Relationship Between Hackers vs Cyber Attacker
A cyber attack is an attempt for hackers to exploit or damage a network or system. Positive Technologies just released a report on Wednesday on the number of cyber attacks in the last quarter (April-June) of 2018. According to the report, Q2 of 2018 had seen an increased number of cyber attacks (47%) in comparison to the Q2 of last year. Cyber attacks are becoming more and more severe and they may target large companies, cryptocurrency exchanges, and important data. Targeted attacks also outnumbered mass campaigns by 54%.
The attack may be targeted to seek personal information (30%), credentials (22%) or payment information (15%). In order to gain access to this type of information, the hackers target online platforms involved, e-commerce websites, ticketing systems, online hotel booking sites etc. In May and June alone there were a number of attacks on online platforms such as Verge, Monacoin, Bitcoin Gold, ZenCash, Litecoin Cash which resulted in the theft of over $100 million. The number of attacks was twice than the attacks in Q1 of 2018.
Leigh-Anne Galloway (cybersecurity resilience lead at Positive Technologies) stated that there were over 765 million users attacked in Q2 and losses of tens of millions of dollars. She further said, “Today, you can never be sure that criminals don’t have your credit card number from one source or another. Even when you buy a brand-new smartphone in a store, you can still end up getting pre-installed malware.”
Here we will discuss the top six most popular methods cyberattack criminals used to target users in the Q2 of 2018.
1: Malware:
The number of malware attacks was 49% in the Q2 of 2018. Malware is any type of malicious software or program that can be harmful to your computer or system. 26% of cybercriminals use spyware while 22% use remote administrative malware to steal your data. The most commonly used method was to first compromise servers and workstations the user was affiliated with. This is done by using brute force passwords, social engineering, and vulnerabilities (29%). Sometimes, they would plant malicious software into the users’ device through an online platform (29%), or through malicious links and attachments via email (25%).
2: Social Engineering:
25% of the time cybercriminals used social engineering in their attacks. Usually, they would manipulate the user into accessing links, attachments, or messages that would infect their system with malicious software or malware. They would then steal confidential information, money or credentials.
3: Hacking:
21% of cybercriminals used hacking in their cyber attacks. Hacking is usually done to exploit vulnerabilities in a software or hardware. They can then access information through these vulnerabilities. Hackers usually target governments, banks and online cryptocurrency platforms.
4: Credential Compromise:
19% of cybercriminals used credential compromise. Many enterprises usually use password managers to store and track their passwords, but these managers may also be attacked and this may lead to credential compromise.
5: Web Attacks:
18% of cybercriminals used web attacks in their cyber attacks. They can attack a certain website and then force the operators and managers to give them the information they require. They do this by threatening to steal client data or shutting down the website.
6: DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-service attack):
5% of cyber attacks involved a DDoS attack. This kind of attack is done by multiple systems which target one system; this may be through one or more web servers. For example, flooding the targeted system with traffic. This type of attack is used on government and political targets. These attacks may also be used for profit, usually payment, through threatening to shut down the website or steal information.
There are many ways you or your system can be targeted. Therefore, it is necessary to take the necessary precautions to protect yourself from such attacks. Companies and users should use antivirus protection, implement SIEM capabilities, centralize update management, encrypt important information, keep backups in case of loss of data, use two-factor authentication. You should keep a strict password policy, for example, passwords should be of a certain length and should be changed after a certain period of time.