Cyber attacks and what you need to know

Now is a great time to gain the education you need to help keep the internet safe. In our increasingly connected world, where even household appliances are connected to the internet per se, there are also more opportunities that even before for Cyber criminals or Cyber thieves to wreak havoc on businesses and individuals alike.

Speaking of Cyber attacks, we believe they have come way long dating from the time of email viruses (notwithstanding they still existed till date). As Cyber criminals adapt to changing times, so too do the IT security experts whose job is to keep our data safe. Below are listed and explained some of the most common Cyber attacks that Cyber criminals launch on our IT world and some of the Cyber security methods to fight back at these malwares.

The malware

Malware have existed for quite some time now, and continues to plague computers till today. In a nutshell, malware is any computer programme designed to damage a computer system. The first widely spread malware, known as the Melissa virus was unleashed in 1999. Quite long as Eighteen years later, the malware remains a dangerous weaponan used by Cyber criminals to harvest information, commit fraud or just cause mayhem.

The Cyber security strategy for taking care of the malware.

This is due for the homes and businesses as well, a good anti-malware software is essential. Anti-malware programs can both find and remove malware that has been installed on a computer system, and prevent malware from installing itself in the first place. Also essential is instructing users to practice common sense when using the interner: never open unexpected email or chat attachments, and be very selective when clicking on outbound links on the internet if your are uncertain about where their landing pages may be.

The DoS (Denial of Service) attacks

This is one of the simplest Cyber attacks, DoS shuts down a targets servers, making it impossible to access their websites or use their online services. This is most commonly done by flooding a tarhets server with traffic untill they are overwhelmed and crash. One of the most commom forms of DoS attack involves getting large numbers of attackers to flood their targets servers at once, making it almost impossible to block the incoming traffic.

Strategies for DoS attack rectification

Simplest method for thwarting DoS attacks is having extra bandwidth. If you fear your business might be targeted for DoS attack. Simply having enough server space to handle the increased traffic can render the attacks moot. There are also third party services that will help your company stay alive and online during a DoS attack.

Phishing

In a phishing attack, a Cyber criminal attempts to extract personal information out of you by tricking you into giving it to them reluctantly. Bolder scammers might attempt to acquire a victims social security number or bank account details. Notwithstanding, many phishing scams involves tricking a victim into giving away their passwords for a single website or application. A recent phishing scam used google docs to trick users into entering their google login information.

Strategies to stop phishing attacks

These attacks are particularly worrisome because they involve tricking users using the appearance of legitimacy and useful google information as the case of latest phishing trick.

The simplest way to combat phishing is to make sure employees know both of how common and damaging attacks can be; remind them to keep their guard up when checking emails and to report and email they find suspicious. Additionally, have employees use two-factor authentication for their email accounts. This can prevent scammers from accessing compromised accounts.