cope with them improve.

Ransomware attacks are estimated to price global organizations USD 20 billion by 2021.

10) DNS Attack

A DNS assail is a cyberattack in which cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in the Domain Proper name Arrangement (DNS). The attackers leverage the DNS vulnerabilities to divert site visitors to malicious pages (DNS Hijacking) and remove data from compromised systems (DNS Tunneling).

The average cost of a DNS attack stood at USD 924,000 in 2020.

Cyber Threat Actors

In social club to respond effectively to a cyberattack, it'due south imperative to know the threat actors and understand their tactics, techniques, and procedures.

Cyber threat actors

Hither are some of the mutual sources of cyber threats:

1) Nation States

Cyber attacks by a nation tin inflict detrimental affect by disrupting communications, armed forces activities and everyday life.

2) Criminal Groups

Criminal groups aim to infiltrate systems or networks for financial proceeds. These groups utilise phishing, spam, spyware, and malware to acquit identity theft, online fraud, and system extortion.

3) Hackers

Hackers explore various cyber techniques to breach defenses and exploit vulnerabilities in a figurer arrangement or network. They are motivated by personal gain, revenge, stalking, financial proceeds, and political activism. Hackers develop new types of threats for the thrill of challenge or bragging rights in the hacker community.

4) Terrorist Groups

Terrorists conduct cyber attacks to destroy, infiltrate, or exploit critical infrastructure to threaten national security, compromise military equipment, disrupt the economy, and cause mass casualties.

5) Hacktivists

Hacktivists comport out cyberattacks in back up of political causes rather than financial gain. They target industries, organizations, or individuals who don't align with their political ideas and agenda.

vi) Malicious Insiders

97% of surveyed Information technology leaders expressed concerns virtually insider threats in cyber security. Insiders tin can include employees, third-party vendors, contractors, or other business associates who have legitimate admission to enterprise avails simply misuse that accesses to steal or destroy data for fiscal or personal gain.

7) Corporate Spies

Corporate spies bear industrial or business espionage to either brand a profit or disrupt a competitor's business past attacking critical infrastructure, stealing trade secrets, and gaining admission.

Meridian Cyber Threat Facts, Figures, and Statistics

Cyber threats continue to evolve, causing trillions worth of losses to the cyber world. Here are some alarming facts, figures, and statistics on the latest cybersecurity threats:

  • The global average cost of a data breach is USD three.92 million
  • Estimated annual losses through cyberattacks to reach USD 6 Trillion by 2021
  • Cybercrime breaches to increase by 76% by 2024
  • Over 50% of all global information breaches to occur in the United States by 2023
  • The average cost of a data breach to a US company is USD 7.91 million
  • The average number of days to identify an incident in 2019 was 206 days
  • 2 billion records were exposed due to data breaches in the beginning half of 2019
  • A business will autumn victim to a ransomware attack every xi seconds in 2021
  • Cyberattacks on IoT devices increased by 300% in 2019
  • Cyberthreat complaints increased past 400% in the Usa amid the coronavirus pandemic

Emerging Cyber Threats in 2021 and Beyond

The coronavirus pandemic emerged equally the biggest claiming for businesses and IT organizations in 2020. Amid the pandemic, the cyber threats and information breaches have grown in sophistication and book, with the number of breaches increasing 273% in the offset quarter, compared to 2019. According to Microsoft, the pandemic-related phishing and social engineering attacks accept skyrocketed to 30,000 per twenty-four hour period in the United states solitary.

What should nosotros await in 2021?

Here are some of the emerging cybersecurity threats that will dominate the cybersecurity mural in 2021 and beyond:

1) Pandemic-related Attacks

The cybercriminals will continue to leverage the coronavirus pandemic and related topics as themes for their phishing and social engineering campaigns. Their attacks often coincide with significant events, such as a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases or the announcement of a new vaccine. The threat actors lure users into clicking a malicious link or attachment disguised as legitimate COVID-19 related topics.

