Data Privacy at Risk: Understanding and Preventing Breaches

You should know that everything you put on the internet have a risk of being taken by unauthorized person. That is why, it is important for you to understand how to prevent cyber attack that can lead to data breach.

What is Cyber Attack?

Cyber Attack is a deliberate malicious attempt done by organization or individual that want to breach a system owned by another organization or individual. This attack usually done to get benefits by disrupting the system or taking personal and sensitive data that is stored inside the system. 

This attack occurs every single day which often targeted business as their system holds a lot of sensitive information that can be beneficial to the attackers. Sometimes the attackers may sell the data that they get or they may ask for ransom which resulted in financial damage for the business. But some attackers launch their attack to damage the system and ruin the owner’s reputation. 

Types of Cyber Attacks That Commonly Happen

• Phishing
  This type of attack is done by sending fraudulent message which appear as if it come from legit source. The message usually sends through email. This attack is done to take personal data such as login information or credit card info. 
  
  It can also be a method to launch other type of attack such as malware that will be installed into the victim’s system when they click a link inside the email. 
• Malware
  This type of attack is done through malicious software such as worms, viruses, ransomware, and spyware. Usually the malicious software can get into the system when someone click attachment or link that leads them to dangerous site which will automatically install the malicious software into the victim’s system. 
  Then malicious software will breach the system through the vulnerabilities that they found. Once it enters the system it can performed malicious process such as:
  • Ransomware will be blocking the access for key components inside the system
  • It will install additional malicious software or malware into the system
  • Spyware will take information inside the system by transferring data that it take from the system hard drive
  • It will disrupt important components inside the system which will make it inoperable. 
• Eavesdropping attack
  Technically known as MitM attack which will happen when the attacker put themselves in between transaction done by two-party. This attack is done by interrupting the transaction traffic which then will be filter by the attacker to steal their data.
  This attack will make used of public Wi-Fi which usually unsecure to put themselves between the network and the Wi-Fi user’s device. Thus, every information that the user’s put on the device will go through the attacker first. 
  This attack can also be done through malware which will breach the device to install additional software which can be used to process data inside the device and leads to data breach.
• SQL injection
  This attack is done by inserting malicious codes inside a server which use SQL which then will force the system to reveal information that should not be revealed normally. The attack itself can be done in simple method which is to put the malicious codes into search box in a website that is vulnerable. 
• DoS attack
  This attack will flood the victim’s network, servers, or system with a lot of traffics with intention to exhaust all of its bandwidth and resource. That way the system would not be able to fulfill legit requests. Sometimes the attackers will use multiple devices that they already compromise to do this attack which known as DDoS attack. 
• Zero-day exploit
  This attack will be done quickly right when there is an announcement about a new vulnerability inside a network so they can attack the system before any solution or patch is implemented.
  This means the attackers will make used on this small window frame to launch their attack. This is why you need to constantly be aware of latest data breach to be able to protect yourself from cyber attack.
• DNS tunneling
  This attack is done using DNS protocol to send non-DNS traffic using port 53. It will send HTTP as well as other protocol traffic using DNS. Although there are legit reason why DNS tunneling is done but some attackers may also use this method for malicious reasons.
  
  For example, they might send illegitimate outbound traffic and disguise it as DNS to conceal the data which shared using internet connection. That way they can send request using DNS to take data from the victim’s system and send it to the attacker’s system. It may also be used to hide control callbacks and commands that come from the attacker’s system and send it to the victim’s system. 

Read more What Is GDPR: A Comprehensive Guide To Data Protection

Trends in Cyber Attack

Cyber attack changes rapidly as it continues to evolve around the latest things that happen in this world. The landscape of the attack also evolved and getting bigger which makes anyone can be the next attack target. Here are some of the trends in cyber attack that happen recently:

• Hybrid war
  Last year Russia launched their invasion into Ukraine. Their attack uses various means including cyber attack. Furthermore, there are also history of cyber attack engagement between both countries. 
  
  Russia had done DDoS attack to Ukraine’s power infrastructure back in 2015 then again in 2022. With the invasion even more cyber attack happen between both countries which done by both unofficial and official organization. 
• Country extortion
  These days ransomware attack taking even more larger attack who can pay larger ransoms. Previously ransomware will target individual then move into large corporate and now it target entire country which believed to be more profitable. 
  
  Since the target becomes bigger this means the ransomware attackers group also become larger which makes them more visible. That is why, to protect themselves they begin to link themselves through politic into nation-states that will protect them. Thus, the attack now is not only about asking for ransom but also for political reasons. 
• Cloud environment attack
  Supply chain that using cloud environment is now become the next big thing targeted by attackers. Especially since most of those environments is build using the same cloud infrastructure or open source software.
  
  Companies continue to face even bigger challenge in securing their environment which makes their supply chain having significant risk to attack. Attackers also often target third parties that provide the cloud environment which scale up and increase the impact of the attack. Okta allegedly also facing this type of attack back in 2022.
• Mobile Malware
  Mobile communication become more and more common these days which is why cyber attack next target would be the mobile devices. These days attackers such as NSO group, QuaDream, and Cytrox as begin to develop more and more mobile malware and spyware that using vulnerabilities inside the system to exploit it which will result in data breach. 

Learn How to Protect Yourself and Prevent Data Breach

As cyber attack become more and more common you can also be the victim of data breach. That is why, you need to learn how to protect yourself as you will be the one that is responsible for your own data security. Here are some things that you can do:

• Use internet security software
  You need to use security software in your device such as antivirus software and you should also use internet security software as well. Some antivirus software already has this as additional feature but if the antivirus that you use does not have it then you need to install it immediately. 
  The internet security software will help to prevent you from downloading or installing malicious software by mistake and protect you from other cyber attack which comes from the internet. 
• Use password manager
  It is very important for you to protect your account using strong password which consist of at least 12 letters with symbols, numbers and alphabets. Furthermore, you must not use the same password on different account so every password should be different
  However, sometimes it would be hard to remember all of those passwords. That is why you might want to use password manager that can help you to store all of those passwords. 
• Always update your system
  It is important for you to keep updating the system that you use in your devices including computer and mobile devices. The update will patch vulnerabilities that found on the older version which help you to avoid cyber attack that usually exploit those vulnerabilities. 
  Do not forget to also update your antivirus and other security software as they are the one that will help you to detect cyber attack. With the update your antivirus will have the newest virus data and able to detect the attack.

Conclusion

As you can see data breach can happen to anyone, that is why it is important for you to understand about the risk. You should also do all of the precaution that we mention above to protect yourself from cyber attack.

Tags: data breach, cyber attack, data privacy breaches, cyberattack, cyber attack trend