A

Seminar Report
On
CYBER ATTACKS

By
Meghana Avvari

VIGNANA BHARATHI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

(A UGC Autonomous Institution, Approved by AICTE, Affiliated to JNTUH, Kukatpally
Accredited by National Board of Accreditation (NBA),
National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC))
Aushapur (V), Ghatkesar (M), Medchal(dist.).
2021-2022
 CERTIFICATE

Certified that seminar work entitled “. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .” is a

bonafide work carried out in the sixth semester by “. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .” in

partial fulfillment for the award of Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and

Engineering from Vignana Bharathi Institute Of Technology during the academic year 2020-

2021. Who carried out the seminar work under the guidance and no part of this work has been

submitted earlier for the award of any degree.

SEMINAR CO-ORDINATOR HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT

Mrs.ASMA TAHSEEN Dr.G.SREERAM

SIGNATURE with date SIGNATURE with date

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Self-confidence, hard work, commitment and planning are essential to carry

out any task. Possessing these qualities is sheer waste, if an opportunity does not

exist. So, we whole- heartedly thank Dr. P. V. S. Srinivas, Principal, and Dr. G.

Sreeram, Head of the Department, Computer Science and Engineering for their

encouragement and support and guidance in carrying out the Technical Seminar

report.

We thank our Guide, Mrs. ASMA TAHSEEN, Assistant Professor, for

providing us with an excellent guidance in completing our Technical Seminar

successfully.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all the staff of Computer Science

and Engineering, VBIT, for their kind cooperation and timely help. Finally, we

would like to thank our parents and friends who have always stood by us whenever

we were in need of them.

 INDEX

ABSTRACT

1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. CYBER SECURITY LANDSCAPE 2-3
1.2. CYBER SECURITY GOALS
1.2.1. CONFIDENTIALITY
1.2.2. INTEGRITY
1.2.3. AVAILABILITY
2. TYPES OF CYBER SECURITY THREATS 4-7
2.1. MALWARE
2.1.1. VIRUS
2.1.2. SPYWARE
2.1.3. TORJANS
2.1.4. RANSOMWARE
2.1.5. WORMS
2.1.6. ADWARE
2.1.7. BOTNETS
2.2. PHISHING
2.3. MAN IN THE MIDDLE ATTACK
2.4. DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE
2.5. BRUTE FORCE
2.6. SQL INJECTION
2.7. DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM ATTACK
3. LATEST CYBER THREATS 8-9
3.1. ROMANCE SCAMS
3.2. DRIDEX MALWARE
3.3. EMOTET MALWARE
4. CYBER SAFETY TIPS 10
5. BENEFITS OF SECURITY 11
6. CONCLUSION 12
 ABSTRACT

Cyber Security plays an important role in the field of information technology

.Securing the information have become one of the biggest challenges in the
present day. Whenever we think about the cyber security the first thing that
comes to our mind is ‘cyber crimes’ which are increasing immensely day by
day. Various Governments and companies are taking many measures in order
to prevent these cybercrimes. Besides various measures cyber security is still a
very big concern to many. This report mainly focuses on challenges faced by
cyber security on the latest technologies .It also focuses on latest about the
cyber security techniques, ethics and the trends changing the face of cyber
security.
 1. INTRODUCTION

Cyber security is the most concerned matter as cyber threats and attacks
are overgrowing.Attackers are now using more sophisticated techniques
to target the systems. Individuals,small-scale businesses or large
organization, are all being impacted. So, all these firmswhether IT or
non-IT firms have understood the importance of Cyber Security and
focusingon adopting all possible measures to deal with cyber threats.

The 7 layers of cyber security should centre on the mission critical

assets you are seeking toprotect.

1: Mission Critical Assets – This is the data you need to protect

2: Data Security – Data security controls protect the storage and

transfer of data.

3: Application Security – Applications security controls protect access

to an application, an

application’s access to your mission critical assets, and the internal

security of the

application.

4: Endpoint Security – Endpoint security controls protect the

connection between devices and

the network.

5: Network Security – Network security controls protect an

organization’s network andprevent unauthorized access of the network.

6: Perimeter Security – Perimeter security controls include both the

physical and digitalsecurity methodologies that protect the business
overall.

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7: The Human Layer – Humans are the weakest link in any cyber
security posture. Humansecurity controls include phishing simulations
and access management controls that protectmission critical assets from
a wide variety of human threats, including cyber criminals,malicious
insiders, and negligent users.

1.1 CYBER SECURITY LANDSCAPE

Modern cybersecurity landscape is a rapidly evolving hostile

environment with advanced threats and increasingly sophisticated threat
actors.

Core business applications are now commonly installed alongside Web

2.0 apps on a variety of endpoints. Networks that were originally
designed to share files and printers are now used to collect massive
volumes of data, exchange real-time information, transact online
business, and enable global collaboration.

