In this article, find the definition of 7 types of common cyber attacks and the protection methods that exist for your company.
The different types of cyber attacks
Cyber criminals use a variety of tools and techniques to attack businesses. For example, a cyber attack interrupted all urgent surgeries at a hospital in the Czech Republic in the midst of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. A delivery company in Germany suffered a denial of service (DDoS) attack and suffered significant business losses. In France, nearly 1,700 cyber attacks have been listed by the
According to Gartner (article in English), cyber criminals will be able to hijack operational technology environments by 2025 to affect the physical integrity of human beings. This suggests that cyber attack techniques will continue to evolve to produce ever more powerful malware capable of causing significant losses for businesses.
This situation can trigger a real cataclysm for small and medium-sized businesses that do not have the same resources as large groups. If you run an SME, you must design a defense strategy and train your teams to manage the losses caused by cyber crime.
In this article, you will find a list of the seven most common types of cyberattacks as well as our advice to limit the risks. It is crucial to train you and your teams to reduce the risks associated with cybercrime.
Social engineering and phishing attacks
A social engineering attack manipulates the target to gain access to confidential information. The criminal employs manipulation tactics (emotional exploitation, for example) to get the target to entrust him with confidential information such as access codes or passwords.
Phishing is a common social engineering attack where the hacker uses emails or advertisements to manipulate the target and obtain information. Most SMBs are victims of phishing attempts because they have a reduced network. For the pirate, nothing is easier than to identify who can reveal information.
Such an attack is dangerous, because the criminal takes advantage of human error and not of any technological failure. This attack can take the form of a message purporting to be sent by a friend or colleague, an email soliciting donations, a message from a stranger, or an advertisement containing an offer that is clearly too beautiful to be true.
Besides phishing, here are other types of social engineering attacks.
Hackers set up physical or online bait, such as dropping a USB drive harboring malware in a public place, or posting an irresistible ad that redirects the user to a dubious website.
Hackers create a scenario to deceive their target and convince them to share professional or personal information. For example, they can pretend to be a business partner requesting information on a project that has not yet been launched.
Phishing or spear phishing
Hackers send emails targeting a specific person or company. For example, they can pretend to be an HR partner asking employees to sign an urgent document.
Backdoor Attack and Denial of Service
A backdoor attack allows a cybercriminal to gain access to a computer system or encrypted data by bypassing security controls and login mechanisms. The attack overrides the authentication process to ensure a secure connection and allows access to applications, networks or devices containing sensitive information. A backdoor attack can also execute remote commands and update malware.
A denial of service attack is one of the consequences of a backdoor attack. In this specific case, the hacker generates unusual traffic in the target system or network to cause a temporary or permanent denial of service for end users. If several devices (laptop, smartphone, etc.) in the same corporate network are victims of such an attack, then it is called a distributed attack or DDoS.
Attack by integrated backdoor or built-in backdoor
An entry is created for engineers when programming software to directly access the HTML code and fix bugs. Hackers use this backdoor to attack the system and gain access to sensitive information, or spread a virus to devices running the software.
Trojan backdoor attack
Malicious software which, once downloaded, gives the hacker unauthorized access to the system. It is designed to hack high security systems and resources.