What is an attack vector?
In cybersecurity, an attack vector is a path that cyber criminals take to exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Key takeaways
- Threat actors steal information, data, and money from individuals and organizations by exploiting known attack vectors and attempting to exploit vulnerabilities.
- The three most common attack vectors used by hackers are phishing emails, malware, and unpatched vulnerabilities.
- IT organizations can mitigate against cyberattacks through proactive patching, robust API security, and monitoring of logs and telemetry so teams can reduce risk, lower MTTR, and prevent sensitive information exposure.
Why are attack vectors exploited in cyber security attacks?
Attackers make money by performing malicious activity on software systems, but they aren’t always looking to steal sensitive information such as credit card, banking, or other sensitive data. Some threat actors have developed more sophisticated ways of monetizing their attacks, such as:
- Infecting hundreds or thousands of devices with malicious code, like bots, to establish a network, known as a botnet. These botnets send spam, perform cyberattacks, steal data, or mine cryptocurrency. The hacker can remotely access the bots from an off-site command-and-control server.
- Stealing customer data or intellectual property from target organizations.
- Overloading IT systems and causing unplanned service outages with a DDoS attack.
There are hackers with motivations other than financial gain, such as those who want to leak sensitive data to the public, embarrass someone they disagree with, or make a political statement. However, for most IT organizations, the majority of cyberattacks will come from attackers trying to steal personal and financial data.
How to exploit attack vectors
The general methodology of exploiting attack vectors is the same:
- Cybercriminals identify a target system they wish to penetrate or exploit to detect potential vulnerabilities.
- Hackers use data collection and observation tools such as sniffing, emails, malware or social engineering attacks to obtain more information about the target.
- Hackers use this information to identify the best attack vector, then create tools to exploit it.
- Hackers install malware, move laterally across the network, and abuse system resources or privileges.
- Hackers begin to monitor the network, stealing your personal and financial data or infecting your computers and other endpoint devices with malware bots.
Organizations can reduce exploitation by minimizing the attack surface, enforcing least privilege and role-based controls, and maintaining strong detection and response practices.
What are common attack vectors in the IT infrastructure?
IT organizations need to be aware of the most common attack vectors for malicious cyber attacks to effectively safeguard their networks against unauthorized access.
These are the most common attack vectors used by hackers and how to mitigate them.
- Phishing emails try to trick the recipient into giving up restricted information, often by presenting them with a link to a malicious website. While IT personnel may be savvy about verifying the contents of an email, members of the business may not be.
Mitigation strategy: Encourage reporting of phishing emails and block known senders of malicious mail through a centralized email filter, to prevent users from being bombarded with phishing emails. Provide guidelines and tips for how to distinguish phishing emails from legitimate emails. - Malware is a catch-all term that describes any program that introduces malicious code into your IT infrastructure. Viruses, worms and trojans are all examples of Malware. Malware infections can spread throughout the IT infrastructure, creating a lot of overtime for IT SecOps teams and potentially compromising valuable data while impacting service availability.
Mitigation strategy: Zero-day attacks are difficult to avoid, but maintaining an up-to-date antivirus and firewall can significantly reduce the probability of a successful virus attack against your organization. - Security vulnerabilities that are neglected by the IT organization, can be used as an attack vector.
Mitigation Strategy: Regularly monitor all of your applications and servers for available patches, and perform updates as soon as possible to reduce your vulnerability.
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