Cyber Security Threats

Cyber Security Threats Defined

Cyber security threats are any unauthorized access to systems or data that lead to unintended disclosure, changes or destruction of data, interruptions to service or other activities that bring harm to a computing environment. Cyber threats can come from internal or external sources and can include doing harm or having the potential to do harm.

Types of Cyber Security Threats

Cyber security types of threats continue to grow daily as hackers look for new ways to thwart threat protection programs. As a result of many common cyber security threats, security experts need to continually learn about new types of threats and how to avoid them.

One of the most common cyber security threats is the use of malware or malicious software. Malware is designed to gain entry to a computing environment and then create harm in several different ways, from data theft to data destruction (or leak) and by preventing the use of entire computing environments.  Malware uses several different cyber security attack scenarios to gain access and do damage:

• Adware is a type of malware that gains access through advertising and pop-ups, often via websites called click-bait, because the pop-ups appear as part of an interesting article whose entire purpose is to display ads that cause a user to click on them, then installing the adware on their computer, where it can then start its attack. 
• Trojans are units of code that are disguised within software that appears legitimate, like data file converters, utility programs, and other useful software that people search for on the Internet. In this case, once the program is downloaded, the trojan is free to spread and take down entire systems or destroy the system on which it is installed.
• Viruses are named as they behave like a human virus: replicating and spreading and doing significant damage along the way. Combining a trojan with a virus can take down an entire computing environment.
• Spyware is a type of malicious software that records keystrokes and is commonly used to steal passwords or credit card data.
• Ransomware is a particularly dangerous cyber threat. It takes over computer systems, or sometimes the entire computer operation of an organization and disables them until the company pays a stated sum to the cybercriminal running the attack.
• SQL Injection is a type of malicious software that gains access to databases to steal data.

Cyber security attack scenarios also involve social engineering. This is a practice where hackers use human behaviour to gain access to a data centre or computing system. One common cyber threat with social engineering is to gain access by pretending to be a maintenance worker or posing as a known vendor’s staff member on a legitimate business call.

Another common cyber security threat that falls under social engineering is tough to prevent because it is so easy to make an innocent mistake that causes damage. This is phishing, which uses emails with links that introduce malicious software when clicked.

Spearfishing is a variation of phishing that is aimed strategically. The creator identifies users with access to critical systems, like accounting departments or executives, to make the attack even more deadly.

Another communication based cyber threat is the man-in-the-middle attack which attacks communications between two individuals and then uses it to gain access to data. For example, on an unsecured network, a man-in-the-middle attack can steal credit card or personal information transmitted as part of an email confirmation.

Cyber security attack scenarios can also be more technical in nature:

Botnets are malicious software that takes control of the environment and executes repetitive transactions overloading a system and destroying performance. These are also common cyber threats to IoT devices with weak security systems.

Denial of service attacks are external attacks on networks and websites by overwhelming them traffic, typically used to take down service entirely. Machine-based or Artificial Intelligence attacks are generally a type of denial-of-service attack that used technology to learn from attempts to repel the attack, changing the attack vector slightly. They basically force the monitoring and intrusion detection software to keep adjusting to new patterns of attack.