Cyber Attack

Attackers vary their hacking techniques by target, resources, and objectives. Some attacks aim to steal credentials, others lock down systems for ransom, and some quietly collect data over time. The attacks below represent the most frequent and damaging threats that organizations face today.

Malware & Ransomware

Malware is an umbrella term for any software intentionally designed to cause damage, steal data, or gain unauthorized access to systems. This category includes viruses, trojans, spyware, keyloggers, and worms. Attackers distribute malware through infected email attachments, compromised websites, malicious downloads, and software vulnerabilities.

Ransomware is a form of malware designed to encrypt data or lock down systems and then demand payment for their release.

A ransomware attack, however, is not just the deployment of ransomware. It is a multi-stage intrusion in which attackers first gain access, establish persistence, elevate privileges, move laterally across systems, and often exfiltrate sensitive data before deploying ransomware as the final step to disrupt operations and force payment.

Modern ransomware groups combine encryption with data theft and extortion, turning full-scale network compromise into a highly profitable criminal business model.

WatchGuard's Q4 2024 Internet Security Report found that zero-day malware rebounded to 53% of detections. The report also documented a 141% increase in cryptomining activity as attackers exploited rising cryptocurrency values.

Social Engineering & Phishing

Social engineering exploits human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities to trick users into revealing sensitive data or granting access to secure systems. This type of attack is quite complex, as it manipulates trust, urgency, or authority to bypass security controls that are as heuristic as they are technical. 

Phishing is the most common form. Attackers send emails that appear to come from legitimate sources, such as banks, vendors, or internal IT departments, asking recipients to click links, open attachments, or provide credentials. Most breaches rely on the human element, that is, they need someone at the other end through which they can operate. This includes phishing, pretexting, credential abuse, errors, and interactions with malware.

AI-powered attacks have made phishing more convincing. WatchGuard detected a 40% increase in signature-based attacks in Q3 2024, indicating that attackers shifted toward social engineering tactics to execute their campaigns. Attackers now use large language models to write grammatically correct emails in multiple languages, craft personalized messages based on scraped social media data, and generate realistic voice calls that mimic executives or colleagues.

Pretexting involves creating a fabricated scenario to extract information. An attacker might pose as a help desk technician calling to "verify" a password, or as a vendor requesting payment details for an invoice. These attacks rely on establishing credibility and exploiting normal business processes.

DoS and DDoS Attacks

Denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic. In a DoS attack, a single source floods a target with requests. In a DDoS attack, attackers use multiple compromised devices to generate traffic from many sources simultaneously.

Attackers often use botnets, which are networks of infected computers or IoT devices controlled remotely, to launch DDoS attacks. These botnets can generate millions of requests per second, exhausting server resources, saturating network bandwidth, or crashing applications.

DDoS attacks also serve as smokescreening. Attackers launch a highly visible DDoS attack to distract security teams while simultaneously executing data theft or deploying malware elsewhere in the network. The overwhelming flood of attack traffic masks the more dangerous intrusion happening in parallel.

Identity-Based Attacks

Identity-based attacks focus on stealing or guessing valid user credentials to bypass security perimeters. Once attackers obtain legitimate credentials, they appear as authorized users and can move through systems without triggering many security alerts.

Credential stuffing uses stolen username and password combinations from previous data breaches to attempt logins on other services. Since many people reuse passwords, attackers run automated tools that test millions of credential pairs against target websites. 

Session hijacking occurs when an attacker steals or intercepts a valid session token, which is the identifier that keeps users logged in after authentication. With this token, the attacker can impersonate the user without needing the actual password. Attackers obtain session tokens through malware, network interception, or cross-site scripting attacks.

Account takeovers represent the end goal of many identity-based attacks. The attacker gains full unauthorized control of a real user account, effectively committing digital identity theft. From this position, they can access sensitive data, authorize transactions, impersonate the victim to colleagues or customers, or use the compromised account as a foothold to attack other systems.

Spoofing

Spoofing is the act of disguising a communication so that it appears to come from a trusted, legitimate source. Attackers manipulate identifying information to deceive recipients and security systems.

Email spoofing falsifies the sender address in an email header to make the message appear as if it came from someone the recipient knows or trusts. Attackers use this technique to distribute malware, collect credentials through fake login pages, or trick employees into transferring money to fraudulent accounts. 

Domain and website spoofing creates fake websites that closely resemble legitimate ones. Attackers register similar domain names, copy the visual design of trusted sites, and direct victims to these imitations through phishing emails or search engine manipulation. Users who enter credentials or payment information on these fake sites hand their data directly to attackers.

DNS spoofing, also called DNS cache poisoning, corrupts the domain name system to redirect users to malicious websites when they type in legitimate addresses. Attackers inject false DNS records into a DNS resolver's cache, causing the system to return an incorrect IP address. When users try to visit their bank's website, for example, they get sent to an attacker-controlled lookalike instead.

Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attacks

Man-in-the-Middle attacks occur when an attacker intercepts communication between two parties to eavesdrop or alter the data being sent. Neither party realizes a third entity is monitoring or manipulating their connection. These attacks target unencrypted communications, compromised networks, or flaws in authentication protocols.

Wi-Fi eavesdropping is a common form of MITM attack. Attackers set up fake wireless access points that appear legitimate, often called "evil twin" hotspots, in public places like coffee shops, airports, or hotels. When users connect to these malicious networks, the attacker can capture all traffic passing through, including login credentials, email content, and payment information. Since many people automatically connect to familiar network names, these fake hotspots succeed by mimicking the names of legitimate networks in the area.

Attack distribution varies by region. WatchGuard's Q3 2024 data shows EMEA accounted for 53% of all malware attacks by volume, doubling from the previous quarter, while Asia Pacific experienced 59% of network attack detections.