Types of Cyber Attacks

Cyber attacks are serious cyber security incidents that businesses and other organizations face. From phishing schemes to ransomware, cyber criminals are constantly changing their methods in order to steal your data or your money. A variety of different types of cyber attacks can be tailored to specific places or people. Some are designed to target large corporations, while others focus on government agencies and infrastructure systems. A cyber attack can disrupt entire networks or just a single computer system.

Understanding the different types of cyber attacks is important for organizations so they can implement proper security strategies and develop an incident response plan in case an attack does occur.

Cyber security involves protecting computers, networks, programs and data from unauthorized access or attacks that are aimed for exploitation. Cyber security is a critical component of information technology (IT) that is growing in demand as the reliance on IT increases throughout the world.

Below we discuss 5 common types of cyber attacks that businesses and organizations face.

Malware is an umbrella term that covers all sorts of malicious software. It’s used to refer to viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware and more. It can enter your network in many ways — by clicking on a malicious link in an email or downloading a contaminated file. Once in your network, it can compromise your files and give attackers access to your systems.

Phishing is an attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing attacks usually appear as emails from legitimate organizations or individuals that contain links directing them to harmful sites.

This type of attack involves a hacker intercepting communication between two parties by posing as each party and relaying messages to make them believe they are communicating directly with each other.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are designed to flood your network with traffic until it becomes unusable. These attacks often occur when attackers take over large numbers of compromised devices, or botnets, and instruct them to send a massive amount of queries to the target. The most common way for this to happen is through malware that turns a computer into a zombie device.

A SQL injection attack happens when an attacker inserts malicious code into a vulnerable database in order to run malicious queries on its database server.

Subscribe to SkyViewTek’s proactive IT support services and gain all of the benefits, including a partnership with us to create a collaborative cyber security plan designed to meet the needs of your business and the potential types of cyber attacks you could face. SkyViewTek is an IT management and cyber security firm that offers services to businesses in the Greater Philadelphia area and beyond. Our experienced, highly qualified professionals provide a wide range of IT services, such as managed services, computer and server maintenance, cyber security, and more. We also specialize in ensuring that your business is IT compliant with third party organizations, such as HIPAA and PCI. For more information, contact us today.