Imagine waking up one morning to find that an anonymous hacker has stolen your personal data. Your bank accounts have been emptied, your health data exposed and your private communications published.
If you can imagine that, you can imagine falling victim to a cyberattack.
Simply put, a cyber attack is an attempt to damage, alter, or deactivate a computer or network by accessing it illegally from a remote location. Targets are extremely varied and include small businesses and large enterprises, government organizations and even individuals.
In today’s hyper-connected world, cyber attacks have become commonplace. Yet these attacks, from phishing to ransomware, can still have devastating consequences for people and organizations.
How do Cyber Attacks Happen?
Cyber criminals are continuously evolving their strategies, from phishing fraud to ransomware attacks. This makes effective risk management more important than ever. But how do cyber attacks happen?
Threats can be divided into three categories, based on the attackers’ motivation: financial gain, disruption or espionage. A robust cybersecurity program has to cover all of these and all potential vulnerabilities, including software bugs, network faults and human behavior. An important element of such a program is a disaster recovery plan to facilitate a quick recovery after an attack.
Attacks can be highly visible (like DDoS, which can shut down a website by flooding it with traffic) or clandestine (like malware hidden in an apparently legitimate download or attachment). Defensive measures such as staff training, network management and up-to-date software can help to reduce the likelihood of a successful cyber attack.
What are the objectives of cyber attacks?
Attackers usually want to either deactivate the target system and take it offline or gain access to the data on the system and infiltrate the networks and/or other systems it is connected to. The sophistication of cyber attacks varies widely, from opportunistic to highly targeted attacks. They can start in many different ways, for example with a denial of service, malware, phishing and ransomware attack.
Types of cyber attacks (internal vs. external)
Malware, malvertising, phishing, DDoS attacks and ransomware are just a few examples of the different technology and tactics employed by hackers to gain access to your website, software or network.
Cyber criminals use a wide variety of strategies and methods to gain illegal access to systems, data and networks where they hope to steal valuable data. Some of the most common forms of cyber attacks are:
Malware: Malware is malicious software designed to harm computers, networks and servers. There are many types of malware, such as trojan horses and viruses, but all of them multiply and spread across systems and networks. This enables hackers to penetrate deeper into the target network to steal data, damage devices, cripple networks or bring systems under their control.
Ransomware: Ransomware infiltrates computer networks and uses public key encryption to encrypt files. Unlike other viruses, the key used for this encryption remains on the server of the cyber criminal. They will then demand a ransom to provide this private key. Encryption is thus used as a weapon and the victim’s data as a kind of “hostage”.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks: DDoS attacks make online services unavailable by flooding them with data traffic from different locations and sources. This slows down the reaction time of the website and may prevent legitimate users from accessing it.
Spam and phishing: In a phishing attack, victims are tricked into downloading malware or entering personal data on fake websites. This kind of cyber attack is often executed via email, with attackers creating messages that appear to originate from a trustworthy source and to be legitimate.
Corporate Account Takeover (CATO): If a criminal gains electronic access to your organization’s bank account and carries out illegal activities, this is referred to as corporate account takeover. One commonly used way of gaining this electronic access is to acquire login credentials of members of your staff who are authorized to carry out electronic transactions using your corporate account (transfers, automated clearing house, etc.)
What are malware and ransomware programs?
Malware attacks can crack weak passwords, penetrate deeply into systems, spread across networks and disrupt the normal operation of an organization or enterprise. Malware can also lock important files, spam you with advertising, slow down your computer or re-route you to malicious websites.
Most cyber attacks, especially massive data breaches that lead to large-scale identity theft and fraud, are perpetrated using malware. It’s also responsible for ransomware attacks that cause millions of dollars of damage. Malware attacks can be targeted at individuals, enterprises and even governments.
Ransomware attacks have become all too common in recent years. Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that threatens to publish data or restrict access to a computer system unless and until the victim pays a ransom to the attacker. In many cases, the ransom demand comes with a deadline. If the victim does not pay up on time, the data will be irretrievably lost or the demand will be increased.
Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) is a business model that enables even inexperienced hackers to extort money online. They can rent ransomware from a third party, who will take a cut of any ransoms received. This allows anybody to take part in blackmail, regardless of technical ability or previous criminal experience. Learn more about prevention and de-escalation measures in our article about ransomware.
What are the Consequences of a Cyber Attack?
Nobody likes the idea of being hacked. Yet the number of cyber attacks happening every day is astonishing and this means that the likelihood of being attacked is rising. Fortunately there is help and the importance of leveraging attack prevention techniques is growing.
At the same time, the digitalization of the business world is accelerating, increasing the criticality of protecting valuable data and systems against cyber attacks. But how can enterprises prepare to protect themselves against constantly evolving attack tactics? There is no one-size-fits-all solution to protect yourself against all cyber attacks. Instead, we recommend a comprehensive approach comprising technology tools, staff training and continuous risk assessments.
Some of the most effective protection methods are multi-factor authentication, regular software updates and real-time network monitoring. But even with such measures no system is completely secure.
Cooperation with external security partners and a culture of “cyber hygiene” among employees can strengthen your defenses. In the end, enterprises have to be proactive, adaptable and vigilant regarding cyber security, as the threat landscape is constantly evolving.
Technological progress usually means that new or improved methods will be used in cyber attacks. The future of cyber criminality is unpredictable, but preparation and prevention are key.
For private individuals and small companies, defense mechanisms like using secure passwords, regularly updating antivirus software and paying attention to current phishing ploys play an important role.
Larger companies and government organizations often have dedicated IT teams and more advanced cyber security measures, but they can also fall victim to cyber attacks. In today’s technology-dependent world, everyone needs to know about cyber attacks and take appropriate steps to protect against them.
What Rubrik can offer
Rubrik Cyber Recovery is a comprehensive solution designed to protect enterprises against cyber attacks. It not only generates backups but also ensures the fast recovery of systems and data in the event of an attack. In addition, Rubrik can provide comprehensive systems and network monitoring, which can help to detect potential attacks early and prevent them. The solution also helps enterprises to meet compliance requirements and facilitates a seamless integration into existing IT infrastructures.