Top 4 Types of Cyberattacks

1. Phishing Attacks

These are very common cyberattacks and you’ve probably already gotten a phishing email to your own personal accounts. The hacker will send an email posing as a company you already do business with, in an attempt to get you to provide sensitive information. It could be as simple as clicking on a link and entering your username and password. Little did you know, the link you just clicked on was set up by the hacker and they just got your password to the real site and now have access to all your data kept on that account. To prevent these types of attacks, don’t click on any links in an email if something seems off. Unexpected emails with too much urgency are red flags. Also, check for misspellings and hover over the link in the email to make sure it’s not a file that will be downloaded on your computer. If something seems wrong, it probably is. 11,395 phishing attacks cost businesses $12.3 million in 2022.

2. Malware Attacks

These attacks use viruses, spyware, or other malicious software downloaded onto your technology to steal data. Cybercriminals may hack into your infrastructure if there’s a vulnerability to put the malware on your computer or you could download it through a link in an email. Either way, once the virus is in, the hacker can see everything you do on your computer, access saved passwords, and even take control of your technology. Again, hackers want information they can sell or use to make money like your company assets or customers’ private information. To prevent this, make sure you have a strong infrastructure with no vulnerabilities and no holes in your cybersecurity that hackers can get in through. Managed Service Providers like WTS can build a custom infrastructure specific to your business to protect your data.

3. Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware is software that allows hackers to steal all of your business data and will only release it back to you if you pay a certain amount of money. The major threat from the hackers is that they’ll release all of your data onto the dark web if they don’t get paid by a certain time. Typically, they release the data whether they get paid or not. Remediation for a data breach like this takes about 49 days or longer and these types of cyberattacks grew by over 40% in 2022. They are becoming more common and hackers use the same techniques as they do for malware attacks to put the ransomware program on your computer.

4. DoS (denial of service)/DDoS (distributed denial of service)

With similar techniques to accessing your system for malware and ransomware attacks, DoS and DDoS attacks include software that denies access to your own systems, making business inoperable. Imagine going to work like any other normal day just to find out that you can’t access any of the systems you use for your business operations. No way to help customers or get sales. It’d be like someone literally stole your company operations from you and closed your business. Don’t let this happen. Take cybersecurity as seriously as the cybercriminals do who want to make money off of whatever data they can get their virtual hands on.

Prevent these types of cyberattacks from happening to your company. Train your employees to recognize the different types of attacks and what to do if they suspect a hack. Enable 2FA, requiring a more robust authentication process when logging into systems – especially for remote access. Let WTS perform penetration testing to check for vulnerabilities in your network and patch them. Awareness and a strong cybersecurity system can help you protect your company from experiencing a cyberattack that could cripple your business.

Want to learn more? Let’s talk. Contact our team at 843-236-6436.