As a business owner, you must be aware of the several types of Cyber-attacks out there. In the below sections you will acquire a more comprehensive understanding of different types of cyber-attacks of which small business owners should be vigilant of.

 

Password Attacks

 

No matter what industry you work in, chances are, you’re hearing more about the password “rules” all the time, like never use an easy to guess password (like 123 or David1972). Individuals may assume that their password is distinctive, but reality proves that nearly 75 percent of the internet population uses passwords listed in the top 500 most common passwords. Hackers have quite a few techniques they can use to getting a chance in learning your password. These include Brute Force Attacks, Dictionary Attacks, and Key Logger Attacks. Some attacks are simple elementary guessing. This is based on an extensive research on the victim they are attempting to hack. Once the code is cracked, your data is exposed, consequently leading to a path of serious cyber damage.

 

Pharming

 

You may not realize, however, a great deal of legitimate looking sites you are accessing are fraudulent sites where hackers will seek out sensitive and confidential information like credit card info or social security numbers.  Pharming is a cyber-attack intended to redirect a website’s traffic to another, fake website. It’s a sophisticated method for the use of learning personal data.

 

Phishing

 

Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive info such as usernames and passwords, by camouflaging as a trustworthy entity in electronic communication. It’s a deceitful practice of sending emails contending to be from sound companies in order to induce individuals to disclose personal information. According to the 2013 Microsoft Computing Safety Index, released in February 2014, the annual worldwide impact of phishing could be as high as US $5billion! You should be cautious! Some emails you receive are in the guise of a reputable source, the links may lead you to fake sites, such as social websites, auction sites, banks, and online payment processors.

 

Malware

 

As a business owner, you should be aware of the several types of Malware. Malware is a general term used to describe malicious software that is intended to harm or disable computers and computer systems. Some of them are:

• Trojan Horses A Trojan horse is designed to perform legitimate tasks but it also performs unwanted activity. It is the basis of many viruses and worms installing onto your computer. All of these are probable to attack an individual and establishment through emails, web browsers, chat clients, remote software and updates. Trojans can also change your computer settings to moderate security and allow access for the installation of more malware.

• Adware Are you persistently getting annoying pop up ads? A whole heap of them are simple adware. Adware is Software that automatically displays or downloads advertising material when a user is online. It could also reduce the speed of your computer performance.

• Spyware This malicious software tends to play around with the user’s awareness, by detecting the activities of the infected PC. It monitors user’s activity on the computer to see what files are opened, the website visited and the varieties of data being stored.

 

Drive-By Downloads

 

Drive-By downloads tend to happen when viewing an email message, visiting a website or by clicking on a misleading pop-up window. Sometimes you may click on a window thinking that a seemingly innocent advertisement pop-up is being dismissed. In this case the provider may claim that the user “consented” to the download, although the user was completely unaware of having started an unsolicited software download.

 

Point-of-Sale System Hacking

 

This one is wicked! Skillful hackers have the ability to steal data and forward it to numerous servers. This specific type of attack is named point of sale hacking. In this attack, hackers tend to steal data kept at the completion of a sale, like when a credit card is swiped at a store register. Endless damage could be imposed in this short microsecond that the data is vulnerable before it is encrypted.

As the sophistication of the software that hackers use increases, more business owners and companies are taking steps to ensure that their network, and their sensitive information stored on it, is safe and secure.