Hackers study their targets and learn to circumvent their defenses in order to get what they want. This is true for cyber attacks against people and companies.
If they study companies so they can attack, businesspeople and professionals responsible for the security of company data must also study to be able to protect themselves.
The reasons for the attack, in turn, can be several, such as obtaining confidential and sensitive information or stealing the largest amount of money possible from the company.
According to an analysis by Kaspersky, extortion and theft of Bitcoins will increase in 2021 , where financial cyberthreats are among the most dangerous, as they directly imply losses for victims. It is inevitable that the changes (adoption of home office due to the pandemic) that occurred in 2020 have influenced the way cybercriminals operate.
In this article, you will see why companies are recurring targets of cyber attacks, and which attacks are most common.
Why do hackers target companies?
As I wrote previously, cybercriminals study their targets to obtain as much information as possible, facilitating persuasion and identifying possible security holes in companies' internet.
Much information about the company and its employees, used to design the plan, is available free of charge and without much effort on social networks, such as place of work, name, date of birth, preferences and habits. Speaking of which, social networks and cloud services are in the crosshairs of hackers. In another survey , it reveals that Facebook, WhatsApp, Amazon, Apple and Netflix were the five most used brands in phishing attacks in 2020, as you can see in the table below:
After learning about your employees, the hacker can send an email with a link or attachment, for example, that installs software and gives the attacker control of the device. This email can be personalized with real user information, making it more attractive to click.
However, the main reason why companies are a constant target of attacks is financial. With small caveats, practically all companies carry out banking transactions and use internet-connected systems to pay bills and transfers. With this fact in hand, cybercriminals take action with attack techniques such as forging invoices from potential suppliers or even simulating a financial institution's website to collect banking data. Furthermore, in attacks where information is hijacked, companies that do not have data backup systems are hostage to paying high amounts to criminals in exchange for the return of data.
Next, we will see the main attacks suffered by companies and some characteristics about each one.
What are the main cyber attacks on companies?
Information security has been disseminated as a contingency strategy, especially in the year in which this scenario has become very favorable for cyber criminals working from home.
If you, a manager, entrepreneur, or IT professional want to keep your company protected against cyber attacks, the first step is to know how they act, and what are the main types of attacks that exist today.
In the next few lines, we mention some of the main cyber attacks on companies and some variations that have been improved in recent months.
DDoS Attack
The main objective of this attack, translated into “Service Assigned Navigation”, is to overload server activities, causing system slowdowns and making websites and accesses unavailable.
As many professionals are more connected due to social isolation, this type of attack, if well distributed, can go unnoticed by security. A DDoS attack is one of the biggest threats to the full functioning of a company's systems.
In February 2020, the company Bitfinex suffered a DDoS attack and needed to carry out urgent maintenance to investigate the attack .
Port Scanning Attack
If there is a vulnerability in the company's system, this malware searches the server in an attempt to find this vulnerability. If he manages to find a security breach on the company's server, he steals information and data in order to damage the system or hijack the data.
The SemperUpdate portal provided a study on the 3 ports that should not be opened on the company's router .
Ransomware
Widely known as “data hijacking”, ransomware blocks access to all files on the attacked server, and they are released only after payment of a sum of money (usually bitcoins) and the value of the “ransom” is determined by the hijacker.
A good example of a ransomware attack was the recent attack on Honda Motor, which suspended part of production, including in Brazil .
Trojan Horse
Popular on the internet, this malware only works with the user's “authorization”. Simply put, the individual executes an email attachment from a suspicious or unknown sender, or executes a suspicious download, containing the camouflaged virus.
There are numerous objectives in the Trojan horse attack. These include stealing personal information and disrupting computer functions.
Brute force attacks
Imagine that to open a padlock with a numeric code, you will have to try all possible combinations. Seems long, right? But in the digital world this can be done very quickly. A Brute Force Attack steals accounts through several attempts at username and password combinations in a very short time.
In possession of this information, the criminal may send several messages with a sender known to the user with content such as phishing and spam, requesting deposits, transfers, access passwords and many other sensitive information.
According to Kaspersky, a reference company in security software, the number of brute force attacks on companies grew 333% in two months .
Phishing
Generally carried out via email, Phishing is a virtual attack in which hackers trick users into revealing confidential information, including passwords, bank details and CPF.
The attack is usually well constructed and takes the user to a page identical to the real page, a bank branch, for example.
As the name suggests, hackers “fish” for user data, launching a “bait” to deceive them.
It is one of the most common and most successful attacks and there are several news stories about this attack spread across the internet.
Employees are the gateway to cyber attacks
The entry points for a cyber attack are numerous. Emails, malicious files, fake links, false advertisements, among many others. Internet security systems such as firewall, antivirus and a backup system can add an extra layer of internet security in the business environment. However, the key point for attacks within companies are users.
Lack of knowledge, inattention or the famous “I know what I'm doing” make employees the biggest internet security breach for companies. Therefore, training employees and maintaining an internet security policy within the company is as important as security systems.
But not everything is perfect. You can already imagine that depending on employees' knowledge and common sense doesn't seem like a very good idea.
According to research by Tessian, two-thirds of employees are not regularly trained on cyber threats . And most of those who are trained do not remember what they were taught.
As previously stated, hackers study their targets and prepare attacks that, for unprepared and untrained employees, are easy targets.
Unfortunately, there is still no single solution capable of solving all internet security problems for companies at once. But there are several effective ways to close the vast majority of entry points for cyber attacks against companies on the internet.
In the Internet Security Guide for Companies you will find a list of good internet security practices , so you can protect yourself against cyber attacks.
Until later!
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