5 Cyberattack Stages and Relevant Cybersecurity Tips

Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated in today’s digital world. Companies are becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats as they continue to depend on technology to conduct day-to-day operations. To effectively defend against cybersecurity attacks, it’s critical to understand the techniques commonly used by malicious individuals and the information they usually seek. The knowledge can assist in determining where security measures need to be prioritized. Understanding the five cyberattack stages can assist companies in discovering weak points in their cybersecurity strategies that require the most attention.

5 Cyberattack Stages

 Stage 1: Reconnaissance – The first stage of a cyberattack is reconnaissance, in which threat operators obtain information about the companies they’re targeting. Details about companies’ infrastructure, employees, and security systems can be included within the information. To collect the information, threat operators can employ various methods, including social engineering, phishing, and scanning.
Stage 2: Weaponization – Threat operators develop exploits, including malware or viruses, which can be utilized to obtain unauthorized access to targets’ companies’ infrastructures during the weaponization stage. The exploits are packaged into weapons, including phishing emails, malicious codes, or DDoS attacks, which can be used to deliver the exploits to targets’ companies.
Stage 3: Delivery – Threat operators deliver the weapons to targets’ companies during the delivery stage. It can be accomplished through numerous methods, including emails, social media, or breached websites. Once delivered, the weapons can be activated to acquire unauthorized access to companies’ IT infrastructure.
Stage 4: Operations – During the operations stage, threat operators acquire access to targets’ companies’ infrastructure and begin carrying out malicious activities. When cybercriminals obtain access to systems, their primary goals are to enhance their privileges and maintain access. Threat operators with elevated privileges can make changes to systems that are normally restricted to regular users or applications, including installing malicious software. Threat operators will use numerous privileges to maintain their access, including creating new user accounts, changing firewall settings, allowing remote desktop access, and inserting backdoors using rootkits, and other malicious files.
Stage 5: Post-Exploitation – Threat operators cover their tracks and maintain their access to the targets’ organizations’ infrastructure during the post-exploitation stage. It can include deleting logs, creating backdoors, or installing additional malware.

Cybersecurity Tips for Companies to Protect Themselves Against Cyberattacks

 Install multi-factor authentication: By requiring extra authentication factors, including fingerprints or security tokens, multi-factor authentication, companies can prevent unauthorized access to systems and data.
Keep systems updated: To prevent threat operators from exploiting known vulnerabilities, companies need to keep their systems updated with the latest security patches and software updates.
Adopt strong password policies: Employ strong passwords and enforce password regulations, including password complexity requirements and regular password changes.
Adopt strong email security measures: Measures can include spam filters to block suspicious emails, email authentication procedures, and employee training to detect and report suspicious emails.
Employ web filtering and content inspection: Prevent employees from accessing malicious websites and downloading malicious files by using web filtering and content inspection.
Require web filtering and content inspection: Requiring this will prevent employees from accessing malicious websites and downloading malicious files. It’s critical that employees are trained to detect and report suspicious activities.
Establish strong access controls and network segmentation: Companies can limit access to sensitive data and prevent threat operators from moving laterally within their systems. Additionally, it’s critical for companies to monitor their networks for suspicious activities and utilize strong intrusion detection and prevention systems.
Perform regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing: Frequent vulnerability assessments and penetration testing can assist companies in identifying vulnerabilities in their infrastructure before threat operators do.
Security awareness training: It’s critical for companies to train their employees to detect and report suspicious activities. Employees can identify social engineering and phishing attempts with regular security awareness training and simulated phishing attacks.
Incident Response Plan: Even though strong security measures are in place, it’s important for companies to have a plan to respond to cyber incidents. Plans can include companies having an incident response team, regularly testing their incident response plan, and having a communication plan to notify stakeholders in case of a cyber incident.

Understanding the various cyberattack stages and implementing appropriate security measures to protect companies against them is critical for protecting their business. Companies can remain ahead of the game and defend their business from cyber threats by establishing security measures, training employees to detect and respond to cyber threats, and having an incident response plan in place. Take advantage of SpearTip’s Rapid Response services and solutions ensuring companies are one step ahead of cyber threats. At SpearTip, we specialize in incident response capabilities and handling breaches with one of the fastest response times in the industry. Our certified engineers are continuously working at our 24/7/365 Security Operations Center monitoring companies’ networks in an investigative cycle and ready to respond to incidents at a moment’s notice. Our remediation team works to restore companies’ operations, reclaim their networks by isolating malware, and recover business-critical assets. Our ShadowSpear Platform, a managed detection and response tool, detect advanced and unknown cyber threats using comprehensive insights through unparalleled data normalization.

If your company is experiencing a breach, call our Security Operations Centers at 833.997.7327 to speak directly with an engineer.