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Cyber Security Attacks         2
CYBER SECURITY ATTACKS: AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
Background    3
Types of Cyber Security Attacks    4
Methods to Execute Cyber-Security Attacks    5
Impact of Cyber Security Attacks    6
Protection Against Cyber Security Attacks Through Countermeasures    8
Emerging Trends and Future Implications    9
Recommendations    10
Conclusion    13
References    15
Introduction
    In this era of digital transformation, both individuals and organisations face a major challenge of cyber security attacks. With the increasing use of internet and digital platforms the probability of getting attacked by cyber criminals has increased significantly. Cyber security attacks simply refer to any malicious attempt to get unauthorised access to any computer, an entire computing system or a computer network (Aslan et al., 2023). Cyber security attacks have serious consequences for individuals as well as organisations including financial losses, loss of reputation, and threats to safety and security. This research paper provides an in-depth analysis of cyber security attacks including the types of cyber security attacks, the method of execution of such attacks, the impact they have on individuals and organisations and the implications for future research. The motivation for choosing this topic comes from the growing number of cyber-attacks and therefore creating an urgent need for efficient counter measures. To explore the topic qualitative methodology has been adopted, wherein a large number of secondary sources including research papers, journals, and other websites, newspaper articles, and blogs have been studied.
Background
    Though cyber security attacks have their roots dated back to the invention of internet, there is a sudden surge in the frequency of such attacks over past few years. This research paper explores the type of cyber-attacks, and shed light on the technological advancements, which are both in favour of and against the cyber security attacks. The research paper will also shed light on the mitigation methods. To develop an in-depth understanding of the cyber security attacks, it is essential to study the history of such attacks. The first cyber security attacks dates back of 1988 and is known as the Mo
is Worm attack. The sources studied for the purpose of coming up with this research paper have been studied with a perspective of coming up with both theoretical and practical knowledge about the research topic. The sources used are credible and reliable and therefore ensuring the authenticity of the information being included in this research paper.
Types of Cyber Security Attacks
    There are several types of cyber security attacks, the most popular ones have been discussed below in details.
Malware: These are softwares, which have been designed and developed with an intention to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorised access to a computer, a computing system, or a computer network (Perwej et al., 2021). These can cause disruptions to the server as well as the clients. These include viruses, trojans, ransomwares, and spywares. For instance, WannaCrypt is a ransomware, which affected more than 200,000 over 150 countries back in the year 2017.
Phishing: Phishing is a form of cyber security attack, in which attackers deceive people to reveal their sensitive information or install some malicious softwares. In order to deceive people attackers are likely to send scam emails or text messages (Alkhalil et al., 2021). In most of the cases the information the attackers seek is passwords, usernames, and bank details. Over the years the percentage of phishing attacks seem to rise exponentially.
Denial of Service Attacks: In these types of cyber-attacks, the attacker aims to render a computer or other similar devices unavailable to the intended users by maliciously inte
upting the intended functionality of the device. This includes disrupting the services of a host to make a computer or an entire computer network unavailable. One of the major denials of service attack occu
ed in the year 2016 and is popularly known as Mirai Botnet attack.
Man-in-the-Middle Attack: In these types of cyber security attacks, malicious actors put themselves in the middle of two parties such as the user and the application and disrupts the communication between the two parties to hamper the exchange of data and uses the attacked system for unauthorised uses and hacking (Zhang, Yang & Wasly, 2021). This also hampers the integrity and confidentiality of the communication channel being attacked.
SQL Injection: This is one of the common attack vectors in cyber security attacks, wherein the attacker injects a malicious SQL code into the database to gain unauthorised access of the information not intended to be displayed. This includes capturing the sensitive data of the companies, or using the private information of the customers for unintended purposes.
Zero-day Exploits: It is a vulnerability in the software or hardware, which is not known by the vendor and therefore there is no patch to fix it. This type of attack takes advantage of an unknown or identified flaw in the computer software hardware, or firmware. In this case the software developers or vendors do not have a chance to ix the flaw and therefore the name Zero-day has been given to it. For such type of attacks usually the cybercriminals charge a huge amount as the countermeasure for such attacks are not readily available.
Methods to Execute Cyber-Security Attacks
The methods used to execute the cyber security attacks are dependent on the type of attack and the intended target. Some of the most common methods have been discussed below:
Social Engineering: This refers to the tactics adopted by the malicious actors to manipulate, influence, or deceive a victim, so as to gain control over the computer system, or computer network (Wang, Zhu & Sun, 2021). In this case, the intention is also to gain access to personal information of individuals, which can lead to serious consequences such as financial losses. In this case attackers trick the users through psychological manipulation and convince them to share their private and confidential information.
Exploiting Software Vulnerabilities: There are certain loopholes in the design and development of the softwares, which the attackers use for their benefit. They leverage the vulnerability for their malicious activities. They either use a piece of software, or a sequence of commands to exploit the vulnerability in the software they plan to attack. The attackers try to gain the administrative privileges of these softwares and applications and then try to control the system as per their intentions.
Malicious Softwares: These are also known as malware and have been intentionally developed by cybercriminals as intrusive softwares to steal the private data or gain unauthorised access of the data (Sen, Verma & Heim, 2020). They also focus on damaging or destroying the computers as well as the entire computer systems. They also tend to encrypt the files and ask for ransom. This is done through ransomware. Polymorphism is an advanced malware technique being used these days.
Network-Based Attacks: These types of attacks include...