Common Types of Cybersecurity Attacks

If you've ever studied famous battles in history, you'll know that no two are exactly alike. Still, there are similar strategies and tactics often used in battle because they are time-proven to be effective.

Similarly, when a criminal is trying to hack an organization, they won't re-invent the wheel unless they absolutely have to: They'll draw upon common types of hacking techniques that are known to be highly effective, such as malware, phishing, or cross-site scripting (XSS). Whether you're trying to make sense of the latest data breach headline in the news or analyzing an incident in your own the organization, it helps to understand the different attack vectors a malicious actor might try to cause harm. Here’s an overview of some of the most common types of attacks seen nowadays.

Malware 

If you've ever seen an antivirus alert pop up on your screen, or if you've mistakenly clicked a malicious email attachment, then you've had a close call with malware. Attackers love to use malware to gain a foothold in users' computers—and, consequently, the offices they work in—because it can be so effective.

“Malware” refers to various forms of harmful software, such as viruses and ransomware. Once malware is in your computer, it can wreak all sorts of havoc, from taking control of your machine, to monitoring your actions and keystrokes, to silently sending all sorts of confidential data from your computer or network to the attacker's home base.

Attackers will use a variety of methods to get malware into your computer, but at some stage it often requires the user to take an action to install the malware. This can include clicking a link to download a file, or opening an attachment that may look harmless (like a Word document or PDF attachment), but actually has a malware installer hidden within. 

Phishing 

Of course, chances are you wouldn't just open a random attachment or click on a link in any email that comes your way—there has to be a compelling reason for you to take action. Attackers know this, too. When an attacker wants you to install malware or divulge sensitive information, they often turn to phishing tactics, or pretending to be someone or something else to get you to take an action you normally wouldn’t. Since they rely on human curiosity and impulses, phishing attacks can be difficult to stop. 

In a phishing attack, an attacker may send you an email that appears to be from someone you trust, like your boss or a company you do business with. The email will seem legitimate, and it will have some urgency to it (e.g. fraudulent activity has been detected on your account). In the email, there will be an attachment to open or a link to click. Upon opening the malicious attachment, you’ll thereby install malware in your computer. If you click the link, it may send you to a legitimate-looking website that asks for you to log in to access an important file—except the website is actually a trap used to capture your credentials when you try to log in.

In order to combat phishing attempts, understanding the importance of verifying email senders and attachments/links is essential. 

SQL Injection Attack 

SQL (pronounced “sequel”) stands for structured query language; it’s a programming language used to communicate with databases. Many of the servers that store critical data for websites and services use SQL to manage the data in their databases. A SQL injection attack specifically targets this kind of server, using malicious code to get the server to divulge information it normally wouldn’t. This is especially problematic if the server stores private customer information from the website, such as credit card numbers, usernames and passwords (credentials), or other personally identifiable information, which are tempting and lucrative targets for an attacker.

An SQL injection attack works by exploiting any one of the known SQL vulnerabilities that allow the SQL server to run malicious code. For example, if a SQL server is vulnerable to an injection attack, it may be possible for an attacker to go to a website's search box and type in code that would force the site's SQL server to dump all of its stored usernames and passwords for the site. For more about cybersecurity threat intelligence