{"id":2959,"date":"2016-04-01T07:38:27","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T06:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2016-03-31T23:10:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T22:10:18","slug":"what-is-a-cyber-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/what-is-a-cyber-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a cyber attack?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever been the victim of a cyber attack? If so you’re not alone – 2015 saw almost 300 million records leaked and over $1 billion stolen in online hacks.<\/p>\n

37 million people alone were affected in the Ashley Madison cyber attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And a recent survey from Honeywell, a global technology solution company, found\u00a0three-quarters (75%) of adults across the globe fear becoming the victim of a cyber attack.<\/p>\n

So what’s the problem exactly?<\/p>\n

What is a cyber attack?<\/h2>\n

A cyber attack is an attempt by hackers to illegally enter, damage or bring down a computer system or network, often by planting malicious code or data via malicious software (malware).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are cyber attacks impossible to stop?<\/h2>\n

The Honeywell survey questioned adults across 10 countries and found over a third (36%) don’t believe it would be possible to stop a cyber attack if terrorists struck.<\/p>\n

And more than a third (36%) don’t feel their nation’s leaders are taking the threat of cyber attacks seriously enough to be able to deal with one should their country be targeted.<\/p>\n

Respondents in India (61%), China (48%) and Mexico (47%) had the least faith in their governments’ ability to deal with cyber attacks.<\/p>\n

Prone to attack<\/h2>\n

The survey \u00a0also asked people which sectors they felt were most vulnerable to attack – almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents thought gas and oil refineries were most susceptible, closely followed by medical, health care, and pharmaceutical sites (64%), and electricity grids (63%).<\/p>\n

The UK government estimates cyber security breaches at British energy companies cost around \u00a3400 million.<\/p>\n

Almost all respondents from India (92%) are fearful of cyber attacks, with the Japanese (89%) not far behind.<\/p>\n

No worries,\u00a0comrade<\/h2>\n

Conversely, Russians were the least fearful of attack, with just over half of respondents (53%) expressing any level of concern. Australia were just behind with 52%.<\/p>\n

Of those that weren’t too concerned about\u00a0a cyber attack, just under a third (31%) thought the chance of anything happening was actually very low, while a quarter (25%) thought an attack would already have happened if terrorists actually had the capabilities.<\/p>\n

Just under a quarter (24%) beleive\u00a0computer and internet security to be advanced enough to counter any threat, while as many people had faith in government and military intelligence to stop any attacks.<\/p>\n

Everyday cyber attacks<\/h2>\n

While high level cyber attacks are uncommon, cyber attacks – or at least attempted cyber attacks – on individuals are more common.<\/p>\n

Among the most common type of cyber attack on the individual are phishing attacks – whereby fraudulent emails are sent to try and trick you into parting with sensitive information – and Trojan horse attacks – whereby innocent-looking computer programs actually contain malware that can scrape sensitive information from your system.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever been the victim of a cyber attack? If so you’re not alone – 2015 saw almost 300 million records leaked and over $1 billion stolen in online<\/p>\n

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