What is a Cyberattack? Everything You Need to Know

There is no doubt that cybercrime is rising. In 2020, data breaches exposed over 36 billion records. The average number of attacks increased by 33% (Over the previous year).  

What Is a Cyber Attack?

A cyberattack is a malicious and deliberate attempt by an individual or organization to breach the information system of another individual or organization. Usually, the attacker seeks some benefit from disrupting the victim’s network.  

How Can it Affect a Business?

As businesses store more of their customers’ data online, they become increasingly vulnerable to cyber thieves. According to Internet Crime Report 2020, companies lost $1.8 billion to cybercrime in 2019.  

A successful cyber-attack can cause damage to your business and affect the bottom line, as well as your business’ consumer trust. The impact of a breach can be broadly divided into 3 categories:   

1. Financial: Cyber-attacks often result in a substantial economic loss arising from corporate and financial information theft to loss of business or contract.
2. Reputational: Trust is an essential element of the customer relationship. Cyber-attacks can damage a business’ reputation and erode customers’ trust. This, in turn, could potentially lead to – loss of customers, loss of sales, and reduction in profits.
3. Legal: Data protection and privacy laws require you to manage the security of all personal data. You may face fines and regulatory sanctions if this data is accidentally or deliberately compromised and fails to deploy appropriate security measures.  

Types of Cyber-Attacks 

Nowadays, it is about “when” the business is under attack. Therefore, it becomes vital to understand all possible cyber-attacks. There are 3 categories of attacks:  

Malware

Malware’s intent is to damage or disable a computer. It can include viruses, spyware, trojan horses, and other malicious attacks.

Commonly spread through email links from unknown sources, Malware allows hackers to control the computer and monitor every action done on the computer.  

Phishing

Hackers install Malware into an email that is made to resemble a sender the computer knows. This increases the likelihood of the user clicking and unknowingly adding the Malware to the computer.  

Social Engineering

An attack that influences people to give away information. Not so quickly occurring attack, social engineering can be damaging in a workplace where the victim becomes liable for lost assets within the company.  

Ransomware

The most advanced form of cyber-attack, Ransomware, takes control of a computer and asks the owner for money to gain access again. This attack takes personal information, destroys the data, and uses the computer to launch new attacks on other victims.

Further, security threats will become more advanced, making it essential for companies to stay updated with cybersecurity awareness and security management systems.