2) Ransomware Attacks

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, businesses will autumn victim to a ransomware attack every 11 seconds in 2021, downward from every 14 seconds in 2019. The estimated cost of ransomware, including the cost to restore and mitigate following an attack, will cantankerous USD 20 billion in 2021.

3) Deject Breaches

Equally more companies migrate to the cloud to facilitate remote working and ensure business continuity, cybercriminals are post-obit the same trend and targeting the cloud more oft. Cloud-based security risks, including cloud misconfigurations, incomplete data deletion, and vulnerable cloud-apps, will be the common sources of cyberattacks.

4) Mobile Security Threats

In a bid to ensure business continuity amid the pandemic, well-nigh all businesses initiated work from home facility. Employees working remotely use devices such as smartphones and tablets that are not properly secured, patched, and managed by the Information technology security department. Unfortunately, they bring some unique It security threats and vulnerabilities, putting the organization at the risk of cyber assault.

five) IoT Attacks

Global organizations are increasingly deploying IoT devices and applications to accelerate operations, capture more data, remotely manage infrastructure, ameliorate customer service, and more than.

IoT device predictions

However, many IoT devices often lack robust security features, putting them at risk of cyberattack. Cybercriminals can leverage the IoT vulnerabilities to proceeds control of devices for use in botnets and penetrate the network.

Also Read: Cyber Attacks and Information Breaches in 2020

Equally cybercriminals proceed to adopt new technologies and assail strategies, organizations must adapt their approach to cybersecurity. Below are some cybersecurity best practices that help your organisation prepare confronting cyber threats and ensure business continuity:

Cybersecurity All-time Practices to Protect from Cyber Threats

Cybersecurity Best Practices to Protect from Cyber Threats

1) Create an Insider Threat Program

Creating an insider threat plan is imperative for organizations to preclude employees from misusing their access privileges to steal or destroy corporate information. The IT security team should not delay and gain the approving of top management to deploy policies across departments.

2) Train employees

Employees are the first line of defense confronting cyberthreats for every system. Thus, organizations must conduct comprehensive cybersecurity awareness programs to train employees on recognizing and responding to cyber threats. This dramatically improves an organization's security posture and cyber resilience.

3) Maintain Compliance

Irrespective of the level of cybersecurity an organization implements, information technology must always maintain compliance with data regulations that apply to their manufacture and geographical location. The organization must stay informed with the evolving compliance regulations to leverage its benefits.

4) Build a Cyber Incident Response Plan

In the nowadays digital era, no arrangement is exempt from cyberattacks. Thus, organizations of all sizes must build an effective Cyber Security Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) to navigate cyber adversaries. Information technology enables businesses to gear up for the inevitable, respond to emerging threats, and recover quickly from an attack.

v) Regularly Update Systems and Software

As cyber threats are evolving apace, your optimized security network can become outdated within no fourth dimension, putting your arrangement at the risk of cyberattack. Therefore, regularly update the security network and the associated systems and software.

vi) Backup Information

Bankroll up data regularly helps reduce the risk of data breaches. Backup your website, applications, databases, emails, attachments, files, calendars, and more on an ongoing and consistent basis.

7) Initiate Phishing Simulations

Organizations must conduct phishing simulations to educate employees on how to avoid clicking malicious links or downloading attachments. It helps employees understand the far-reaching furnishings of a phishing attack on an organization.

8) Secure Site with HTTPS

Organizations must encrypt and secure their website with an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. HTTPS protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user and the website.

In Conclusion:

Index finger pointing to a lock symbolizing threats to cyber security

As reliance on digital technologies continues to increase, cyber attacks have get too sophisticated. Thus, organizations that rely on outmoded cybersecurity strategies leave themselves vulnerable to a potential cyberattack.

To prevent these threats, organizations must refine their cybersecurity program. An effective cybersecurity program can help organizations disrupt attacks as they occur, reduce recovery fourth dimension, and contain time to come threats.

No matter what the level of your cybersecurity maturity, StealthLabs can aid you fortify your security stance. With a flexible, applied, and proactive approach to cybersecurity, we can help you navigate the constantly evolving threat landscape.

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