How Attack Targets Are Chosen and Used
Introduction
Cybercriminals don't randomly select their victims. They carefully choose targets based on various factors, such as vulnerabilities in systems, the value of the data, and weak defenses. Once a target is chosen, attackers use various methods to exploit vulnerabilities and gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. This section explains how cybercriminals make their selections and the common methods used to exploit those targets.
The Selection Process: Why Certain Targets Are Chosen
- Description: Attackers often look for weaknesses in systems, devices, or networks that can be easily exploited. This could include outdated software, misconfigurations, or unpatched security holes.
- Why It’s Attractive: Cybercriminals target these vulnerabilities because they offer an easy way into the system without needing extensive technical skills.
- Example: An attacker may target a device running outdated software with a known security vulnerability, like an unpatched version of Windows or a browser with outdated plugins.
- Description: Attackers seek systems that store valuable or sensitive information, such as personal details, financial data, or intellectual property.
- Why It’s Attractive: High-value data has a greater return on investment for cybercriminals. For example, stealing customer credit card details or login credentials for corporate systems can be highly profitable.
- Example: Cybercriminals often target healthcare organizations to steal patient data, which is highly valuable on the dark web.
- Description: Systems with weak security defenses—such as poor encryption, weak passwords, or lack of multi-factor authentication—are prime targets for cybercriminals.
- Why It’s Attractive: If a system has weak defenses, attackers can gain access with minimal effort. Attackers tend to prioritize easy-to-hack targets, reducing the risk of detection or failure.
- Example: A company with a poor password policy, where employees use simple and repeated passwords, is at risk of a brute-force attack.
Vulnerabilities
High-Value Data
Weak Defenses
Methods Used to Exploit Targets
- Description: Phishing is a type of social engineering attack where attackers send fraudulent emails or messages that appear to come from trusted sources, tricking victims into revealing sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, or login credentials.
- How It Works: A cybercriminal might send an email pretending to be from a legitimate service, asking the target to click on a link or open an attachment that installs malware or leads to a fake login page.
- Example: An attacker sends an email that appears to be from a bank, asking the recipient to update their account details, which results in the victim providing their login credentials.
- Description: Malware refers to malicious software such as viruses, ransomware, worms, or spyware that is designed to harm a system or steal data.
- How It Works: Attackers can deliver malware through phishing emails, compromised websites, or infected software. Once installed, the malware may steal sensitive data, lock files for ransom, or allow the attacker to take control of the system.
- Example: A computer is infected with ransomware that encrypts the user's files, demanding payment to decrypt them.
- Description: DDoS attacks involve overwhelming a target's system, such as a website or online service, with a flood of traffic to make it unavailable to legitimate users.
- How It Works: Attackers use a network of compromised devices (a botnet) to send massive amounts of traffic to a specific target, causing servers to crash or services to be disrupted.
- Example: A popular e-commerce website may go offline during a peak sales event due to a DDoS attack, preventing customers from making purchases.
- Description: Social engineering involves manipulating individuals into divulging confidential information or performing actions that compromise security.
- How It Works: Attackers may use pretexts, such as pretending to be from IT support or another trusted organization, to deceive targets into sharing sensitive information or executing harmful actions (like downloading malicious files).
- Example: An attacker may call an employee, posing as tech support, and convince them to share their login credentials to "fix a problem."
Phishing
Malware
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks
Social Engineering
Case Examples of Attack Targets Being Exploited
- Attack Type: Malware and network breach.
- How It Happened: Attackers compromised Target's network via a third-party vendor, installing malware on point-of-sale terminals. This allowed them to steal payment card data from over 40 million customers.
- Method Used: The attackers exploited weak security on the third-party vendor's system to gain access to Target’s internal network, where they deployed malware to steal credit card information.
- Attack Type: Exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities.
- How It Happened: Cybercriminals exploited a vulnerability in the Apache Struts web application framework used by Equifax, allowing them to gain access to sensitive personal data of over 147 million people.
- Method Used: The attackers leveraged a known, unpatched vulnerability in the Apache Struts framework to break into Equifax's systems and steal data like Social Security numbers and addresses.
- Attack Type: Social engineering and network intrusion.
- How It Happened: Cybercriminals gained access to Sony’s PlayStation Network by exploiting security vulnerabilities and using social engineering techniques to gather login credentials. As a result, over 77 million accounts were compromised.
- Method Used: The attackers used a combination of social engineering to gather information and brute force attacks to exploit weak passwords, gaining access to sensitive customer information such as credit card details.