Cyber Readiness: The Most Common Cyberattacks

Every day, cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated with the cyberattacks they perform. As a result, many companies strive to improve their cyber readiness to prepare themselves for cyberthreats. In doing so, they can mitigate any financial, repetitional or service damage should a cyberattack occur.

The best way to become cyber ready is to understand the most common cyberattacks today. Once you know attack concepts and processes, you can develop a proper response plan to deal with incidents that you suspect are cybercrimes.

Here are several prominent cyberattacks to be aware of:

Phishing

Phishing is a very well-known cybersecurity threat, yet many individuals worldwide continue to fall for these fraudulent email scams. In fact, 83% of businesses reported experiencing a successful phishing attack in 2021. Nowadays, there are different types of phishing emails, including whaling. Here, hackers disguise themselves as senior executives and attack unsuspecting employees.

Still, regardless of the type, all phishing scams follow the same process: the cybercriminal attempts to get the receiver to share sensitive information or click on a link that installs malicious software on a computer. To avoid falling for this cyberattack, look for telltale signs, including a generic greeting that doesn’t use your name or a web URL that doesn’t start with “https.” If you feel an email is suspicious, it probably is.

Password Attack

Another attack to be aware of as part of your cyber readiness is a password attack. A cybercriminal will attempt to hack a user’s password using different schemes, such as a dictionary attack. This is when hackers enter many common words and their variations to try and guess a password.

To increase your cyber awareness of password attacks, you can use multi-factor authentication (MFA). For instance, you can require a user to submit a password and provide a code received by email or text to log in to a system. Layering the password-entering process will tighten your cybersecurity and make your business less vulnerable.

Ransomware

Lastly, there is ransomware. Here, cybercriminals will use malware to prevent users from accessing their system until they pay a ransom. Usually, there’s a tight deadline the user must meet, or they will lose complete control of their data.

As should be included in your entire cyber readiness journey, you can prevent ransomware by ensuring your systems are up-to-date and performing backups of all important data. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a framework to follow when performing these system updates and backups. Following the NIST checklist is a great place to start.

To Conclude

While there are plenty of cyberattacks to be aware of, the ones listed above are attacks that businesses suffer from repeatedly. Optimizing your cyber readiness and following the NIST protocol are two important first steps to take in protecting your business.

To be extra prepared, you can receive a cyber risk assessment with Computer Doc. We’ll help you further understand what you need to do to be cyber ready in today’s world.

If you want to learn more about cyber readiness, check out additional blogs in our resources section.