Digital world of Cyber Security

People nowadays are very much reliant on systems and software applications for their growth. Attacks on these systems/applications can cause serious damage in many aspects. A strong focus on cybersecurity is necessary to protect ourselves from such damages.

Online applications these days are highly connected with desktops, laptops, and cell-phones. Their ease of access makes them vulnerable. For example, a person can use cellphones to post on any social media sites and the very next moment can transfer money from the same cell phone. He/She might use the same email account for registering in various banking, social networking and other software applications. A weak password to this account is a temptation for the hackers, as gaining access to this email account they might be able to access other applications linked with this account.

Most of the hackers use some of the other forms of malware to intrude into a computer, server or networks, some of them are: -

Ransomware:

Ransomware is a kind of code that targets the victim’s data by blocking access to the data. To get the data unblocked the victim has to pay ransom to the attackers. It can be as simple as locking the system or as advanced as using cryptography techniques to block the data access.

E.g.: — WannaCry, etc.

Spyware:

Hackers use this kind of software to spy on an individual or an organization for gaining control over their assets.

E.g.: — adware, Keyloggers, etc.

Virus:

A virus is a computer program hidden inside another program that seems to be harmless, but when the host program is executed, the virus replicates itself and gets inserted into programs to perform malicious actions like destroying data from the system, etc.

E.g.: — ILOVEYOU, Stuxnet, etc.

Worm:

A worm does not need any host as the virus it rather exploits the vulnerability in the system to spread.

E.g.:-CodeRed, etc.

Trojan Horse:

It’s a good looking downloadable content that consists of a hidden computer program. When the program is accessed in the user machine it becomes active and starts attacking as programmed by the attacker.

E.g. :- Zeus etc.

Denial of service attack (Dos attack):

The users are deprived of the service provided by the provider either temporarily or permanently. It is generally achieved by bombarding the provider machine with various false requests which overload the machine because of which it becomes difficult to provide service to genuine users.

E.g. — Slowloris, etc.

Botnet:

Malicious activities such as DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service attack), stealing data, spamming, etc can be done by using bots. A bot is an automated software that performs repetitive tasks that are time-consuming for humans. Though it is used to reduce human efforts, attackers choose it to perform malicious activities such as compromising the servers on the internet.

E.g. — Chameleon, Mirai, etc.

Phishing:

An attempt to trap a victim in the disguise of a trustworthy entity over an electronic communication with which the attacker can obtain personal data like login credentials, bank details, etc.

Security is very important because once an individual or an organization is affected by hackers the name of the organization hits the headlines which adversely harms the reputation of the organization, defamation, etc can happen. hence it becomes very important to ensure the security of assets, information, people, etc.