Top 10 Most Common Cyber Attacks

Cyberattacks can also be linked to cyberwarfare or cyberterrorism, such as malicious hackers, in addition to cybercrime. To put it another way, motives can differ. There are three basic kinds of these motivations: criminal, political, and personal.

Attackers with criminal intent aim to profit financially through data theft, money theft, or company interruption. Similarly to this, those who are personally motivated, like displeased current or former workers, will steal money, data, or even just the chance to interfere with a business's system. However, they mainly aim to exact revenge. Attackers with political motives try to draw attention to their issues. They consequently publicize their attacks, a practice known as cyberterrorism. Learn about the top 10 most common cyber attacks, which will be discussed in this article.

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What are Cyber Attacks? 

An assault carried out by cyber attackers utilizing one or more computers on computers or networks are known as a cyber attack. A cyber attack has the potential to steal data, deliberately disable machines, or utilize a compromised computer as a launching pad for more attacks. Malware, phishing, ransomware, and denial of service are just a few of the techniques used by cybercriminals to begin a cyberattack. A cybersecurity course can prepare you to implement effective methods to protect and discover vulnerabilities exploited by hackers.

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Top 10 Most Common Cyber Attacks

A Cyberattack is the breaching of systems and software to cause great harm and damage. Cybersecurity awareness will help you to stay on par with the latest developments in cyber threats. There are several forms of cyber attacks, let's see the top 10 common cyber attacks;

1. Malware

Unwanted software that has been installed on your computer against your will is known as malicious software. It can duplicate itself on the Internet, hide in helpful apps, and attach itself to genuine code to spread. Here are a few of the most typical malware varieties;

Trojans

A program that conceals itself within a helpful program and typically performs malevolent actions is known as a Trojan or Trojan horse. Trojans do not self-replicate, which is a key distinction between viruses and Trojans. A Trojan can create a backdoor that attackers can use in addition to attacking a system directly. For instance, a Trojan can be configured to open a port with a high number, allowing the hacker to utilize it to listen before launching an assault.

Worms

Worms are self-contained software that spread through networks and computers, unlike viruses, which connect to a host file. Email attachments are a typical way for worms to spread; opening the attachment launches the worm program. A classic worm exploit entails the worm sending copies of itself to each contact listed in the email address of a machine that has been infected. A worm that spreads throughout the internet and overwhelms email servers can conduct malicious operations as well as cause denial-of-service attacks against network nodes.

Ransomware

Malware known as ransomware prevents access to the victim's data and makes threats to either expose or erase it until a ransom is paid. However, more sophisticated malware employs a method known as cryptoviral extortion that encrypts the user’s data in a technique that renders them nearly impossible to retrieve without the decoding key. Although some simple computer ransomware could hold the system in a manner that is not difficult for an informed person to counteract, more enhanced malware uses this method.

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2. Password attack

Obtaining passwords is a widespread and efficient attack strategy since passwords serve as the most popular method of user authentication for information systems. By peering under a person's desk, sniffing the network connection to get unencrypted passwords, employing social engineering, connecting to a password database, or just guessing, one can discover a person's password. The last strategy can be applied either randomly or methodically:

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3. Eavesdropping attack

Attacks to eavesdrop take place by intercepting network traffic. Passwords, credit card numbers, and other private information that a user may be communicating over the network can be obtained by an attacker through eavesdropping. Eavesdropping may be done actively or passively:

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4. Phishing

Sending emails that look like they are from reliable sources in an effort to get users' personal information or persuade them to do an action is known as a phishing attempt. It combines deception on the technological and social levels. It can entail downloading malware onto your machine through an email attachment. You might be tricked into installing malware or providing your personal information by clicking on a link to a dubious website.

5. Man-in-the-Middle

When a hacker interjects themselves into a client's or server's communications, it results in a MitM attack. Common types of MitM are; Session hijacking, Replay, and  IP spoofing. 

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6. Drive-by attack

Drive-by installation attacks are a frequent way for malware to spread. Insecure websites are targeted by hackers, who insert a harmful script into the PHP or HTTP code on some of the pages. Visitors to the website could either be sent to a site run by hackers or have malware installed directly onto their computers by this script. Drive-by downloads can occur when a user views a pop-up window, an email, or a website. A drive-by cyber security assault is different from many others in that it doesn't require the user to take any action to actively allow it; for example, you don't need to click a malicious link or open an email attachment to get infected. 

7. Birthday attack

The integrity of a message, piece of software or digital signature is checked using hash algorithms. Birthday attacks are made against these hash algorithms. When a message is analyzed by a hash function, a message digest (MD) is generated that is a fixed length and independent  of the length of the original message. This MD uniquely identifies the message. The birthday attack is a term used to describe the likelihood of discovering two messages that produce the same MD after being analyzed by a hash function. The attacker can simply replace the user's message with his own if he calculates the same MD for it as the user has, and the recipient won't be able to tell the difference even if he analyzes MDs.

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8. SQL Injection attack

Database-driven websites now frequently experience SQL injection problems. When a malicious party uses the supplied information provided by the  client to the server to perform a SQL query to the database, it happens. To execute predefined SQL commands, predefined SQL commands are introduced into data entry (for example, in place of the password or login). An effective SQL injection hack can obtain sensitive data from the database, edit database data, run administration activities on the database, retrieve the information of a provided file, and, in some situations, give orders to the operating system.

9. DoS and DDoS attacks

The resources of a system are overloaded during a denial-of-service attack, making it unable to react to service requests. A DDoS attack targets a system's resources as well, but it does so from a huge number of additional host computers that have been infected with malicious software that is under the attacker's control.

Denial-of-service attacks, in contrast to those intended to provide the attacker more access, don't directly benefit the attacker. The pleasure of service denial is sufficient for some of them. The gain to the attacker, however, can be sufficient if the resource is owned by a rival company. A DoS attack may also be used to knock a system down so that another assault can be started.

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10. Cross-site scripting (XSS) attack

XSS attacks leverage third-party online resources to launch scripts in the scriptable application or web browser of the victim. The attacker specifically inserts a payload containing javascript into a website's database. The website sends the victim's browser the malicious script-containing page when the user asks for a page from the site, which includes the attacker's payload as a component of the HTML body.

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Conclusion 

Understanding the attack is necessary for mounting a successful defence. The 10 most prevalent cyber-security attacks used by hackers to disrupt and corrupt information systems have been examined in this article. 

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Locations Where Edoxi Offers Cyber Security Certification Courses

Here is the list of other major locations where Edoxi offers Cyber Security Training