20 Types Of Cyber Attacks To Aware Of In 2021

Introduction

The current internet age is witnessing the enormous development of technology and digital advancements. However, this constant growth has led to a lot of negative repercussions as well.

Cyber attacks are one of these repercussions. There are numerous types of cyber attacks in Cyberspace. Several types of cyber attacks took place since 2018, and many of them have led to severe consequences.

Here are the most significant ways by which different types of cyber attacks take place. Read on to find out about different kinds of Cyberattacks and how to prevent them.

In this article, let us look at:

1. What is a Cyber Attack?
2. What are the Types of Cyber Attacks?
3. 20+ Types of Cyber Attacks you should be aware of in 2021

1) WHAT IS A CYBER ATTACK?

A cyber attack is an intentional act conducted by one or more cybercriminals to steal data, fabricate information, or disable digital systems. To deal with these multiple types of cyber attacks, organizations require Cyber Security experts and specialists.

Through cyber security attacks, cybercriminals get illegal and unauthorized access to one or more computers that they use according to their benefits. There are various types of cyber attacks that affect individuals across the globe. So, what are the most common types of cyber attacks that are prevalent today? You’d be surprised to know that there is a long list to go through.

2) WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF CYBER ATTACKS?

Different studies have shown various types of cyber attacks in Cybersecurity. Let’s take a look and understand these types of cyber attacks in details.

3) 20 TYPES OF CYBER ATTACKS TO BE AWARE OF IN 2021

1. Phishing Attacks:

Phishing attacks are one of the most common types of cyber attacks. Using these attacks, attackers try to obtain personal information or data, like username, password, and credit card details, by disguising themselves as trustworthy entities. Phishing is mainly conducted through electronic media, like emails and telephone calls.

2. Spear Phishing Attacks:

Spear phishing refers to any fraudulent activity conducted through email or phone call to gain unauthorized access to an individual’s confidential information. It has become one of the most common types of cyber attacks these days.

3. Whale Phishing Attacks:

One of the many types of hacking attacks, Whale Phishing aims to access sensitive and confidential information of powerful personalities (e.g. CEO, Head executive of any company). It is a significant type in the list of types of cyber attacks.

4. Drive-by Attacks:

Out of the various types of cyber attacks, drive-by attacks are quite prevalent. In these types of attacks in Cyber Security, hackers insert malicious scripts into multiple websites and end up getting access to all the confidential documents of the users who visit those websites. Through these malicious scripts, the whole system gets corrupted, and all the information gets accessed by the hacker.

5. Ransomware:

Among the types of cyber attacks, ransomware stands as one of the riskiest ones as highly critical information can be at stake. In a ransomware attack, the victim is forced to delete all necessary information from their system if they fail to pay a ransom within the timeline given by cybercriminals. It is also one of the major types of cyber attacks in Healthcare and Defense alongside other sectors. However, there is no guarantee as to whether paying the ransom would secure their documents or not.

6. Password Attack:

In these types of attacks in Cyber Security, the attackers attempt to hack different accounts of the victims by hacking their profiles and their passwords which gives them illegal access to all the information of the victim that is eventually used by the attackers as per their benefits.

7. Eavesdropping Attacks:

An eavesdropping attack is a network security attack conducted by Cybercriminals from time to time to gain unauthorized access to the files they need. Cell phones, computers, and laptops are first hacked and then used by the attackers to fabricate information according to their wishes. It is vital to know the answer to – How many types of cyber attacks are there to learn about?

8. Malware Attacks:

In a malware attack, the attackers create a code called malware, to hack digital devices, including laptops, computers, and mobiles to gain unauthorized access.

9. Trojan Horses:

A Trojan is a malware software program that aims at hacking the digital devices by appearing as a useful software to the victims.

It is one of the most dangerous types of cyber attacks. It helps attackers get financial details alongside all other confidential information of the victims.

10. Man-in-the-Middle Attacks:

A MitM attack takes place when the attacker inserts himself in between the client and the owner to misinform the client and get unauthorized access to their digital systems.

11. Denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks:

A DDoS attack is one of the common types of cyber attacks that aims at overwhelming a system in such a way that it fails to respond to its customers, due to which they end up losing a massive number of customers in no-time.

12. URL interpretation:

In these types of cyber attacks, the hackers change and fabricate specific URL addresses through which they gain unauthorized access to the victim’s professional and personal data.

13. DNS Tunneling:

It is one of the most dangerous types of cyber attacks. Hackers begin with hacking the digital systems first and then move on to data collection followed by an act of fabrication of information of the victims. It can take a long time and can go on for an extended period. It can also eventually damage the digital system of the victim forever due to the inserted bot and virus.

14. Session hijacking:

It is one of the most dangerous types of attacks in Cyber Security. These types of active attacks take place when the attacker makes a security attack on the victim’s session over and over again from a protected network. It is a dangerous method that enables the attacker to steal all the information and data of the victim by the end of the process.

15. Brute force:

It is a method of randomly trying out different passkeys or passwords for unlocking the victim’s system. It is one of the main types of cyber attacks and is conducted by a lot of people daily.

16. Cross-site scripting:

It is an injection breach where a Cybercriminal sends malicious scripts into victims’ systems from other websites in order to gain access to their information.

17. SQL Injection:

An SQL Injection is among the latest  types of cyber attacks that aim at putting malicious information into the victim’s digital device enabling  the hacker to get access to all the confidential and personal information.

18. Insider Threats:

Many types of cyber attacks take place daily, and the most shocking fact is that most of the time, there is an insider involved in the process to help the Cybercriminals get the information about their organization. Insiders of target organizations end up becoming the ones who make these types of cyber attacks happen daily. They help the external attackers by providing them with all the necessary information, which leads to further consequences. These types of hacking attacks may take place in corporate environments. It is also one of the common types of attacks in Cyber Security on banks and types of security attacks on financial institutions.

19. AI-powered Attacks:

Machine learning focuses on teaching the computer to perform several tasks on its own instead of depending on humans to conduct them manually. AI, at times, is used to hack digital systems to get unauthorized information. It can also be used to steal confidential financial data. It affects national security and even goes to the extent of harming individuals emotionally.

20. Birthday Attacks:

Birthday attacks are brute force types of cyber attacks that aim at distorting communication between customers and various individuals of a company starting right from the CEO and its employees.

Conclusion

The question- What are the types of cyber attacks – has been duly answered in this piece, and when it comes to their impact, varied types of attacks in Cyber Security affect the victims in different ways. And assessing these types of cyber attacks requires a more in-depth study of the subject. The primary thing is all types of cyber attacks affect the victims in one way or another.

These are some of the major types of attacks in Cyber Security that occurred frequently in 2020. However, the most important way to reduce it is to extensively understand the types of cyber attacks. The level of awareness present in the employees and the citizens, in general, should be increased followed by the introduction of proper preventive measures to reduce the crime rate within the corporate environment.
By the way, have a look at Jigsaw Academy’s Master Certificate in Cyber Security (Red Team) if you want to learn more about various types of cyber attacks. The course follows an online live session format and has a duration of 600 hours.

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