The vision of Web 3.0 is to return the power of the internet to individual
users, in much the same way that the original Web 1.0 was envisioned.
To some extent, Web 2.0 has become shaped and characterized, if not
controlled, by governments and large corporations dictating the content
that is made available to individuals and raising many concerns about
individual security, privacy, and liberty.Exploiting vulnerabilities in
core business applications has long been a predominant attack vector,
but threat actors are constantly developing new tactics, techniques, and
procedures (TTPs).

1.2CYBER SECURITY GOALS

Cyber Security's main objective is to ensure data protection. The

security community provides a triangle of three related principles to
protect the data from cyber-attacks. This principle is called the CIA

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triad. The CIA model is designed to guide policies for an organization's
information security infrastructure. When any security breaches are
found, one or more of these principles has been violated.

We can break the CIA model into three parts: Confidentiality, Integrity,
and Availability. It is actually a security model that helps people to
think about various parts of IT security. Let us discuss each part in
detail.

1.2.1 CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality is equivalent to privacy that avoids unauthorized access

of information. It involves ensuring the data is accessible by those who
are allowed to use it and blocking access to others. It prevents essential
information from reaching the wrong people. Data encryption is an
excellent example of ensuring confidentiality.

1.2.2INTEGRITY

This principle ensures that the data is authentic, accurate, and

safeguarded from unauthorized modification by threat actors or
accidental user modification. If any modifications occur, certain
measures should be taken to protect the sensitive data from corruption
or loss and speedily recover from such an event. In addition, it indicates
to make the source of information genuine.

1.2.3AVAILABILITY

This principle makes the information to be available and useful for its
authorized people always. It ensures that these accesses are not hindered
by system malfunction or cyber-attacks.

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2.TYPES OF CYBER SECURITY THREATS
A threat in cybersecurity is a malicious activity by an individual or
organization to corrupt or steal data, gain access to a network, or
disrupts digital life in general. The cyber community defines the
following threats available today:

2.1Malware
Malware means malicious software, which is the most common
cyber attacking tool. It is used by the cybercriminal or hacker
to disrupt or damage a legitimate user's system. The following
are the important types of malware created by the hacker:
o Virus: It is a malicious piece of code that spreads from one
device to another. It can clean files and spreads throughout a
computer system, infecting files, stoles information, or
damage device.
o Spyware: It is a software that secretly records information
about user activities on their system. For example, spyware
could capture credit card details that can be used by the
cybercriminals for unauthorized shopping, money
withdrawing, etc.
o Trojans: It is a type of malware or code that appears as
legitimate software or file to fool us into downloading and
running. Its primary purpose is to corrupt or steal data from
our device or do other harmful activities on our network.
o Ransomware: It's a piece of software that encrypts a user's
files and data on a device, rendering them unusable or
erasing. Then, a monetary ransom is demanded by malicious
actors for decryption.
o Worms: It is a piece of software that spreads copies of itself
from device to device without human interaction. It does not

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 require them to attach themselves to any program to steal or
damage the data.
o Adware: It is an advertising software used to spread
malware and displays advertisements on our device. It is an
unwanted program that is installed without the user's
permission. The main objective of this program is to
generate revenue for its developer by showing the ads on
their browser.
o Botnets: It is a collection of internet-connected malware-
infected devices that allow cybercriminals to control them. It
enables cybercriminals to get credentials leaks, unauthorized
access, and data theft without the user's permission.
2.2Phishing
Phishing is a type of cybercrime in which a sender seems to
come from a genuine organization like PayPal, eBay,
financial institutions, or friends and co-workers. They contact a
target or targets via email, phone, or text message with a link to
persuade them to click on that links. This link will redirect
them to fraudulent websites to provide sensitive data such as
personal information, banking and credit card information,
social security numbers, usernames, and passwords. Clicking
on the link will also install malware on the target devices that
allow hackers to control devices remotely.
2.3Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack
A man-in-the-middle attack is a type of cyber threat (a form of
eavesdropping attack) in which a cybercriminal intercepts a
conversation or data transfer between two individuals.
Once the cybercriminal places themselves in the middle of a
two-party communication, they seem like genuine participants

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and can get sensitive information and return different
responses. The main objective of this type of attack is to gain
access to our business or customer data. For example, a
cybercriminal could intercept data passing between the target
device and the network on an unprotected Wi-Fi network.
2.4Distributed denial of service (DDoS)
It is a type of cyber threat or malicious attempt where
cybercriminals disrupt targeted servers, services, or network's
regular traffic by fulfilling legitimate requests to the target or
its surrounding infrastructure with Internet traffic. Here the
requests come from several IP addresses that can make the
system unusable, overload their servers, slowing down
significantly or temporarily taking them offline, or preventing
an organization from carrying out its vital functions.
2.5Brute Force
A brute force attack is a cryptographic hack that uses a trial-
and-error method to guess all possible combinations until the
correct information is discovered. Cybercriminals usually use
this attack to obtain personal information about targeted
passwords, login info, encryption keys, and Personal
Identification Numbers (PINS).
2.6SQL Injection (SQLI)
SQL injection is a common attack that occurs when
cybercriminals use malicious SQL scripts for backend database
manipulation to access sensitive information. Once the attack is
successful, the malicious actor can view, change, or delete
sensitive company data, user lists, or private customer details
stored in the SQL database.

