It is imperative to protect your data and systems from today’s most hazardous cloud attack methods. Common threats include DDoS, Ransomware, Phishing emails, and credential stuffing; read on to discover more.
Credential Stuffing
“Credential stuffing” is an automated attack against login systems that involves injecting large numbers of username and password combinations into websites, as seen with SSH, Telnet, and RDP services.
Credential stuffing is nothing new, but its volume of attacks has increased significantly in recent years. Cybercriminals are constantly honing their techniques.
Credential stuffing offers attackers many advantages. For instance, it enables them to scale their attacks and gain insight into the compromised system. With successful attacks, this information could be used for identity theft, malware distribution, or even targeted attacks.
DDoS Attacks
Denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are cyberattacks that cause disruption to online services, such as websites and web servers. They may originate from various devices like botnets of malware-infected computers, routers, or other equipment. DDoS attacks have become increasingly commonplace in the wild and pose an increasing danger for businesses and organizations alike.
DDoS attacks can be devastatingly disruptive and costly, with a successful attack costing millions of dollars. That makes DDoS protection an integral part of any business’s cybersecurity plan. Not only do these disruptions cause websites and services to go down, but they may also tarnish a brand’s reputation.
A Denial-of-service (DDoS) attack utilizes traffic generated by compromised computers to send spoofed packets to a targeted system, forcing it to crash or deny access. These attacks are commonly employed as means to extract money from businesses or organizations.
Phishing Emails
Phishing emails are one of the most hazardous cloud attack methods today. They use social engineering techniques to access confidential data, infiltrate a company’s systems and even acquire users’ passwords and credit card details.
Phishing emails continue to rise in frequency. They can target individuals, organizations or entire companies with malicious links or attachments that contain malware.
According to a recent study by the FBI, 250,000 phishing attacks were carried out in 2020. The most prevalent types of phishing emails impersonate well-known brands and organizations such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.
Azure Active Directory
Microsoft’s backbone, Azure Active Directory is the backbone of their ecosystem. Offering users Single Sign-on and Identity Protection, all Microsoft services rely on this platform for access control management. Unfortunately, as a cloud native identity, it attracts malicious attackers looking to breach into the cloud.
Organizations relying on Azure Active Directory for cloud infrastructure protection face a serious security risk. To combat this threat, companies need to be aware of common vulnerabilities and take measures to secure their environment.
Organizations should always implement the most up-to-date protocols and practices, including blocking legacy protocols like ActiveSync. Furthermore, having a strong password policy in place can be an effective way to thwart brute force attacks.
KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attacks) is a series of WPA2 vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to decrypt wireless communications, read encrypted data and replay packets. Unfortunately, these flaws can only be exploited within physical proximity of Wi-Fi networks.
This attack is similar to injecting data onto an unprotected Wi-Fi network or hijacking a TCP connection. To carry out this maneuver, an attacker can force installation of a key they possess, enabling wireless traffic to be decrypted.
An attacker could then capture the WPA2 handshake and compare it with a list of codes likely to be used. In some cases, they could even manipulate the handshake in order to intercept internet traffic.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts files on an infected system and demands payment in exchange for decrypting them. Regardless, paying the ransom does not guarantee access to your files.
Ransomware attacks typically use malvertising as their primary entry point. This type of assault targets anyone who clicks on an ad or malicious link.
Recent attacks have increasingly relied on off-the-shelf libraries to execute their malware. The most effective defense against ransomware is regularly backing up your data.
Testing file integrity can be accomplished either automatically or manually. Make sure to test each file’s integrity prior to uploading them.
