Types of Network Attacks
Summarize common networking attacks.
-DoS (Reflective, amplified, distributed)
-Social engineering
-Insider threat
-Logic bomb
-Rogue access point
-Evil twin
-War-driving
-Phishing
-Ransomware
-DNS poisoning
-Brute force
-Exploits vs. Vulnerabilities
Cite all sources using the IEEE format.
Types of Network Attacks
Introduction
With the advent of technology, internet use is gaining popularity by the day. With the use of the internet comes various multifaceted forms of attacks on the soft wares, devices and notably the network. Network attacks occur when an unauthorized person tries to gain access to an organization or individual’s network to perform malicious acts such as data stealing, damage or overwhelming the networks. The attacks can either be passive or active. Passive attacks occur when an attacker infiltrates into the network, monitoring or stealing information without causing data alteration. In contrast, active attacks occur when attackers gain access, modify data and destroy the content and, in some extreme cases, permanently deleting data. This discourse seeks to expound the most common network attacks today.
Common types of Network attacks
These attacks are launched daily, every hour at an astounding pace, with the constant revolution of attacks as attackers become more innovative by the day. Herein are the most common networking attacks in the contemporary world today.
Denial of service attacks (DoS)
Denial of service attacks is a type of network attack that shuts down the network making it inaccessible. The hackers do this by overwhelming the target network with traffic forcing it to flood with information that could prompt a crash. For organizations, it causes hours of downtimes making the system inaccessible for legitimate users. Another form of DoS attack is the Distribute Denial of Service Attack (DDoS) (Cao, 2020). This is a more sophisticated stack targeting high profile organizations. They cause network distraction leading to loss of business hours following the downtimes during the distractions.it It has cost a lot of companies millions of dollars in losses resulting from business loss during the network disruption. In other cases, they have suffered legal implications and subsequent revenue loss in recovery and compensations.
Social engineering
These types of attacks are used by attackers to bypass authorization and authentication procedures to gain access to a network. It is the modern form of network attacks and has become a lucrative business for attackers. The attackers launch these malicious acts on organizations or unsuspecting individuals who accidentally download the attachments introducing them into their networks and devices. These malicious attacks hast cost organization thousand in damages and recoveries as they try to salvage and recover their network systems (van Heerden, 2013).
Insider threat
Fundamentally, it is common for most network attacks to be external; however, in some instances, the attack is performed by someone within an organization with authorization to access the network. These kinds of attacks are the most detrimental since the attackers have the authority to access the system; hence no many security measures can control the attack. Moreover, a lot of organizations focus on protecting their networks from external threats rather than internal ones. This can occur from stealing sensitive data from a network, data leaking, or injection of Trojan viruses to paralyze the network (Rao, 2017). Additionally, the attacker can overwhelm the system leading to downtimes or subsequently crashes. These attacks are difficult to detect since they do not infiltrate the systems since they already have unprecedented access.
Logic bomb
A logic bomb is a code introduced into the system that will cause it to be multifunction after a certain time. These malicious introductions can be worms or even viruses. The malicious software is usually pre-defined to execute the function at a given time and spread out without being noticed. They could be set to attack their host systems on specific dates. They are difficult to trace back since they will have been injected into the devices along time and scheduled to attack another day (Timm, 2010). Logic bomb attacks are very difficult to detect since they are always pre-launched days or weeks proper to the actual attack date.
Rogue access point
These are access points installed by attackers to facilitate the man in the middle attacks. Through this, they search for service set identifies (SSIs), and once they identify it, they connect to the network, creating rogue access points. The wireless network users may not detect these malicious access points hence connecting it to their devices inadvertently. Thus, the hacker has access to the users’ network, whereby they can easily perform the man in the middle attacks (Timm, 2010).
Evil twin
This type of attack occurs when an attacker creates a network point that appears legit hence luring unsuspecting users to these websites. When the users click on these websites, the hacker intercepts the transaction getting all access to the users’ network. These fake access points usually disguise by adopting a close to similar names with the nearby network to avoid detection. It is one of the most dangerous network attacks targeting high profile organizations to steal or destroy highly classified information (van Heerden, 2013).
War-driving
This type of attack occurs when hackers search for wires networks in moving locomotives with the aid of a computer device or a smartphone. Once they identify a wireless network, they break into the network and steal data or perform malicious acts. Since these hackers are constantly on the move, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact attack or the perpetrators involved (Hoque, 2014).
Phishing
This one of the most common network attack threats. The hacker sends spam emails to the unsuspecting user. On clicking the email, it releases a malware that infects the devices that quickly spreads through the network. Another common form of phishing is spear-phishing. The attackers try to trick the user into clicking on malicious emails to steal their personal information, for instance, payment card details or private medical reports. These attackers forge emergencies or risk of loss of monetary value to lure their victims. Over time, phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated as these are constantly becoming innovative to bypass the security measures implemented (Timm, 2010).
Ransomware
This is malicious software used by hackers to corrupt a network device or the entire network system. On installation, the ransomware encrypts files making it impossible for the users to regain access to their network data. The hacker then demands a ransom payment to enable the user to access their files; failure to comply may lead to data deletion and loss of files (Timm, 2010).
DNS poisoning
This another form of network attack also referred to as spoofing, which entails computer distortion by corrupting the domain names server (DNS) data, hence intruding an attacker’s cache. The attacker tries to access low-level system functions like drivers, OS, device and network, thus, infected with viruses that will potentially harm the digital assets and network data. They divert users from legitimate servers to fake servers. When this attack occurs, users receive false data from the fake servers. This continues for a period until the cache expires (van Heerden, 2013).
Brute force
This occurs when the potential attacker attempts to gain access to a network or system by trying all the possible ones until they find the correct logins. This occurs by overpowering the system through repetition; this is possible through dictionary software that puts together different words. The attackers repeat the attempt as often as possible until they eventually crack the passwords to the secured network systems. These brute force attacks are one of the reasons why it is imperative to adhere to the password best practices for essence, creating a long and complex password that makes it difficult to crack (Rao, 2017)
Conclusion
Network security is a priority in every internet user. With the rapid development of computer network technology, many people are more cognizant of the importance of network security. However, the network security attacks are on the rise day by day. These malicious acts of selfishness have cost indicial and organizations millions resulting from the aftermath of these attacks. Notably, by adhering to the security measures provided can help curb these attacks. In addition, regular software and network updates allow for early detection in case of a breach
References
Cao, L., Jiang, X., Zhao, Y., Wang, S., You, D., & Xu, X. (2020). A survey of network attacks on cyber-physical systems. IEEE Access, 8, 44219-44227.
Hoque, N., Bhuyan, M. H., Baishya, R. C., Bhattacharyya, D. K., & Kalita, J. K. (2014). Network attacks: Taxonomy, tools and systems. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 40, 307-324.
Timm, C., & Perez, R. (2010). Seven deadliest social network attacks. Syngress.
Rao, J., Rai, S., & Narain, B. (2017). A study of network attacks and features of secure protocols. Research Journal of Engineering and Technology, 8(1), 04-08.
van Heerden, R., Leenen, L., & Irwin, B. (2013, November). Automated classification of computer network attacks. In 2013 International Conference on Adaptive Science and Technology (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
