Cyber attacks will soon be the most prominent threat to any business within just a few years. There have been numerous reports on cases of cyber attacks on businesses worldwide. According to Cybercrime Report, cyber attacks accounted for the combined collateral costs of around $86 billion in 2017. This number is expected to inflate to over one trillion dollars by the end of 2021. These costs include everything from data loss, theft, trajectory manipulation, and infrastructure damage, all of which is something that no business wants to deal with.

But before you can learn to protect yourself against these cyber attacks, you need to first understand them. With that said, here are the top 5 most common types of cyber attacks in 2018. By equipping yourself with the knowledge on what they are, you will have a stable foundation that will help you battle these problems in the future.

1. The crypto jacking

Due to the rise of cryptocurrency in 2017, crypto jacking has become one of the most popular forms of cyber attacks. What it is essentially is the hijacking of your crypto-mining device and steal the mined coins right from the miners’ hands and into the pocket of the hijacker. Cryptojacking used to be confined to software, meaning that the target has to install some sort of programs that allow the hijacking to take place. However, hackers have found a way to break the shackles of this software and sneak themselves right into the back-end coding of websites. As a miner nowadays, if you’re not careful with your browsing, you could be exposing yourself to an on-site crypto jacking. You need to make sure that you set up preventative measures to protect yourself against these issues so that your hard-earned coins stay safe in your pocket.

2. PowerShell-based attacks

PowerShell is a new and powerful scripting language that can be used to achieve many functions. Many businesses have now invested in researching and incorporating the language into their codings. This is why there has been a significant rise in the prominence of PowerShell-based malware and Trojan. Due to the fact that PowerShell is a fairly new language, some of these malicious scripts that use the PowerShell language are now going undetected. Until PowerShell-based anti-virus software becomes more powerful, we’re expecting to see a constant rise in these script-based attacks

3. Evolution of cyber attackers

The advancement of technology benefits the general, but that means it those with malicious intent also benefit from it as well. More advanced cyber attack tools are being released every year, and there’s no sign of slowing down. If you’re wondering why there has been such a sharp increase in the number of cyber attackers, just look back at the figures mentioned earlier in this article. Cyber attack is a very profitable business, and hackers everywhere are seeing more and more potential in it. With the looks of things, it might not be soon before we start to see the rise of a multinational cybercrime group that focuses on offering harmful services very soon.

4. Security software will be targeted and exploited

If you’re a cyber attacker, what will you do to ensure that you have total control over the entire cybersecurity landscape? The answer is simple, they will look to attack the security software and punch holes that they can sneak their code into. If they can gain access to the business servers through the exploitation of these codings, then they can do anything from accessing the company’s cloud to reaching into the business’ database. Not only that this will benefit them directly, but more and more people will lose trust in market security software, which means that attackers will have easier in the future as well.

5. More advanced worms and malware

WannaCry and Trickbot were the most popular worms that were used to spread malware across the web. This will continue to be the trend throughout the rest of 2018 and extending out to 2019. Worms spread incredibly quickly and discreetly through the internet, making it one of the go-to methods of cyber attack. Once the attacker has incepted the businesses with these worms, they can then use it to spread malware that can harm the company’s network. Additionally, worms are still quite hard to detect, and that they can be attracted very easily, which is why there’s no sign of this dirty tactic slowing down.

What can we do?

First, we need to understand what the threat is, where it’s coming from, and take all preventative measures to these issues. One of the best ways to ensure that you’re informed about cybersecurity is to work with a digital security firm. They can equip you with the knowledge and the tools to protect yourself against these attacks. This will ensure that you don’t fall prey to these nasty attackers. Make sure you’re working with a trustworthy and reputable firm, though, as you will allow them the access to your network.

Jake Ciber

Jack of all trades... master of none... ABL... Always Be Learning! I love what I do and I love helping people.

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