A DoS attack is designed to overwhelm a machine or network's resources so that the intended users cannot access the system. DoS attacks are accomplished by bombarding the specified target with a flood of traffic or information to crash the system.

Unlike other types of cyberattacks, DoS attacks have no direct benefit for the attacker. A DoS attack may be initiated by a competitor to disrupt your website to gain an advantage, or it may be the first stage of a greater cyberthreat.

A DDoS attack is the same thing as a DoS attack, but it is launched from a large number of host computers. The purpose of a DDoS attack is to overwhelm a company website or service beyond what the server can accommodate. The result is to overwhelm a system so that the website malfunctions.

There are different types of DoS and DDoS attacks, but the most common are:

TCP SYN flooding: These attacks can be prevented by placing servers behind a firewall.

Ping-of-death attacks: A ping-of-death attack can be prevented by placing a server behind a firewall.

Teardrop attacks: This threat is the result of a Windows OS vulnerability that was common in older versions of Windows, but has received multiple patches over the years. Keep your operating system up to date to prevent teardrop attacks.

Botnets: Botnets can be prevented by enabling RFC3704 filtering and black-hole filtering.

Phishing attacks are a common cyberthreat in which an attacker sends emails that appear to be from trusted sources. The goal is to gain personal information from a wide number of users, such as usernames and passwords, or influence someone to take a specific action, such as download malware onto your machine.

A spear-phishing attack is very similar to a regular phishing attack, but instead of casting a wide net, attackers target individuals and take their time to research victims and create personal, relevant messages.

The best way to prevent phishing attacks within your company is to train your staff what to look for and how to spot risky emails and links.

As the name implies, a MitM attack is when an attacker inserts themselves between a user and the services they interact with. There are different types of MitM attacks, namely session hijacking, IP spoofing and replay attacks.

As of today, there is no single method to prevent all types of MitM attacks, though encryption and digital certificates are used to help prevent an attacker from inserting themselves between a user and a server.

This type of attack is used to spread malware far and wide. An attacker looks for insecure websites to hack and plant malicious code throughout the site. When a user visits one of these hacked websites, they may unintentionally install malicious code or be redirected to a site created by the attacker. Unlike other types of cyber threats, a drive-by download doesn't require the user to take any action, meaning they don't have to click a button or open an email to be infected.

The best way to prevent this type of attack is to train your staff to keep their internet browsers and operating systems up to date and avoid websites that are not secure.

Obtaining a user's password is one of the oldest, most common and effective form of a cyberattack. Passwords can be obtained through many different means, such as watching someone type in their password, searching for unencrypted passwords on a network, using social engineering to reconstruct passwords, or simply guessing a correct password through brute-force or dictionary attacks.

To protect your company from password attacks, implement two-factor authentication policies, require your employees to use strong, unique passwords, and implement an account lockout policy that locks user accounts after several invalid password attempts.