Everything you need to know about Cyber Attacks

Cyber Attack is an offensive activity employed by nation-states, individuals or organizations that target computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructure etc. This attack is referred differently as a cyber campaign, cyber warfare or cyber terrorism.

In the past, there were continuous cyber attacks witnessed all over the world. No matter what the size of the organization is, the cyber attack takes place in any organization whether big or small. Here is a list of some of the riskiest cyber attacks in the world’s history, which till now are unforgettable.

Robert Tappan Morris and the Morris Worm (1988)

Cornell University’s student, namely Morris of USA was the inventor of the Morris worm- the first worm which was transferable through the Internet. According to him, his intention was not to harm anyone but he had a safe purpose of showing the expanse of the web. Everything started getting worse when the worm experienced an error and gradually transformed into a virus which infected other computers too. According to the reports, about 6000 computers were infected by this worm and their repair expenditure was between $10 – $100 million dollars.

Solar Sunrise (1998)

Occurred in the US, this cyber attack captured and infected over 500 government and private computer systems. Named Solar Sunrise because the target of this attack was the computers working through the Sun Solaris operating system.

The Melissa Virus (1999)

David Smith was the inventor of Melissa. This virus caused a damage of about $80 million. It infected the Microsoft Word documents and sends itself as an attachment through emails to the first 50 usernames in the Outlook and through this, it used to spread to other computers and infect them.

MafiaBoy led to a loss (2000)

Michael Calce a.k.a. MafiaBoy was the mastermind behind the loss. The MafiaBoy had an intention of discharging an attack on the well-known commercial websites e.g. Amazon, Yahoo, CNN, and eBay. He led to a loss of $1.2 billion dollars. The accused was kept in the open court for 8 months, i.e. his movements were made limited. His Internet usage was also made limited.

Attack on the Internet (2002)

A digital assault pointed solidly at all 13 domain name framework’s root servers in the US practically pushed the Internet to the brink of collapse. The time period of the collapse was approximately an hour. The attack did not have any detrimental effects but if the attack would have lasted longer, it would have made the Internet worse.

Google China (2009)

In the mid-December, the China’s Google headquarters noticed worms in their systems, blaming the Chinese Government for it. During the investigation, it was found that advocates of the human rights in China were having access to various emails from the G-mail without any permission.

Credit Cards Hacking (2009)

This hacking was done by t Gonzales was in charge of fixing countless debit cards and credit card numbers from more than 250 banks. The target audience were many organizations including the 7- Eleven convenient store chain.

WannaCry Ransomware (2016)

As per reports, India falls in the category of those 99 countries that were stimulated by a massive cyber attack. In past, it has majorly affected huge companies – two South India banks, two Delhi-based Indian assembling organizations, one assembling unit of an MNC, corporate central station of a Mumbai-based aggregate and a Mumbai-based FMCG organization. More than 100 PCs of Andhra Pradesh police have likewise been influenced.

South Indian part of our country became the prey of these cyber attacks which targeted computers running Microsoft Windows operating system. Carrying out using WannaCry (malware), the attack was considered to be a ransomware. This ransomware is a digital system that locks down the systems by encoding the data on it.

With rising e-parasite attacks, it is time to take preventive measures to lessen the risks of these Cyber Attacks.

1) Using passwords that are difficult to access:

Your passwords must be easy to remember but difficult to assume by any third person. Don’t just use letters or numerical. Use a combination of these to make the password more complex which reduces the chances of your data getting hacked. For example instead of 12345 or abcde, one can write a2b3c1d4. Usage of signs and symbols along with the password makes them stronger.

2) Lock your phone and laptop:

Make sure you always have a preferable lock in your laptop and mobile phone. By chance, if your phone or laptop is lost, so that no other random person can access it the usage of locking system is preferred. Facilities such as remote tracking and remote wiping are much helpful in this case.

3) Change your Wi-Fi password:

Change the default password that your Wi-Fi router came with. This is the password that even the Wi-Fi setter knows. Well, this is risky. So, think of it and put a new password for your Wi-Fi connection.

4) Be aware of the social networking sites:

Nowadays, even the social networking sites get hacked. Enter no personal and confidential information in these sites.

5) Different service, different password:

Use different passwords for various services. Same password for every multiple service results in less security. Hence, it is risky. This implies that if a programmer has one secret word, he or she has the greater part of your passwords.

6) No random hard drives allowed:

Do not use pen drives and hard drives which you don’t trust. Don’t put your computer at risk if the source is unknown. You never know, which hard drive is made with an intention of stealing your data present in your system.

7) Be careful while installing apps:

Read all the permissions before installing any app rather than avoiding them. You should be aware of the permissions the apps are taking from your cell phones. They might be accessing your personal information like contacts, location or your phone’s camera, which leads to encouragement of Cyber Attacks.

8) Use a secure website:

There is a need to ensure that the website is secure before you enter any of your confidential information in them. Check that the web address of that website starts with “//”. This proves that the website is totally secure.

To conclude, Cyber Attacks now are constantly increasing at a rapid pace which is alarming for the whole nation. Hence, these preventive measures can be a turning point to make strong gateways of our online accounts and websites.