What is a Cyberattack? Definition, Types & Examples
A massive wave of cyber-attacks targeting high-profile companies in the retail sector started in April 2025. However, instead of paying the ransom, Coinbase decided to work with law enforcement and security industry experts to trace the stolen funds and hold those responsible for the scheme accountable. Although the company initially did not specifying how many customers may be affected, it later confirmed the compromise affected as much as 5.7 million customers. Those affected included Australian airline Qantas, Canada’s WestJet Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. Within a few months, the chained exploits were allegedly attempted by numerous threat actors, with almost 40% of Cisco Talos Incident Response (Talos IR) engagements recorded in late October targeting the exploitation of public-facing SharePoint servers. Other reporting suggested that the notorious Chinese hacking group Salt Typhoon may also have attempted to target government entities with the ToolShell exploit.
Targeting of high-value customers of an East Asian data-loss prevention company Targeting of Teamviewer, a German-based company that makes widely used remote-access tools for companies This example highlights how even small tools or extensions can introduce significant risk if users trust them without verification. Common cloud attack patterns include cloud account takeover, misconfiguration-based exposure, and API abuse, all of which rely on valid access rather than obvious exploits.
Most cyberattacks start with some sort of vulnerability, whether that’s poor cybersecurity system management, human error, or a network issue, for example. While knowing about all these threats is helpful, keeping up with the ever-evolving landscape of the most common cyberattacks can feel like a full-time job. So, there you have it—a rundown of some of the nastiest things lurking in the digital shadows. But staying vigilant and implementing strong security practices can significantly reduce your risk. Protecting yourself https://darkside.ru/news/news-item.phtml?id=150877&dlang=en and your organization from the many, many types of cyberattacks may seem overwhelming.
Headline-making cyberattacks and cybersecurity trends in 2022
By compromising an executive’s email account, attackers can authorize fraudulent transactions, access confidential data, and manipulate organizational processes. Social engineering is popular among attackers because it is easier to exploit people rather than network and software vulnerabilities. It often involves persuading victims to compromise their security or break security best practices for the attacker’s financial or informational gain. This injects the malicious code into the targeted website’s content, making it a part of the website and thus allowing it to affect victims who may visit or view that website. Examples of these include search engines, login forms, message boards and comment boxes. Supply Chain Attack is a type of cyberattack that target less-secure elements in the supply chain of an organization rather than attacking the organization directly.
Phishing attacks
A threat actor uses credentials they got from another data breach and tests them across accounts to try to gain access. This makes it less likely to trigger account lockouts, as it avoids excessive failed login attempts on any single account. So, instead https://www.yaldex.com/press-releases/internet/latest-release-of-hyperic-hq.htm of hammering one account with endless password guesses, password spraying distributes a small set of commonly used passwords across a large number of accounts.
Evolving Cyberattack Methods
A cyber threat map is a broader term that can also include cyber threat intelligence, exploited vulnerabilities, ransomware campaigns, phishing activity, cyber crime trends and recent security news. These exploited vulnerabilities can affect software vendors, web platforms, enterprise tools, servers and internet-facing systems used across real networks. Together, they make it easier to follow latest cyber attacks, recent cyber attacks, current cyber threats, DDoS activity, phishing campaigns and major cyber security incidents as they develop.
- These campaigns use legitimate ad networks to distribute malicious payloads or redirect users to exploit kits and phishing sites.
- Phishing is a major vector, as are vulnerability exploits, account takeover attacks, and previous malware-based attacks.
- Response must account for variations in attacker behavior, internal dependencies, and the reality of degraded environments.
- Cyber insurance helps enterprises pay for financial losses due to cyberattacks or data breaches.
- These extreme scenarios could still occur, but many experts consider that it is unlikely that challenges in inflicting physical damage or spreading terror can be overcome.
