The world of cyber security is one which has completely fascinated me ever since I started using high level software in my small retail business. In truth I never used to pay this much mind but 2 years ago I attended a conference where cyber security expert Bharat Bhise HNA was doing a talk. The things that Bharat were talking about were simply mind blowing and when he began to talk about the threats to small businesses, I instantly began to pay attention.
Bharat was kind enough to take some time with me after the talk and he was able to answer all of my questions that were buzzing around my head. My small business is now fully locked down and if yours isn’t, check out these common types of attacks which hackers are able to commit with absolute ease, then tell me that you’re happy with the level of security which you have.
Denial of Service
You may have heard of DoS and DDoS attacks as many of them have been made public after certain sites have been taken offline. These attacks are designed to bring a site down and in my case this could do great damage to my business. The idea of the attack is to send millions or tens of millions of requests to the site in a very short space of time, causing the system to shut down and deny all service. The hacker has little to gain in terms of profit but if they are out to get someone then they can do a lot of damage with an attack like this.
MitM Attack
The Man in the Middle attack is how Sony and Visa got caught out some years ago and they are attacks which gives the cyber criminal instant access to the entire database. Basically what they will do here is wait for someone to log in to the server, let’s say an employee, the attacker then takes control of the client’s computer and disconnects from the server, whilst changing the IP from that of the client to their own. This means that the attacker now has access to the server and all of the systems within it, including all of the information which is stored on it.
Phishing
Phishing scams have been going on for a long time and they are still catching people out. In the past it would be in the form of an email with a link inside it, the recipient clicks the link and ends up downloading a ton of malware to the system. These scams are more sophisticated now and they can often make the emails appear like they come from a trusted source, mirroring sites, which then ask you for sensitive information. A cyber criminal can send out 10,000 of these emails and they only need one of them to work in order to find out a huge amount of information and data.
These are just some of the many attacks which can happen at any given time.
