Whether it’s shutting down your website, stealing private data, or taking control of your computer, hackers can have a serious impact on any business. And it can happen at any time. While there are many different ways that hackers can attack your website, we wanted to bring you ten most popular ways they can threaten the security of your site, as well as your business.
- DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) Attacks
When this happens, your server is made unavailable to your users. Then when your system is offline, they proceed to either manipulate a specific function of your website to their advantage or compromise your entire server and data. However, DDoS campaigns are usually designed to temporarily interrupt services or take down a website completely.
- Social Engineering
While technically a “crack” as opposed to an actual hack, this is a common area of exploitation. It happens when you or an employee divulge private information in “good faith” through common online interactions such as email or social media. Generally, this is accomplished by the culprits somehow passing themselves off as a legitimate business or service, and sometimes it can take the hacker multiple tries on numerous sites before they have enough of your personal information. But when they do have what they need, they’ll strike fast and furious.
- Remote Code Execution
These attacks are the result of either server side or client side security weaknesses. Vulnerable areas may include:
- Remote directories on a server that haven’t been monitored
- Frameworks
- Software modules that run on authenticated user access
- Libraries
It should also be noted that applications that use these components are subject to attack via malware, scripts, and command line entries that extract information.
- Cross-Site Request Forgery
These attacks happen when a user is logged into an account and a hacker sends them a forged HTTP request in order to collect their cookie information. Once that a user’s cookie is collected, they can generate requests that won’t be differentiated from themselves and a valid user.
- Symlinking
A symlinking attack occurs when a hacker positions a symlink, a special file that “points to” a hard link on a mounted file system, in such a way that a user thinks they’re accessing the right file when they’re actually not. In these cases, a hacker may be able to grant themselves advanced access, insert false information, or even corrupt or destroy vital system or files.
- DNS Cache Poisoning
This attack involves “toxic” data on your computer that is old cache data that you likely don’t even realize is still on your computer. Also known as DNS Spoofing, vulnerabilities in a domain name system are exploited which allows hackers to divert traffic from legit servers to fake servers or websites. This type of attack can replicate itself and spread from one DNS server to another, “poisoning” everything in its path.
- ClickJacking
Also known as a UI Redress Attack, this attack occurs when a hacker uses multiple opaque layers to trick a user into clicking the top layer without realizing it. The attacker “hijacks” clicks that aren’t meant for that page and instead forces clicks on a site or to a page that the attacker wants to redirect you to.
- Broken Authentication & Session Management
These attacks occur when your website has a weak user authentication system. Authentication and session management systems involve passwords, session IDs, cookies, and key management that can allow hackers to access your account from any computer and if they are able to exploit the authentication and session management system, they can assume your identity.
- Cross Site Scripting
AKA an XSS attack, this attack type occurs when a file packet, application, or URL “get request” is sent to the web browser window and bypasses the validation process. Once the script is triggered, it makes users believe that the compromised page is actually legitimate.
- Injection Attacks
When there are flaws in your operating system, SQL Database or SQL libraries, injection attacks can occur. Your employees can also unknowingly open seemingly credible files with hidden commands, or “injections,” and allow hackers to gain unauthorized access to financial data, credit card numbers and much more.
Preparing for the Worst
Of course, instituting best-practices based on the information in today’s article can definitely help prevent system and data breaches, you owe it to yourself and your customers to always be ready for the unexpected. With BionicWP you’ll not only have your data located on secure servers, but you’ll also have daily malware scans, 90-days offsite backups, and real-time uptime monitoring.
In order to help prevent malicious users from using exploits or known bugs, we provide secure WordPress hosting along with automatic updates of both WordPress core and your plugins. We’re also staffed with WordPress experts and technical support that prides themselves on BionicWP. Plan for the best and prepare for the worst but contacting us today to find out more information about your new home.