Describe the Most Common Types of Threats

Organizations face a wide range of threats on a daily basis. In this section, we’ll look at a few different types of common threats and attacks.

Phishing

Phishing emails are one of the most common cybersecurity attacks. In a phishing scenario, attackers

pose as a legitimate entity, such as your bank or a partner organization, in an attempt to gain your trust and trick you into revealing sensitive information. This sensitive information could be things such as credit card information or other payment details or credentials to a financial institution or

other important system.

Attackers may use this information for themselves or bundle it up with other stolen data and sell it to other attackers.

Let’s go phishing

It is important to remain vigilant about phishing attacks. It applies to your personal data, as well as that of the business. To learn more about how to identify and protect yourself from phishing attempts, please visit https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/protect-yourself-from-phishing-0c7ea947-ba98-3bd9-7184-430e1f860a44.

Malware

Frequently, attackers attempt many avenues at the same time. A phishing email that attempts to

trick you into revealing credentials may also have an attachment or a link to a website that contains malware (an application designed to compromise your device in some way). Malware poses manytypes of threats and can take a wide variety of actions—such as gathering screen captures, recording keystrokes, and exporting locally saved passwords. Some malware acts as a backdoor—providing attackers a way to send commands to your device or even remotely take over a session.

Malware

Malware comes in many forms, and, like other cyber-attacks, your organization may be targeted or become a victim of it. To learn more about malware and its many forms, and how to protect yourself, read up on https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-life-hacks/privacy-and-safety/what-is-malware-what-provides-the-most-protection.

Lateral Movement

If the malware is successful in capturing your credentials or providing access to your machine, the attacker may be able to gain access to other applications on your system (or on networked devices that your compromised system can access). Lateral movement is a type of attack that happens when a threat actor takes advantage of a compromised identity or device and uses it to access other applications and resources. These types of attacks can appear as normal network traffic, making them very hard to discover and mitigate.

Security 101

If you are interested in learning more about cybersecurity and the current threat landscape, please see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/security-101/ what-is-a-cyberattack.

Now that you’ve seen some of the common types of threats, it’s time to see how Microsoft 365 can help stop them.