CYBER SECURITY THREATS

Cybersecurity threats are acts performed by any person with harmful intent, whose goal is to steal data, cause damage or harm one’s reputation or honour or disrupt computing systems or theft of money from one’s bank account or stealing money by credit card transactions.  Cyber threats can originate from a variety of sources, from hostile nation states and terrorist groups, to individual hackers, to trusted individuals like employees or contractors, who abuse their privileges to perform malicious acts.

Following are some of the common threats which we should be aware of. If we are aware of the threats then only we shall be able to be prepared not to be a victim of their attack at the same time even if someone is cyber-attacked, the person will be able to get rid of it faster.

1. Social Engineering Attacks

Social engineering  involves tricking users into providing an entry point for malware. The victim provides sensitive information or unwittingly installs malware on their device, because the attacker poses as a legitimate actor.

Here are some of the main types of social engineering attacks:

• Baiting—the attacker lures a user into a social engineering trap, usually with a promise of something attractive like a free gift card. The victim provides sensitive information such as credentials to the attacker.
• Phishing - the attacker sends emails pretending to come from a trusted source. Phishing often involves sending fraudulent emails to as many users as possible, but can also be more targeted. For example, “spear phishing” personalizes the email to target a specific user, while “whaling” takes this a step further by targeting high-value individuals such as CEOs.
• Vishing (voice phishing)—the imposter uses the phone to trick the target into disclosing sensitive data or grant access to the target system. Vishing typically targets older individuals but can be employed against anyone.
• Smishing (SMS phishing)—the attacker uses text messages as the means of deceiving the victim.

According to reports 85% of all data breaches involve human interaction.

2. Hacking --individual hackers target organizations using a variety of attack techniques. They are usually motivated by personal gain, revenge, financial gain, or political activity. Hackers often develop new threats, to advance their criminal ability and improve their personal standing in the hacker community.