Technical and non-technical threats to an organisation

Technical threats

Botnets

This is a network of computers that have been intentionally infected with malware by cybercriminals to perform automated tasks on the internet. Bot headers use specialized software to try and find a system in the network that is venerable and use it to gain access to the other computers.  

Some of the ways to prevent this include using strong passwords, improving your network security, making sure you have a reliable and up-to-date antivirus, etc.  

Dos (denial of service)

This is an attack made form a computer meant to shut down a machine or network, making it inaccessible to its intended users. A Dos attack is accomplished by flooding the target with TCP or UDP traffic, or sending so much information that it causes the system to crash.  

To prevent this, you can make sure that all the software that you use is up to date, installing firewalls, and following other basic cyber security techniques.  

DDOS (distributed denial of service attack)

This is in attack that is made using multiple computers to shut down a machine or network, making it inaccessible to its intended users. This is often initiated by people controlling botnets from multiple areas directed to attack remote host targets by flooding them with network requests.  

To help prevent this is to make sure that all internet facing devices are completely secured by making sure you have things like strong passwords and firewalls. 

Hacking

XSS (cross-site scripting)

Cross-site scripting is a type of injection where malicious scripts are injected into trusted websites. XSS attacks usually occur when an attacker uses web applications to send malicious code, usually in the form of a browser side script.  

Some of the ways to prevent to prevent HTML code, when possible, validate inputs to ensure it meets your criteria, and make sure you know what cookies you are accepting.

Password-cracking software

These can be used in various ways. It can be used by normal people to try and get into their personal accounts when they forget their passwords. However, it can be used maliciously by people who want to gain access other people social media accounts or even banking accounts.  

To prevent you being targeted by malicious attacks, you can make sure that you have passwords that are a minimum of 8 characters long and making sure that you use letters, numbers, symbols, and lower- and upper-case letters.  

SQL injection

This is a code injection technique used to attack data-driven applications. This is where malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field of execution.

To prevent this from happening, you can have security driven programming practices against SQL attacks. You can also have input validation and sanitation, stored procedures and parametrization, and program analysis techniques.  

Waterhole attacks

Hackers target the most accessed physical location to attack the victim. Some of the places of target would be a coffee shop, cafeteria or others.  

Follow basic security practices and keep your software/OS up to date to prevent this from happening.  

Fake WAP

A fake wireless access point that can track data that is sent through it. However, if the victim is using a website that is encrypted, the person who controls the WAP can only see that the user visited the website and nothing else.  

Some of the ways to prevent you falling victim would be to make sure that you know what you are connecting to and use a VPN.

Hacking eavesdropping (passive attacks)

The aim of this is to get information from a system without harming it.

Using a VPN service and making sure that any secure data is encrypted to make it harder for people to gain access to the data.  

Clickjacking attacks

This attack hides the actual UI of where the victim is supposed to click. Its most common in movie streaming or app downloading. This is mostly used to gain advertising money, but others may use it steal your data.

To prevent you falling victim to this, you should have HTTP scanning modules on the firewall.  

Cookie theft

Once the hacker gets access to the cookies, they can eventually authenticate themselves as you on a browser.  

Making sure your connections are encrypted will help prevent you falling victim.  

Bait and switch

This is when a user has bought an advertising space on a website. They may then later use this to direct users to a page that will infect their systems with malware.  

Making sure that you are aware of what you are clicking to and making sure that you don't follow through something that doesn't seem right.

Viruses

A computer virus is a malicious piece of code designed to spread from device to device. A subset of malware, these self-copying threats are usually designed to damage a device or steal data. Examples include, Creeper which is said to be one of the first computer viruses ever developed. To protect yourself from viruses you should be careful with what you download, update your packages/operating system. And if you think its necessary update your anti-virus.

Worms

A worm is a type of virus that unlike traditional viruses, usually does not require the action of a user to spread from device to device unlike normal viruses which do require user action to spread.

Remote Access Trojans (RATS)

This  is a type of malware program that uses backdoors to control the target machine with administrative privilege. These type of Trojans are downloaded invisibly with a user request for a program such as a game or an email attachment. RATs piggyback on legitimate-looking files.

Keyloggers

These tools record the data sent by every keystroke into a text file to be retrieved at a later time. Some tools can record everything on your copy-cut-paste clipboard, calls, GPS data, and even microphone or camera footage.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a kind of malware that demands some form of payment from the victim in order recover control of their computer and/or data that is usually encrypted...

Distribution normally achieved by phishing emails that contain malicious attachments or through downloading infected media from websites. Payment currency usually demanded in bitcoin.

Spyware

Software that enables a user to obtain covert information about another's computer activities by transmitting data covertly from their hard drive.