7 Common Web Security Threats for an Enterprise | Fortinet (2024)

Phishingattacks involve attackers targeting users through email, text messages, or social media messaging sites. They pose as a sender the user trusts to trick them into giving up sensitive information like account numbers, credit card data, and login credentials. A successful phishing attack can also result in cyber criminals gaining unauthorized access to corporate networks, enabling them to steal business data.

Phishing is most commonly committed through email, which remains the most significantattack vector.

Ransomwareis a form of malware that results in an attacker holding their victim’s data or computer hostage. The attacker threatens to block access to, corrupt, or publish the data unless their victim pays a ransom fee.

Ransomware attacks are typically initiated through phishing emails that contain malicious attachments or links that lead the user’s computer to download malware. The device gets infected by the malware, which looks for files to encrypt and prevents users from accessing them. Ransomware is also spread via drive-by downloading, which occurs when users visit an infected website that downloads malware onto their device without them knowing.

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a computing language used to search and query databases.SQL injectionis a web security threat in which attackers exploit vulnerabilities in the application code. Attackers achieve this by inserting an SQL query in standard online form fields, such as login boxes on a website, which are passed to the application’s SQL database.

SQL injection attacks have succeeded in exploiting vulnerabilities on shared codebases like WordPress plugins. A vulnerability in the code can lead to hundreds of thousands of websites using the code being hacked. Attackers use this web security issue to steal corporate data, such as customer files and financial information.

Cross-site scripting (XSS)is a form of web security issue that enables attackers to execute malicious scripts on trusted websites. In an XSS attack, web applications or pages are used to submit malicious code and compromise user interactions. The attacker can then seize a user’s identity to carry out malicious activity, gain authorized access to corporate information, or steal their data.

The script used in XSS attacks prevents users’ browsers from identifying malicious activity. The attacker is therefore free to browse the user’s cookies, sensitive data, and session tokens stored in their browser.

ADDoS attackis a web security threat that involves attackers flooding servers with large volumes of internet traffic to disrupt service and take websites offline. The sheer volume of fake traffic results in the target network or server being overwhelmed, which leaves them inaccessible.

DDoS attacks are often carried out by disgruntled employees or hacktivists who want to cause harm to an organization by taking their server offline. Others are done for the fun of exploiting cyber weakness, and many DDoS attacks are financially motivated, such as certain organizations stealing information from their competitors. They can also be used as part of a ransomware attack.

Viruses and wormsare malicious programs that spread through computers and networks. Both exploit software vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to steal data from systems. Viruses and worms also install backdoors into systems that an attacker can use to gain unauthorized access, corrupt files, and inflict broader damage to a company.

Worms, in particular, eat up vast amounts of computer memory and network bandwidth, which leads to servers, systems, and networks overloading and malfunctioning. Worms can operate independently, enabling them to spread between systems, but a virus requires a host computer to carry out malicious activity.

Spywareis a form of malware that gathers data from users and their devices then sends it to third-party individuals without consent. Spyware typically collects sensitive information and shares it with advertisers, data collection firms, and cyber criminals, who can use that data to make a profit. It is also used to steal and sell user data like bank accounts, credit card numbers, login credentials, and internet usage information—or to commit broaderidentity fraudand identity spoofing.

Spyware can be difficult to identify and can cause severe damage to devices and networks. It can also leave a business vulnerable todata breaches, affect device and network performance, and inhibit user activity.