10 of the Most Common Cyber Attacks to Protect Your Business From

You’ve heard about online hackers. Maybe you know someone whose Facebook account was compromised or read a news article about a large-scale ransomware attack. What you might not realize is that even small businesses like yours are also susceptible to cyber attacks.

Your company has invested time and money into building a website that helps your business generate leads and share information with your customers. Your website may even feature e-commerce functions, allowing customers to purchase your products and services right away.

All of those benefits and features are at risk if you’re not keeping up with needed security updates. Website security doesn’t just require regular updating; it requires knowledge of what threats are facing your business.

If your company gets hacked, it could result in a breach of sensitive information, loss of access to your website or a damaged reputation. Taking a proactive approach to cyber security can help improve your overall security posture, mitigating risks of cyber attacks and allowing you to respond faster to any incidents.

The first step towards protecting your website is figuring out what you’re up against. Here are 10 of the most common cyber attacks:

1. Phishing/Social Engineering

Phishing and social engineering attacks are all about deception. These attack vectors usually start off as an email, text, call or message where the cyber criminal is pretending to be someone else. The phisher could pose as your boss, a legitimate company, law enforcement or anyone else you might feel compelled to give your personal information to.

Some examples of attacks like this are when you receive calls from people requesting your credit card information or social security number. Sometimes they just ask for money in ways that are difficult for you to get a refund, such as in the form of gift cards.

These attacks are mostly targeted at individuals but can end up impacting entire businesses if your staff isn’t well-trained in detecting cyber scams. For instance, if someone’s work email or phone is targeted, they could end up giving away information that could harm your entire business. A business owner could also fall victim and give away information, such as the number for a company credit card.

Phishing.org warns people to look out for emails and messages that have any of these features:

The message and offer are too good to be true
The message urges you to act quickly and without thinking
There are strange or misspelled links for you to click
There are unexpected attachments
The sender is not someone you know

2. Cross Site Hacks (Scripting XSS or XSS Attacks)

Cross site scripting (XSS) happens when an attacker plants malicious code on your site that then runs in the browsers of the people visiting it. An XSS hacker searches your website for input areas such as your contact form. These forms usually are run using plugins which can develop vulnerabilities over time.

Hackers take advantage of these vulnerabilities and insert JavaScript into the field in order to access user’s accounts and history, take control of the website, harm your web server or spread malware.

The hackers may attempt to steal data, keep files in your website, create a redirect to another website, use your website to attack other sites and more.

There are three types of XSS attacks or hacking techniques:

Persistent (Stored): Malicious content comes from (and is stored on) a target server.
Reflected: Malicious content comes from the victim’s request.
Document Object Model (DOM)-Based: Malicious content is executed through the client-side code and not server-side code.

In order to maintain a healthy security posture and protect your business, you should always check that your website’s forms are valid and always use secure code.

3. SQL/Code Injection

This common cyber attack uses malicious SQL code injection to gain access to your website’s backend. Hackers use this attack to reach your company’s private data, change your data, shutdown your database or manipulate your operating system, but it can also leave your client’s data vulnerable.

When people are looking to attack your website, they may add an SQL statement into input fields like the log-in screen. This SQL then runs on your database without alerting you.

Here are some of the best practices for preventing these injections:

Have a website security professional evaluate your site and make regular updates
Add code to your website that helps identify legitimate users
Implement a web application firewall
Rewrite code to prevent user additions from changing your query structure

4. Cookie Theft

Cookies are what allow internet users to maintain active sessions on a website. For instance, when you log into a website once and it asks if you’d like to stay logged in, it does that using cookies.

There are also other types of cookies, including the kind that tailors your advertisements across multiple websites to your previous search history.

This means if a hacker is able to mimic your cookies, they can enter websites where you have an active session like Facebook, Amazon or your banking website.

The easiest ways for hackers to access cookies is by either convincing a user to click a malicious link or by stealing the cookie from a current session which usually happens over unprotected Wi-Fi.

In order to prevent your website’s users from experiencing cookie theft, you should serve your site over HTTPS with a valid SSL/TLS certificate. One thing worth flagging here, because it trips people up: the old advice to “look for the padlock” no longer holds. Chrome retired the padlock icon back in 2023 (it was replaced with a neutral “tune” icon), partly because most people wrongly read the lock as proof a site was safe. The real signal today is the absence of a “Not secure” warning, not the presence of a lock. You can get a certificate through your hosting provider, and many are available free through Let’s Encrypt.

You could also opt to not allow users to remain logged into your website for extended periods of inactivity.

5. DNS Spoofing

Your DNS is your Domain Name System, or how your website is identified online. If a hacker spoofs your domain, they have entered fake data into a cache that then imitates your server destination and causes your traffic to redirect to a dangerous website.

