Network Attacks and Its Common Types To Watch Out For

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Today, the Internet serves as an all-encompassing asset. Almost all commercial and business activities are dependent on network connections. The ability to connect the world, and reach almost any person globally has accelerated communication, information, and data sharing. At the same time, the rapid increase in internet-connected devices makes it easier for attackers to get access to sensitive data, cause harm to IT networks, and devices.

As digital transformation is gaining ground in the workplaces, companies are having a harder time providing security within their networks. With the increased number of connected devices, enterprise IT systems are becoming more vulnerable to sophisticated network attacks.

These new types of network threats demand multi-layered, and easy-to-scale network security solutions, to mitigate the risks of these attacks. Due to the increased frequency and complexity of these attacks, network security has been in the spotlight recently for businesses.

What Are Network Attacks?

A network attack is any type of action that aims to retrieve, change, destroy data or information through a variety of methods. These attacks are mainly targeting computer information systems, infrastructures, enterprise networks, or any other devices with a network connection.

There are two main types of network attacks:

• Passive attacks: The attackers are gaining unauthorized access to the network, and can track or steal data from it, without making any changes to these data.

• Active attacks: Additionally to getting access to network data, attackers are also changing, deleting, or harming it.

Usually, once attackers are in the network, they can combine various methods and modes of attack, generating more harm and getting access to more sensitive data.

Common Types of Network Attacks

1. Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks

The aim of a denial-of-service attack is to overwhelm the network, thus making it unable to respond to any service requests. A DDoS is like a DoS in that it attacks a network’s resources. However, in the case of DDoS, the traffic flooding from the attack originates from multiple sources. This way, it makes it more difficult to avoid the attack, as opposed to a DoS, where blocking the single source of traffic can solve the problem.

1. Man-in-the-middle attack (MitM)

During a MitM attack, the attacker puts itself between the client and a server. By doing so, the attacker can retrieve, track and control the communication within the network.

1. SQL injection attack

SQL injection attacks are using SQL code to gain access to sensitive information, that was not intended to be visible. By injecting the malicious code, attackers can control the backend databases, and steal sensitive information from the network. This information can include passwords, company data, customer details, and many more.r details.

1. Malware attack

A malware attack is a type of network attack, in which malware (i.e.: malicious software) implements unwanted actions within the network. The attacker’s malware can take many forms. Malware can be micro viruses, trojans, logic bombs, worms, ransomware, to name a few.

1. Drive-by attack

A drive-by attack is a common way to spread malware into a network. During this attack, the malicious code is downloaded to the network device, without the consent or awareness of the user. Once the code is downloaded, the network is vulnerable to attack, without relying on any further actions from the users. Drive-by attacks can exploit the weaknesses and security flaws of applications, operating systems, browsers due to inadequate software updates.

As network attacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated, companies need to stay on top of their network security actions and tools, to mitigate the risks associated with these online threats. While there is not a one-size-fits-all solution that can protect against all types of network attacks, companies can strive to apply flexible, scalable, and multi-layered defenses, to maximize their network protection against these threats.

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