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2.7Domain Name System (DNS) attack
A DNS attack is a type of cyberattack in which cyber criminals
take advantage of flaws in the Domain Name System to
redirect site users to malicious websites (DNS hijacking) and
steal data from affected computers. It is a severe cybersecurity
risk because the DNS system is an essential element of the
internet infrastructure.

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 3. LATEST CYBER THREATS
The following are the latest cyber threats reported by the U.K., U.S., and
Australian governments:

Romance Scams

The U.S. government found this cyber threat in February 2020.

Cybercriminals used this threat through dating sites, chat rooms, and
apps. They attack people who are seeking a new partner and duping
them into giving away personal data.

Dridex Malware

It is a type of financial Trojan malware identifies by the U.S.

in December 2019 that affects the public, government, infrastructure,
and business worldwide. It infects computers through phishing emails or
existing malware to steal sensitive information such as passwords,
banking details, and personal data for fraudulent transactions. The
National Cyber Security Centre of the United Kingdom encourages
people to make sure their devices are patched, anti-virus is turned on
and up to date, and files are backed up to protect sensitive data against
this attack.

Emotet Malware

Emotet is a type of cyber-attack that steals sensitive data and also

installs other malware on our device. The Australian Cyber Security
Centre warned national organizations about this global cyber threat in
2019.

The following are the system that can be affected by security breaches
and attacks:

o Communication: Cyber attackers can use phone calls, emails, text

messages, and messaging apps for cyberattacks.

o Finance: This system deals with the risk of financial information like
bank and credit card detail. This information is naturally a primary
target for cyber attackers.

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o Governments: The cybercriminal generally targets the government
institutions to get confidential public data or private citizen information.

o Transportation: In this system, cybercriminals generally target

connected cars, traffic control systems, and smart road infrastructure.

o Healthcare: A cybercriminal targets the healthcare system to get the

information stored at a local clinic to critical care systems at a national
hospital.

o Education: A cybercriminals target educational institutions to get their

confidential research data and information of students and employees.

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4. CYBER SAFETY TIPS

• Conduct cybersecurity training and awareness: Every

organization must train their staffs on cybersecurity, company
policies, and incident reporting for a strong cybersecurity policy to
be successful. If the staff does unintentional or intentional malicious
activities, it may fail the best technical safeguards that result in an
expensive security breach.
• Update software and operating system: The most popular safety
measure is to update the software and O.S. to get the benefit of the
latest security patches.
• Use anti-virus software: It is also useful to use the anti-virus
software that will detect and removes unwanted threats from your
device. This software is always updated to get the best level of
protection.
• Perform periodic security reviews: Every organization ensures
periodic security inspections of all software and networks to identify
security risks early in a secure environment. Some popular examples
of security reviews are application and network penetration testing,
source code reviews, architecture design reviews, and red team
assessments. In addition, organizations should prioritize and mitigate
security vulnerabilities as quickly as possible after they are
discovered.
• Use strong passwords: It is recommended to always use long and
various combinations of characters and symbols in the password. It
makes the passwords are not easily guessable.
• Do not open email attachments from unknown senders: The
cyber expert always advises not to open or click the email attachment
getting from unverified senders or unfamiliar websites because it
could be infected with malware.
• Avoid using unsecured Wi-Fi networks in public places: It should
also be advised not to use insecure networks because they can leave
you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
• Backup data: Every organization must periodically take backup of
their data to ensure all sensitive data is not lost or recovered after a
security breach. In addition, backups can help maintain data integrity
in cyber-attack such as SQL injections, phishing, and ransomware.

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5. BENEFITS OF SECURITY

o Cyber attacks and data breach protection for businesses.

o Data and network security are both protected.

o Unauthorized user access is avoided.

o After a breach, there is a faster recovery time.

o End-user and endpoint device protection.

o Regulatory adherence.

o Continuity of operations.

o Developers, partners, consumers, stakeholders, and workers have more

faith in the company's reputation and trust.

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6. CONCLUSION

Cyber security is a vast topic that is becoming more important because the
world is becoming highly interconnected, with networks being used to carry
out critical transactions. Cyber crime continues to diverge down different paths
with each New Year that passes and so does the security of the information.
The late stand disruptive technologies, along with the new cyber tools and
threats that come to light each day, are challenging organizations with not only
how they secure their infrastructure, but how they require new platforms and
intelligence to do so. There is no perfect solution for cybercrimes but we
should try our level best to minimize them in order to have a safe and secure
future in cyber space.

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