Cyber-attack

A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted areas of the system without authorization, potentially with malicious intent. Depending on the context, cyberattacks can be part of cyber warfare or cyberterrorism. A cyberattack can be employed by sovereign states, individuals, groups, societies or organisations and it may originate from an anonymous source. A product that facilitates a cyberattack is sometimes called a cyber weapon. Cyber attacks have increased with an alarming rate for the last few years

A cyberattack may steal, alter, or destroy a specified target by hacking into a susceptible system. Cyberattacks can range from installing spyware on a personal computer to attempting to destroy the infrastructure of entire nations. Legal experts are seeking to limit the use of the term to incidents causing physical damage, distinguishing it from the more routine data breaches and broader hacking activities.

Cyberattacks have become increasingly sophisticated and dangerous.

User behavior analytics and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) can be used to help prevent these attacks.

Definitions

Since the late 1980s cyberattacks have evolved several times to use innovations in information technology as vectors for committing cybercrimes. In recent years, the scale and robustness of cyberattacks have increased rapidly, as observed by the World Economic Forum in its 2018 report: "Offensive cyber capabilities are developing more rapidly than our ability to deal with hostile incidents".Alt URL

In May 2000, the Internet Engineering Task Force defined attack in RFC 2828 as:

:''an assault on system security that derives from an intelligent threat, i.e., an intelligent act that is a deliberate attempt (especially in the sense of a method or technique) to evade security services and violate the security policy of a system.''

CNSS Instruction No. 4009 dated 26 April 2010 by Committee on National Security Systems of the United States of AmericaCNSS Instruction No. 4009
dated 26 April 2010 defines an attack as:

:''Any kind of malicious activity that attempts to collect, disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy information system resources or the information itself.''

The increasing dependency of modern society on information and computer networks (both in private and public sectors, including the military) has led to new terms like cyber attack and cyber warfare.

CNSS Instruction No. 4009 define a cyber attack as:

:''An attack, via cyberspace, targets an enterprise’s use of cyberspace for the purpose of disrupting, disabling, destroying, or maliciously controlling a computing environment/infrastructure; or destroying the integrity of the data or stealing controlled information.''

As cars begin to adopt more technology, cyber attacks are becoming a security threat to automobiles.

Prevalence

In the first six months of 2017, two billion data records were stolen or impacted by cyber attacks, and ransomware payments reached , double that in 2016. In 2020, with the increase of remote work as an effect of the COVID-19 global pandemic, cybersecurity statistics reveal a huge increase in hacked and breached data. The worldwide information security market is forecast to reach $170.4 billion in 2022.

Cyber warfare and cyberterrorism

Cyberwarfare utilizes techniques of defending and attacking information and computer networks that inhabit cyberspace, often through a prolonged cyber campaign