Cyberattacks Explained

If you spend more on coffee than IT security, you will be hacked. What's more, you deserve to be hacked. Richard Clarke

The thought of being " hacked " surely will send shivers down your spine. However, not all kinds of hackers are classified as being bad as white hat hackers are the ones who are the good guys that are actually certified to hack in order to find any vulnerabilities in the computer systems

So, if white hat hackers are the good guys, what type of hackers would the black hat hackers be?

The term, "black hat hacker," refers to the malicious type of hacker who would most likely launch a cyberattack. Cyberattacks are unwelcomed threats that threaten the safety of your information and could possibly lead to the destruction of your information. Imagine noticing that all of a sudden, your data is blocked, deleted, changed or even stolen...

Cyberattacks can be launched from almost anywhere and those who involve themselves in cyberattacks are usually considered to be cybercriminals.

So why do cyberattacks happen?

Cyberattacks are meant to cause damage specifically for financial gain. An example of a cyberattack for financial gain is when cyber criminals steal credit card numbers for their own financial benefit.

You might think that cyberattacks and hacking are the same, however, all cyberattacks are hacks but not every hack is a cyberattack. This is because an organization might just hire a certified hacker or an entire hacking team to assess their computer systems for vulnerabilities. Such blue-hats (or white-hats) hackers would spend hours reviewing that network's code, looking for open ports or gaps in security protocols that could allow a malicious hacker to enter that system.

A certified hacker will not at all cause a cyberattack, but a black hat hacker might just do so.

CyberAttack: Choosing the Target

Could you be the next cyberattack victim?  Now that we understand that cyber attackers are motivated to hack for financial gain, they could also be motivated by political action. These cyber attackers choose their targets according to certain factors:

Vulnerability

You are most likely to come under the cyberattacker's radar if your computer network is weak and lacks the necessary security protocols.  You must ensure that your computer network is well-maintained to avoid being hacked. Irrespective of the aim of cyber attackers, the more vulnerable your network and infrastructure is, the easier it is for you to get hacked.

The Eligibility to be Hacked

You will become the target of a cyberattack if the hackers consider you to be an eligible target. Sometimes you become the target when you have data that many people would like to get their hands on.

Again, you will be a victim of cybercrime if hacking your infrastructure would allow the hacker to gain lots of publicity for the attack.  A hacker won't choose to hack your personal data unless he or she is sure that you will be able to pay the ransom to get back your information.

Fear

If you are afraid of a hacker hacking your business data, you may need to up your cybersecurity on all your business-related devices. While fear is a great motivator, it may also cause you to neglect the security on your personal devices. As such, the hacker may send an email that is actually a scam email to your personal email.

If you feel that you meet the above criteria, start bettering your cybersecurity. If you want no interruptions in your data or worse disruptions, consider ensuring far better security for your system.

The Meaning of Cyberattacks

Cyberattacks fall into two main categories: passive and active.

Hacking with the intention of data collection with the intention of reselling the data, wiretapping, and tapping into fibreoptic cabling to intercept traffic, all fall under the category called cyberattacks.

An active attack occurs when a hacker holds your data for ransom. If you happened to be locked out of your computer on the basis that you will have to pay a ransom, this is considered an active cyberattack.

Both Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and spoofing are passive attacks. Spoofing means that hackers disguise their activity so that they can make their way through the security authentication process.

One type of cyberattack that you may have heard of but didn't know the term for is the man-in-the-middle attack whereby the hackers position themselves between two parties so that you are fooled into believing that you are communicating directly with the other party. A hack type known as man-in-the-browser is when a Trojan horse is introduced to your system so as to modify your transactions or add extra transactions.

The Trojan horse can be introduced by hackers to your system so as to interrupt the traffic of your normal web server.

Another type of hack that you could experience is that called a ping flood whereby your system is overwhelmed by sending requests without waiting for them to be resolved.  A ping flood may be scary, but it surely is better than experiencing the ping of death whereby a malicious ping is sent to overwhelm your system so that it crashes entire systems to allow the hackers to take over.

Reading all about both active and passive hacking, you may be tempted to learn about ethical hacking and hacktivism.

How to Prevent Cyber Attack

Reading all about hacking may scare you slightly and may make you want to step up your security so as to prevent a cyberattack. While we cannot advise you about what exactly you can do to fully prevent a cyberattack, we can give you some solutions that will surely help.

• Ensure your software and system is fully updated. Cybercriminals are those who exploit the weaknesses in outdated systems and so if you constantly worry about updating your system, your chances of getting hacked are far less
• Install a firewall. The best possible way to prevent a cyberattack is to introduce a firewall that will respond by blocking all the attacks made to your device
• Back up your data. You need to ensure that your data is always backed up so that if anything happens, you don't lose a tremendous amount of data
• Passwords: The better your password, the less likely your chances are of getting hacked. Try to set different passwords for different apps so to secure all of your personal information
• Wifi security: Securing your Wifi is possibly the best thing that you can do. Make sure that you protect your Wifi with a password and hide your Wifi away from other people

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Types of Cyber Attack

South Africa is not at all free from cyberattacks.

Statistics prove that it is the country with the third-highest number of cyberattacks in the world. If this statistic doesn't shock you, we are not sure what will.

Last year Transnet and its division that operates within SA were the target of cyberattacks which led to email systems being severely affected. When Israel developed Pegasus spyware back in 2018, they discovered that South Africa also had Pegasus-affected software.

The type of cyberattacks that you will most likely experience if you are South African include:

• Online scams: you will receive information via email or text message that looks legit so as to trick you into receiving personal information
• Business email compromise: Business emails are hacked, and, in this way, the hackers gain payment-related information
• Ransomware: This form is hacking is such that employees are locked out of their computer systems until a ransom is paid
• Botnecks: All the networks within a compromised system are used to initiate a large-scale hack

While botnecks are more of a large-scale attack, not all attacks are seen as being Mass Effect hacking.

Why Talk About Cyberattacks

South Africa continues to suffer from cyberattacks and has put up many red flags in terms of these online attacks.

It is time that we as South African citizens become smarter and more knowledgeable about hacking and how hackers hack. The more that we know about the hackers' skills, the better chance we stand to defend our personal data from these hackers. All corporate entities feel threatened because of the thought that they can be next to be under attack. Hackers are laughing all the way to the bank due to the free reign that the cyber world has given them.

The more your company knows in terms of decoding cyberattacks, the better. You may not think that cyberattacks will affect you, but have you invested in cryptocurrency?

Investment scams are ever-growing, and your cryptocurrency wallet key can be accessed as well. So, whoever you are and wherever in South Africa you are based, it is time to learn about what hacking is.

If you think you know it all about cyber security this discipline was probably ill-explained to you. Stephane Nappo