These websites could be something else entirely or they could be mimicking your website and trying to get users to log in with their account information. Hackers can also seek to infect your site or your visitors with malware. If your domain is spoofed, it could interfere with regular security updates and expose you to even more threats.

There are three kinds of DNS spoofing hacking techniques that web users and website owners should be looking out for:

Cache Poisoning: This is where hackers redirect your web traffic to a website that mimics yours and seeks to steal user’s login information. These attacks might also include attempts from hackers to install malware on the user’s end.
Man-in-the-Middle Attack: The cyber criminal attacks your web browser and DNS server by using a tool that poisons your server cache and device cache. Your users are still directed to a malicious website.
DNS Hijacking: A user’s search takes them to a dangerous website instead of the intended website. This is done by hackers reconfiguring the server to redirect all requests for the IP address.

You can seek to prevent these attacks using tools such as DNS spoofing detectors, end-to-end data encryption and security extensions for your domain name system.

6. Ransomware

Ransomware is a form of malicious software that has become increasingly common. It operates by encrypting a victim’s files, rendering them completely inaccessible. Once the encryption is complete, the attackers demand a ransom payment, typically in cryptocurrency, in exchange for the decryption key.

The delivery of ransomware is often accomplished through phishing emails, where a user is tricked into clicking a malicious link or opening an infected attachment.

Law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, strongly advise against paying ransoms, as there is no guarantee that the attackers will restore the data and it only encourages further criminal activity.

To help prevent ransomware and strengthen your defenses against cyber attacks, it’s crucial to maintain regular, offline backups of critical data and provide ongoing security awareness training to educate users on identifying phishing attempts.

7. Malware

Malware, short for malicious software, is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of intrusive software designed to damage or disable computer systems. This includes viruses, worms, Trojans, adware and spyware, each with its own method of infection and malicious intent.

Viruses, for example, attach themselves to clean files and spread from one computer to another, while Trojans disguise themselves as legitimate software to trick users into installing them. The ultimate goal of malware can vary from stealing sensitive information and financial data to disrupting operations.

The best defense against malware involves a multi-layered approach, including the use of reputable antivirus and anti-malware software, exercising caution with email attachments/downloads and deploying a network firewall.

8. Denial-of-Service Attacks

A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack is designed to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. The most common method is to flood the target with a massive amount of traffic or requests, overwhelming its capacity and causing it to slow down or crash.

A more potent form of this attack is a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, where the malicious traffic originates from multiple sources, often a network of compromised computers known as a botnet. This makes it much more difficult to trace the source of the attack and to mitigate its effects.

DoS attacks are a blunt instrument, but they can be highly effective in disrupting services and causing significant financial and reputational harm to the targeted organization.

Properly configuring firewalls and routers to drop suspicious traffic can help to provide a foundational layer of defense.

9. Lookalike Domains/Typsquatting

These attacks are a form of phishing that rely on web addresses. Attackers craft URLs that closely resemble those of legitimate and trusted websites, often with subtle misspellings or the use of subdomains that appear to be from a reputable source.

These “lookalike” domains can be incredibly convincing, leading unsuspecting users to enter sensitive information such as login credentials or financial details on a fake website. URL shortening services can also be exploited to hide the true destination of a link, further deceiving users and evading some security measures.

The key to defending against these attacks is careful scrutiny of all URLs before clicking and maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism.

10. DNS Tunneling

DNS tunneling is a sophisticated attack that exploits the DNS protocol to create a covert communication channel. Because DNS traffic is often trusted and allowed to pass through firewalls without much scrutiny, attackers can encode data within DNS queries and responses to exfiltrate sensitive information or to establish a command-and-control channel with a compromised system.

This allows them to bypass security measures and operate undetected within a network. Detecting DNS tunneling can be challenging, often requiring specialized tools and traffic analysis to identify the unusual patterns associated with this type of attack.

Preventing DNS tunneling involves actively monitoring outbound DNS traffic for anomalies, such as unusually long queries or high volumes of requests to a single domain.

Website Security to Keep Your Business Operational

A secure website is the foundation of your online reputation. Ensuring your site is always available and safe for users enables you to build customer confidence and strengthen your brand.

Proactive security isn’t just about preventing problems; it’s about creating a trustworthy environment that supports your business’s growth.

NTS is committed to safeguarding your business from common cyber attacks, protecting your data, reputation and operations. Our team delivers proactive cybersecurity services to businesses nationwide. From our headquarters in Virginia, we leverage advanced remote capabilities to help support clients across the United States, while also providing dedicated in-person and hybrid support for organizations throughout Virginia, including:

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