Cyberthreat: definition, types and impact

Cyberthreats affect the vulnerability of individuals and companies by attempting to steal information and even to blackmailing victims financially.

The purpose of this type of threat, in addition to economic ones, is to paralyze or destroy the provision of services by companies or the normal activity of private individuals.

In this article we will review not only their definition, but also their types, the sources they come from and the impact they can have from different angles.

What is a cyberthreat?

A cyberthreat is an attack in which cybercriminals take advantage of their victims’ vulnerabilities to steal information and money in order to disrupt, destroy or threaten their normal activity.

Vulnerability in computer security requires the implementation of methods of prevention and defense of these attacks with effects on the security of individuals, small and large companies, institutions and even national security.

cyberthreats come mainly from the following sources:

• Hostile countries.
• Terrorist organizations.
• Criminal groups.
• Hackers.
• Insiders with insider information and bad intentions.

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Types of cyberthreats

The types of cyberthreats are varied, the main ones being as follows.

Malware

Malware is a program that is inserted into the system to compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of data stored or to be received.

Its name comes from the combination of the words malicious and software, which already gives an idea of its meaning and scope.

In fact, it is also known as malicious code and affects data, applications or the operating system itself.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of cyberthreat that prevents or limits users from accessing their operating systems and is one of the attacks preferred by cybercriminals.

The way to release access again is by paying a ransom, usually in virtual currencies such as bitcoins.

Detecting a ransomware attack is quite complicated, especially when its techniques are constantly evolving.

Social engineering and phishing

Social engineering often uses the manipulation of people to make them perform actions in which they expose sensitive data or information that gives cybercriminals access to gain a new victim.

Phishing is one of the most common forms of social engineering and uses fraudulent emails, text messages or calls to get people to provide personal or login information, download compromised files or transfer funds to the fraudsters.

Man in the Middle attacks or MiT

Man in the Middle means that the cybercriminal spies on the victim’s network connection to intercept their messages and operate with them so that they can steal sensitive data and information to complete their scam.

Denial of service attack

The Denial of Service Attacks are also known as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) and is a type of cybercrime in which an attacker overwhelms a server with an overload of Internet traffic in order to prevent users from accessing the services or websites under attack.

DDoS attacks often hide other real purposes such as fraud or impersonation.

Zero-day exploit

The Zero-day exploit consists of taking advantage of a security breach that is not yet in the public domain to carry out the scam.

This cyberthreat takes advantage of both the victim being defrauded and the vulnerability of the software or device provider who, a priori, are obliged to rectify their vulnerabilities on the same day as the exploit occurs.

Password attack

Password attacks, as the name suggests, consist of the cybercriminal getting hold of the victims’ passwords or login credentials to gain access to their accounts.

A more laborious version of this type of crime is what is known as a brute force attack, in which hackers try and try once and again combinations of passwords until they find the real one that opens the doors to the victims’ accounts.

Internet of Things attacks or IoT attacks

In IoT attacks, cybercriminals exploit Internet of Things devices to steal data or information that they can then use for their illegal purposes.

Smart home devices and industrial control systems are the main targets for fraud schemes.

Injection attack

In Injection attacks, hackers manage to infect their victims with malicious code, either through malicious code or by downloading malware from which to execute commands remotely.

Corporate Account Takeover or CATO

The Corporate Account Takeover or CATO is the identity theft of a brand that cybercriminals impersonate to gain the trust of victims and gather access to unauthorized accounts and banking transactions.

Weak IT protection or insufficient control of bank security can end up giving fraudsters total control.

It goes without saying that the financial risks of this type of cyber thread can be considerable.

Automated Teller Machine or ATM

ATM cash withdrawals mean that cybercriminals can access your accounts from ATMs in different geographical locations or can access them from a single location to withdraw large sums of money.

The cash withdrawal operation is consummated with a change of the control function to “unlimited operations” which allows withdrawing funds over the balance or limit previously set by the victim.

Quick list of impacts of cyberthreat

The following is a quick checklist of the main impacts of cyberthreats:

• Risk of lower productivity.
• Indirect involvement in criminal cases.
• Potential loss of money.
• Negative effects on brand reputation.
• The huge volume of data that can be lost.
• National security potential breaches. 

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