Catwalk of the most dangerous cyberattacks

The ranking of the most dangerous hacker attacks

How do the eight biggest cyber threats fare on the catwalk this year? 
Cyberattacks are currently responsible for 67% of the total damage of 178.6 billion euros caused to the German economy by data theft, sabotage and industrial espionage! By way of comparison: insurers expect natural disasters of around seven billion euros in 2024.

Are you prepared for cyber attacks?

With the DEFENDERBOX you are one step ahead of cyber threats: Strengthen your company’s resistance to hacker attacks — especially in your own environment!

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8th place

In eighth place in the ranking is DNS spoofing! This is a technique in which a user’s DNS requests are redirected to a fraudulent website or malicious server. This allows cybercriminals to steal confidential information or intercept the user’s traffic. The tricky part is that the user is unaware of this as they are unwittingly interacting with a fake website!

There are numerous technical possibilities for DNS spoofing. The main types of DNS spoofing include DNS poisoning, DNS tunneling and DNS hijacking.

It is advisable to monitor DNS traffic and detect anomalies in order to recognize DNS spoofing attacks at an early stage. Regularly updating operating systems, applications and network components is also crucial in order to identify security gaps and eliminate known vulnerabilities. By using VPN, you can encrypt your connection and protect data traffic from manipulation.

7th place

Seventh place goes to zero-day exploits. A zero day — sometimes called 0day — is a vulnerability that has not yet been reported to the developers of the affected application, so they have had “zero days” to fix it. Developers don’t think like hackers, so it’s not uncommon for a complex application to contain at least one vulnerability.

Usually a Hacker a system until it finds a zero-day gap. A zero-day attack is when the affected system is compromised in the course of a zero-day exploit.

6th place

Cross-site scripting (XXS) in sixth place in the ranking of the biggest cyber threats! XXS is one of the most popular attack methods and can be used as a basis for further attacks.
 
Attackers place malicious Script code into normally harmless and trustworthy sites. As soon as a user visits such a site and logs in with their login details, cyber criminals can access parts of the session or even take over the login altogether. In the worst case scenario, the attackers gain far-reaching access rights to the user’s system and can therefore access local data, for example. Even a complete takeover of the affected system is possible via XSS. 

Other XSS-based types of attack include phishing (see number one) and website defacement. In the latter, the attackers place content on a website for defamation purposes without the site operator’s knowledge.

Therefore, consistent protection of web applications should be a top priority for companies. User input must be meticulously checked to prevent malicious code from reaching the web server in the first place. This is best done regularly and automatically with our DEFENDERBOX.

5th place

Fifth place goes to infected websites and mobile apps for smartphones or tablets — so-called SQL injections. 

Even today, information in a database is still usually inserted, filtered and retrieved using one or other standardized query language (such as SQL). Accordingly, a web browser, basic SQL knowledge and an Internet connection are sufficient to exploit vulnerabilities in a web application and access user data, locate or reset login information and use the data obtained as a starting point for more extensive attacks on the network. Where are SQL injections most likely to occur? For example, in smart home hubs, network devices, electric sports car accounts or apps. 

Can this be prevented? Good patch hygiene solves many problems. In addition, companies should reduce the risk of unauthorized or malicious queries by restricting these inputs and limiting the types of database procedures that can be performed. User input to an SQL database should also be regularly monitored, validated and cleaned to remove malicious code.

On January 7, the ranking of the most dangerous cyber threats in 2024 will be continued from fourth to first place! Stay tuned.

Our tip

Basically, you should not give hackers a chance. Use proactive security solutions such as the DEFENDERBOXto protect your data! Find out over the next few days whether there are any vulnerabilities and security gaps in your IT: Book the DEFENDERBOX “Find & Fix” test installation! So that you feel secure again!