A cyber attack is any sort of illegal action, targeting computer information systems, infrastructures, computer networks or personal computer devices, using different methods to steal, modify or disrupt data or information systems.
In this topic, we are going to describe the most common cyber attacks that It professionals often face.
Denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks
What is Dos? A Denial of service is the cyberattack that floods the system valuable resource so that the server can’t request. Also, a Dos attack is launched from a massive number of host machines, controlled by the attacker via malicious software.
Moreover, an attacker can gain access to the targeted computer. Another purpose of a DoS attack may be to take a system offline in order to launch another type of attack.
There are various kinds of DoS and DDoS attacks; TCP SYN flood attack, teardrop attack, smurf attack, ping-of-death attack, and botnets are the most common.
Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack
A MitM cyber attack occurs when a hacker integrates between client and server communications. Some of the most common types of cyber-attack using man-in-the-middle attacks are listed below:
Session hijacking
An attacker disqualifies a session in this type of attack between a trusted client and a network server. Moreover, The attacking computer substitutes its IP address with the trusted client while the server holds the session, meaning it communicates with the client. For instance:
- The client connects to a server
- The client is controlled by the attacker’s computer.
- The attacker’s computer will disconnect the client from the server.
- The computer of the attacker replaces the IP address of the client with its own IP address, and spoof the sequence numbers of the client.
- The machine of the attacker continues dialog with the server, and the server thinks it still interacts with the client.
IP Spoofing
The attacker uses IP spoofing to persuade a device that it is interacting with a known, trusted entity and to provide access to the system for the attacker. Further, Instead of sending an IP source address to a target host, the attacker sends the packet with a known confident host IP source address. The target host may accept and act upon the packet.
Also, See Black Friday Vs. Cyber Monday What’s the Difference Anyway
Phishing and spear-phishing attacks
The phishing attack is the activity of sending emails from trusted sources with the intention of obtaining personal information or pressuring users to do something. In addition, it includes social engineering and technical trickery.
It could include an email attachment, that loads viruses onto your computer. It could also be a link to an unauthorized website that can manipulate you into downloading malware or passing on your personal data.
Spear phishing is a sort of very targeted cyberattack, phishing operation. Attackers take the time to research goals and create unique and appropriate communications. Due to Spear phishing, it is very difficult to identify and even more difficult to defend. Also, email spoofing is one of the simplest ways that a hacker can carry out a spoofing operation.
Don’t get Phished instead you can use these appropriate technique
1. Critical Thinking
Don’t accept the unwanted email, stop for a while and analyze it for a minute.
2. Hover over the link
Move your mouse over the link, but don’t press! Just let your mouse cursor hover the link to see where you’re going to get. To decode the URL, apply critical thought.
3. Analyzing email headers
Mail headers identify the way an mail has reached your address. The parameters “Reply-to” and “Return-Path” will lead to the same domain as indicated in the email.
4. Sandboxing
In a sandbox environment, you can check email content, log activity from opening the attachment or click the links inside the email.
Drive-by attack
Drive-by-download attacks are the common way of cyber-attacking where malware is distributed. Hackers are searching for vulnerable websites and are planting a malicious script on one of the pages into HTTP or PHP code. This script could install malware directly on a visitor’s computer.
Drive attacks can occur while visiting a pop-up window or website. In addition, if you click the pop-up window, a malicious file will infect your system. In order to maintain security, we have to keep the browsers and operating systems up to date. Keep in touch with the sites you usually use — but note that even these sites may be hijacked.
Hint: The more plug-ins you have, the more vulnerabilities drive attacks can exploit.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) attack
XSS cyber attacks use Web resources from third parties to run scripts in the victim’s web browser or scriptable program. In fact, the attacker injects a payload into a website database with malicious JavaScript.
When the victim requests a URL, the website transmits the link to the victim’s browser that runs the malicious script, with the payload of the intruder as part of the HTML body. These vulnerabilities allow an attacker not just to steal cookies, but also to log keystrokes, capture screenshots, discover and gather network information, and access and monitor the victim’s computer remotely.
For more updates connect with wikye.com
