You can’t afford to ignore internet security in today’s world. There were 4.1 billion records stolen just in the first six months of 2019. Both small and large businesses are at risk.

Are you worried that your business isn’t adequately secured against online attacks? Below are five common types of cyber attacks you need to protect your business from.

1. Malware

It isn’t easy to tell trustworthy software from malicious software. This is where malware comes into play. It is a file that installs viruses, rootkits, or other malicious software on a computer.

Once the malware installs itself, it will look at your company network and continue to spread. After it scans your data, it will call home and inform the malware creator of everything it found.

2. Man-in-the-Middle Attack

If you have employees that work on public WiFi, they need to be careful about where they log in. Man-in-the-middle attacks happen when they connect to public networks.

Attackers set up public WiFi hotspots that are disguised as real WiFi. Once a victim connects to one of these networks, an attacker will be able to see everything their victim does on their hotspot.

Attackers can also put up fake versions of public websites. Whenever someone types in a URL to go to one of these websites, they’ll get the phony version instead. From there, any information they type into the site will be stolen by the attacker.

3. Credential Re-Use

There have been more data breaches than ever over the past few years. Many of these breaches included usernames and passwords.

Unfortunately, many people re-use the same username and password on every site they access. If an employee does the same for their company accounts, they will be at risk to have their accounts compromised.

4. Denial of Service Attack

You only have a limited amount of internet bandwidth available on your network. A denial of service attack aims to take advantage of this limitation.

These attacks occur when an attacker sends a large amount of traffic to your company network. The aim is to send enough traffic to slow down your entire company network. In many cases, an attacker will attempt to extort the affected business in exchange for stopping the attack.

5. Phishing

Many hackers use phishing in an attempt to gain access to employee passwords. Phishing happens when an attacker disguises themselves as someone from a company someone has an account with. It can occur by email or by personal contact.

Someone who doesn’t realize they aren’t talking with a real company will give out personal details to the hacker. Once that’s done, a hacker can access the online accounts of anyone that provides them sensitive data.

There Are More Types of Cyber Attacks out There

The types of cyber attacks above are only the start. Make sure you do a full audit of your IT infrastructure so you can protect your business from attack. You can’t afford to not to take security precautions anymore.

Do you need help securing your network? Contact us to learn how we can help protect your business from online threats.