Understanding Different Types of Malware

A cyberthreat is a sign that a hacker or other malicious actor is trying to log into a network without authorization to launch a cyberattack.

Cyberthreats can be obvious, like an email from a foreign power offering a small fortune for your bank account information, or stealthy, like a line of malicious code that sneaks past cyberdefenses and causes a costly data breach for months or years. The more security teams and staff know about cybersecurity threats, the better they can defend, anticipate, and respond to cyberattacks.

Malware

Malware is “malicious software.”

Modern cyberattacks usually contain malware. Malware attacks allow threat actors to gain unauthorized access, disable infected systems, steal sensitive data, and delete system files and data.

Many types of malware exist

• Unless the victim pays the ransom, Ransomware threatens to lock or leak the victim’s data or device. According to the IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2023, 17% of cyberattacks in 2022 were ransomware.
• Trojan horses trick users into downloading malicious code by posing as helpful programs or hiding in trusted software. Dropper Trojans install more malware after gaining access to the target system or network, and remote access Trojans (RATs) open a covert backdoor on the victim’s device.
• Spyware steals usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other personal data and sends it to the attacker without the victim’s knowledge.
• Worms automatically replicate on apps and hardware without human interaction.

Phishing and social engineering

Social engineering, also called “human hacking,” involves coercing targets into compromising personal or organizational security, revealing confidential information, or putting them at financial risk.

Phishing is the most common social engineering method. Phishing uses phony emails, email attachments, texts, and phone calls to trick people into giving up personal information, login credentials, downloading malware, sending money to cybercriminals, or taking other actions that could expose them to cybercrimes.

Typical phishing schemes:

• Spear phishing targets one person and uses their open social media profiles to deceive them.
• Whale phishing targets wealthy or powerful people.
• Cybercriminals pose as executives, vendors, or trusted business partners to trick victims into sending money or disclosing personal information in business email compromise (BEC) scams.

DNS spoofing, or domain name spoofing, is a common social engineering scam in which cybercriminals impersonate a real website or domain name (such as “applesupport.com” for support.apple.com) to steal sensitive information. Phishing emails often use spoofed sender domain names to appear more trustworthy.

Middleman attack

A man-in-the-middle attack involves a cybercriminal listening in on a network connection to steal data by relaying messages. Hackers love unprotected Wi-Fi networks for MITM attacks.

DDoS attack

A denial-of-service attack floods a website, application, or system with fraudulent traffic, making it unusable or slow for legitimate users. DDoS attacks use a network of internet-connected, malware-infected bots or devices called a “botnet.”

Zero-day bugs

Zero-day vulnerabilities are unknown, unresolved, or unpatched security holes in computer software, hardware, or firmware. Cyberattacks using zero-day exploits exploit this vulnerability. Malicious actors can already access vulnerable systems, so software and device vendors have “zero days” to fix them. This is a “zero day” vulnerability.

The popular Apache Log4j logging library contains Log4Shell, a zero-day vulnerability. When discovered in November 2021, the Log4Shell vulnerability affected 10% of all digital assets worldwide, including many web applications, cloud services, and physical endpoints like servers.

A password attack

As the name implies, cybercriminals try to guess or steal a user’s password or login credentials. Social engineering is used in many password attacks to get victims to reveal sensitive information. Hackers can also brute force passwords by trying popular password combinations until one works.

Cyberattack on IOT

Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in IoT devices like smart home devices and industrial control systems to take over, steal data, or use the device as a botnet.

Injection Attacks

Hackers inject malicious code into a program or download malware to execute remote commands and read or modify databases or website data.

There are several injection attacks. Two popular ones are:

• SQL injection attacks hackers use SQL syntax to spoof identity, expose, tamper, destroy, or make data unavailable, or become database server administrators.
• Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, like SQL injection attacks, infect website visitors instead of extracting data from a database.

Threats to cybersecurity

Cyberthreat sources are almost as diverse as their types. Ethical hackers and unwitting insider threats have positive or neutral intentions, while many threat actors are malicious.

Understanding threat actors’ motivations and tactics is essential to stopping or exploiting them.

Famous cyber attackers include:

Cybercriminals

These people or groups commit cybercrimes for profit. Cybercriminals use ransomware and phishing scams to steal money, credit card information, login credentials, intellectual property, and other sensitive data.

Hackers

Hackers use technical skills to break into computer networks.

Not all hackers are cybercriminals or threat actors. Ethical hackers impersonate cybercriminals to help organizations and government agencies test their computer systems for cyberattack vulnerabilities.

Nation-state actors

Nation states often fund threat actors to steal sensitive data, gather confidential information, or disrupt critical infrastructure. Espionage and cyberwarfare are common, well-funded threats that are hard to detect.

Threats from inside

Unlike most cybercriminals, insider threats are not always malicious. Many insiders harm their companies by unknowingly installing malware or losing a company-issued device that a cybercriminal uses to access the network.

However, malicious insiders exist. Disgruntled employees may abuse access privileges for financial gain (e.g., cybercrime or nation state payment) or revenge.

Anticipating cyberattacks

Antivirus, email security, and strong passwords are essential cyberthreat defenses.

Firewalls, VPNs, multi-factor authentication, security awareness training, and other advanced endpoint and network security solutions protect organizations from cyberattacks.

However, no security system is complete without real-time threat detection and incident response capabilities to identify cybersecurity threats and quickly isolate and remediate them to minimize or prevent damage.

IBM Security  QRadar SIEM uses machine learning and UBA to detect threats and remediate faster using network traffic and logs. QRadar SIEM identified false positives, reduced investigation time by 90%, and reduced security breach risk by 60%, saving security analysts more than 14,000 hours over three years, according to a Forrester study. QRadar SIEM gives resource-constrained security teams the visibility and analytics they need to quickly detect threats and take informed action to mitigate an attack.

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