Types of Cybersecurity Threats that Most Organizations Face

December 23, 2021December 23, 2021 Pragnesh Patel

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In recent years, several high-profile cyberattacks have led to the exposure of sensitive data of large organizations. For instance, in 2017, Equifax organization faced a security breach that compromised the data of approximately 143 million clients, including social security numbers, addresses, and birth dates. Also, in 2018, Marriott International revealed that attackers had accessed its servers and destroyed the data of approximately 500 million clients. In both cases, the organization’s failure to test, implement and retest its technical systems, including firewalls, authentication, and encryption, enabled the cyber security threats. In reality, there are several types of cyber security threats; the primary ones include:

Malware

It entails varied kinds of attacks such as worms, viruses, and spyware. It uses vulnerability to interfere with a network when one clicks on a certain email attachment or dangerous link, used to install malicious software in their computer system. Research indicates that malicious files and malware inside a computer system can:

Render a system inoperable
Obtain information by accessing data from the hard disk
Deny access to vital components

Currently, malware has become common, and it exists in different types, including:

Spyware

It is a program installed to gather information regarding users, their browsing habits, or systems and send it to the remote attacker. In most cases, the attackers use that information to blackmail their victims or install malicious programs from the internet.

Ransomware

It is a program that denies the victims access to data, threatening to delete or publish it until they manage to pay a ransom to the attackers. Some security risk assessment consultants have even identified advanced ransomware that employs cryptoviral extortion. It encrypts the victim’s data so that it becomes impractical to decrypt it if they do not have a decryption key.

Worms

Worms do not attack the host, and they are self-contained programs that propagate in different computers and networks. Attackers normally install worms using email attachments and send a copy to all contacts within the infected computers. They are typically used to overload an email server to attain a denial-of-service attack.