What are the most common types of Cyber Attacks?

Cyber attacks are becoming more and more common. As technology evolves, hackers evolve and so must our cyber security. With the average cost of a cyber attack a staggering £297,710 most companies simply cannot afford to get burnt by an attacker.

So, how do they happen?

DOS & DDOS

Denial of service attacks & distributed denial of service attacks are the most common form of cyber attack. In simple terms, attackers flood the victim’s servers with that many attacks that the server simply can’t handle it. Although this wont result in a loss of data, it would result in a loss of revenue. If your website is down for a day would you lose revenue/leads? If you don’t have access to your internal systems for a day would you be able to do your job? These are questions that companies must think about, putting off cyber security measures can result in a hugely negative impact to the business.

Phishing

Now to the data targetting… A simple email could have a lasting impact on your business. We don’t just say that, we see it. Imagine your accounts department falling victim to a phishing attack. The attacker would have access to everything the accounts department has access to and maybe more. Could your business afford to have that kind of data stolen? What if a fake purchase order was created and signed off. Would you realise what has happened before its too late?

Find out more about Phishing and how DigitalXRAID can help you prevent being a victim.

SQL Injection

Most, if not all, websites are linked to a database. Where data is collected, stored and utilised by a business. Somewhere you collect your customers details, potentially private and confidential data. If there is any type of input field on your website it could be vulnerable to SQL injection. Attackers look for these vulnerabilities as they could potentially download all the data stored in the database or even delete it. If you haven’t ever had a web application penetration test, we would recommend doing so. This will help you understand where your organisation needs to improve its cyber security and will give you the peace of mind that your business is safe.

Find out more about Web Application Penetration Testing and how DigitalXRAID can help.

Eavesdropping

Exactly as it sounds. Attackers would look to listen into network traffic and hope to find valuable information. That could be credit card details, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers. All the information that you wouldn’t want to be shared with an attacker would be. Now think about all that information being passed through your network, are you sure it’s encrypted? Is the encryption strong enough? To prevent attacks such as these and stop a hacker, you have to think like a hacker. Penetration Testers are often referred to as ethical hackers because they have to do exactly what a hacker does… but without the repercussions to your business.

Conclusion

A lot of organisations think attacks won’t happen to them. Often because they think that they are not big enough or that they are secure enough. An attackers mindset isn’t just to target a big organisation, and they won’t stop because they have to go over a few hurdles to get to your data. They are often people with a lot of time, and they just look at what they can get out of it. A small organisation could be easy pickings. A large “secure” organisation could have a bigger payday. Every organisation is at risk, are you doing everything you can to mitigate that risk?

If you would like to know how we can help you protect your business, your data and your reputation get in touch with us today.