Simply put, a cyber
attack is an attack launched from one computer or more computers against
another computer, multiple computers or networks.
Cyber attacks might
be broken down into two broad types: attacks where the goal is to disable the
target computer or knock it offline, or attacks where the goal is to get access
to the target computer's data and perhaps gain admin privileges on it. There
are a variety of techniques attackers use to achieve those goals, including:
Malware downloaded to a target computer that can do anything from steal data to encrypt files and demand ransom
Malware downloaded to a target computer that can do anything from steal data to encrypt files and demand ransom
Phishing emails that
are crafted to fool victims into giving up passwords or taking some other
harmful action
The WannaCry cyber
attack took advantage of two key issues:
1) Hacking tools were stolen from the
National Security Agency (NSA) that exploited Windows vulnerabilities; and
2)
The majority of the organizations hit by the WannaCry cyber attack had failed to
patch and were running some form of the Windows 7 operating system.
While a ransomware attack is just one form of cyber attack,
other attacks occur when hackers create malicious code known as malware and
distribute it through spam email campaigns or phishing campaigns.
Overall, cyber attacks have been growing at an alarming rate
– in volume, sophistication and impact. In May 2017, Check Point products
detected more than 17 million attacks each week. More than half included
payloads that were unknown at the time of detection and could not be detected
by conventional signature-based technology.
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