Most Recent Cyber Attacks

To say it simply, a cyber attack is a malicious and deliberate attempt by an individual or an organization to breach information systems of another individual or an organization. Every business may be a target of cyberattacks to seek some benefit from disrupting the victim’s network. As former Cisco CEO John Chambers says,

“There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.”

Some of the most common types of cyber-attacks are malware, phishing, man-in-the-middle, DoS, SQL injection, zero-day exploits and DNS tunnelling.

Malware is malicious software including spyware, ransomware, viruses, and worms. Malware breaches typically occur when a user in the network clicks a dangerous or risky link that installs risky software. Malware is capable of blocking access to key components of the network, installs harmful software, obtain information, and makes the systems inoperable.

Are You Safe from Ransomware?

 

If you are in around the year 2020 and search the web for ‘fastest growing malware threat’, most probably you will get the first result on ‘ransomware’. This is a prominent threat since the 2000s and they have become sophisticated and growing over the years. Ransomware is a computer malware that encrypts and blocks access to computer files until a ransom is paid. It targets both human and technical weaknesses in an organization to make the systems vulnerable.

Paying the ransom will not guarantee that the encrypted files will be released. Phishing emails with malicious attachments or drive-by downloading (unintended download of computer software from the internet) are commonly used for ransomware attacks. Crypto ransomware is one of the recent forms of malware attacks which spread through social media with the use of social engineering techniques. For example, you may get an email with a password-protected zip file attachment allegedly from a friend or a reputed company. If you open the file, your computer will be infected and restrict access to files.

The top 5 ransomware variants which target companies and individuals are CryptoWall, CTBLocker, TeslaCrypt, MSIL/Sames, and Locky. CryptoWall was the first ransomware variant that only accepted ransom payments in Bitcoin. CryptoWall is primarily spread via spam email but also infects victims through drive-by downloads and malvertising. First ransomware variants to use Tor for its C2 infrastructure (Command-and-control servers are used by attackers to maintain communications with compromised systems within a target network).