If a company uses third-party vendors, attackers often target those accounts too. Attackers may get in through older servers or shared accounts that still use weak passwords or outdated software. That’s why understanding how they work is the first step in strengthening defenses and reducing the risk of a single mistake that could turn into a major incident. Now, the methods they use for this may vary, but the most common include phishing, ransomware, and targeted system hacking.
- Most cyberattacks can be considered an invasion of privacy.
- CISA issued a notice that ConnectWise partners and end customers should pull the cord on all on-prem ScreenConnect servers if they could not update to the latest version amid the attacks.
- Up to 98% of cyberattacks – against businesses and otherwise – involve social engineering, making this a key trend to prepare for across the next year.
- A cyber attack is any action that has the intent of changing, stealing, destroying, or disrupting data and processes within a digital system.
- A Russian-based hacking group targeted the website of the United Kingdom’s intelligence agency MI5 with a DDoS attack that temporarily took the site offline.
The company claims MAI-Cyber-1-Flash tops Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol in CyberGym testing. The Iranian state-backed hacking group tracked as Nimbus Manticore (aka GalaxyGato, Mirage Kitten, Smoke Sandstorm, Subtle Snail, and UNC1549) has been attributed to a fresh set o… More than 24,000 internet-exposed servers are leaking authentication password hashes due to a 20-year-old vulnerability in their Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) interface. The company will use the fresh investment to grow its customer success and AI R&D teams.
Phishing attacks made up over 20% of total cybercrimes in 2024.
Expect role chaining, cross-account assumption, and lateral movement. Most cloud breaches stem from preventable misconfigurations or implicit trust assumptions that collapse under pressure. Authentication isn’t a control unless it includes behavior, context, and intent validation. MFA fatigue attacks bombard users with repeated authentication requests until one is approved. Server-side request forgery (SSRF) forces the application to initiate outbound requests to arbitrary destinations. Attackers craft inputs that modify SQL queries executed by backend databases, sometimes extracting entire schemas or modifying records.
They exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems or applications to spread from one device to another, often causing significant network congestion and disruption. Worms can also carry payloads that perform other malicious actions, like stealing data, deleting files, or installing backdoors. Unlike viruses, which attach themselves to existing files, worms are standalone programs that can propagate on their own. These botnets can grow to massive sizes, letting threat actors launch large-scale attacks that can overwhelm websites, steal data, or spread malware further. They’re often disguised as legitimate software or embedded in seemingly harmless files. While not always inherently malicious, it can be incredibly annoying and sometimes carry security risks as a gateway for more serious malware.
- The group later made the files available for download after Crunchbase refused to pay a ransom.
- Firewalls monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic to block suspicious activity and prevent attacks.
- Intended adoption of tools that directly address identity, access, and human risk, such as password managers (24%), also remains limited.123
- Research suggests more than 2,300 unique cyberattacks occur every day.
- • Generative or agentic AI–driven phishing (45%), generative AI model prompt hacking (44%), and AI-vishing (voice deepfakes) (43%) are cited as the biggest concerns by C-suite cyber leaders.
Together, these factors create fault lines that make cyber infiltration more likely, and mean that no one company, government or international body has the ability to fully manage international cyber risks on its own. A successful hack against a small Ukrainian software company might not sound like a big deal for the rest of us, but within a year of M.E.Doc’s servers being breached in 2017, the NotPetya hack had cost businesses around the world more than $10 billion. Try not to re-use the same password for different accounts as it increases the risk of a hacker gaining access to your information.
For example, following the data security incident, 23andMe required all users to reset their passwords and now requires all new and existing users to use two-step verification when logging in to the website. The scope ended up being much larger due to 23andMe’s DNA Relatives feature, which matches users with their relatives. 23andMe disclosed that hackers accessed about 14,000 accounts in a cybersecurity incident in October. Conducting third-party risk assessments, tracking metrics and KPIs like pass rate for security questionnaires, and using automation can help strengthen a healthcare organization’s third-party risk management program and protect it from data breaches like this one.