Cyber-attacks

IRIS ITSecurity

Cyber crime, cyber attack, hacking, computer desktop

Over the past twelve months there has been a lot of publicity about cyber-attacks.

There is no doubt that there has been a significant increase in the prevalence of malicious activity online, but what exactly is a cyber-attack and what can you do to prevent being a victim?

The term cyber-attack is a generic label which covers many different types of malicious activity. Some of the most common types of cyber-attacks include:

Denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks work by sending a huge amount of traffic to a website or computer system, with the intention of overwhelming its resources and causing it to crash. 

Phishing is an increasingly common tactic and involves the sending of emails which appear to be from a trusted source. The objective is to gain personal information from the recipient or trick them into opening an attachment or clicking on a link that then downloads malware onto their system.

Malware is another generic term which is used to describe any software which is deliberately designed to cause damage to a computer, system, website, etc. There are many different types of malware including viruses, Trojan horses, ransomware, and spyware. Some of these pieces of software enable the attacker access to your system and personal information, while others slow down your system or stop it from working altogether. Some forms of Malware cause damage which is obvious, but many types work away quietly in the background and you may not even be aware that your computer or system is infected.

Hacking refers to someone gaining unauthorised access to your computer system. Hackers will often exploit weaknesses in your systems or find ways to breach security measures. Hackers may use this access to steal, change or destroy information, or install malware to achieve their specific goal.

There are many other ways in which your computer systems can be compromised.

Luckily, IRIS IT offers a full suite of services which can help you avoid becoming a victim of these types of attacks, including:

  • Auditing
  • Patching
  • Port forwarding
  • Remote monitoring
  • Intrusion detection
  • Anti-virus software
  • Spam filtering
  • User management
  • Password security
  • VPN management
  • Managed online backup

Click here to read more about each of these measures and how IRIS IT can help protect your systems from cyber-attack.

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