Cyber attacks are one of the growing threats of the present era. With more than 4.66 billion [1] internet users around the world and 7.6 billion [2] IOT devices sharing a large space of communication network, cyber security has become a most sought after need of this time. Cyber attacks are constantly targeting business organizations, military, government and many other financial institutions such as corporate banks for accessing confidential information or demanding ransom
Hackers are constantly evolving with more sophisticated attacks. Many multi billion dollar organizations and groups are working underground in consent to target big players. According to TrendMicro Research report one can buy a week-long DDoS attack from dark web for just 150 $ [3]. After DDoSing the target, hackers demands for lump sum money to release the attack.
Cyber Attacks in Recent Time
In September 2020, hackers gained access to Telegram messenger and compromised email data of users. Another New York based law firm Brooklyn Defender Services says it became a prey of data breach on September 13 2020. The attack involved the breach of sensitive personal information belonging to their low income, government-funded clients. FireEye, one of the world’s biggest cyber security firms, has recently disclosed that it was targeted with a ‘state-sponsored’ massive, specialized and highly sophisticated cyber attack. The most recent outage of Google on 14 Dec 20 also appears to be cyber attack according to some experts.
High Level Counter Measures for Cyber attacks
The demand for securing online assets and protecting netizens is on rise. Governments are making strict laws amid increased pressure from defense departments and businesses. Amid the Covid-19 crisis the cyber attacks are more accelerated than before, says Sandeep Patel, General Manager, IBM India/South Asia. Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are constantly involved in cyber security work to prevent any bad threat that can paralyze them.
Trends in Recent Cyber Attacks
Attackers are exploiting protocol weaknesses at the application layer to exploit and execute malicious activities via HTTP, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and telnet. Attackers often try to find the security holes and breaches in the system and execute malicious script. Hackers trick victims in installing free software containing malicious code, clicking on links that lands on unknown and insecure web-pages that compromises user data such as passwords, usernames, and credit card details.
What’s Ahead in Cyber Security
Cisco’s former CEO John Chambers once said “There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.” Many users even do not know their system are compromised and are illegally used by hackers in carrying out massive DDoS attacks without their intention. Their systems have already become a part of bot master army and working as a bot.
In today’s digital era, most people do all the major work online. Except for a very small percentage, most users do not know basic principles of cyber defense. To neutralize the cyber attacks, equal growth in the cyber security and cyber literacy is required. Organizations need to carryout workshops to train their employees to become secure computer user. This will help them increase awareness about cyber attacks and cyber security measures. Also organizations need to develop a team of security experts that keep an eye on latest development in cyber security and deploy them in their organization.
References:
1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
2. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/05/22/active-iot-devices/
3. Oleg Kupreev, et al. DdoS Attacks in Q3 2019. Kaspersky, https://securelist.com/DDoS-report-q3-2019/94958/.
