6 Stages of Cyberattack and Effective Cybersecurity Strategies

• August 27 2024

6 Stages of Cyberattack and Effective Cybersecurity Strategies

A cyberattack is a deliberate, hostile, malicious attack by an individual, group, or organisation on an unsuspecting individual or organisation, done to breach the information system of the latter, known as the ‘victim’. Usually, the attacker seeks some benefit by launching the cyberattack and causing a disruption to the victim’s network. The number of cyberattacks is going up phenomenally as bad actors keep upping their game and keep hitting vulnerable business systems with their malicious intentions. Former CISCO CEO John Chambers once remarked, “There are two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.”

Cyberattacks may have devastating impacts on a business, ranging from reputational damage, financial losses, operational hold-ups, legal and regulatory hassles and even the risk of a business shutting down permanently, in unfortunate cases.

As the cyber landscape abounds with different forms of cyberattacks, it is important to understand their types and devise effective cybersecurity strategies to counter them.

The common types of cyberattacks are:

• Malware
• Phishing
• Denial-of-service attack
• SQL injection
• DNS tunnelling
• Man-in-the-middle attack

It has been observed that any cyberattack will usually follow certain well-demarcated stages that have been discussed in this blog.

The Stages of Cyberattack

1. Reconnaissance

Usually acknowledged as the initial stage of the cyberattack, reconnaissance is the systematic process of surveying and collecting information about potential targets. In a cyberattack, this is the critical phase when very covertly the threat actor gets down to work collecting every possible bit of information about an intended victim. This includes employee roles and profiles, network architecture, software configurations, and security measures. This gathered information is then used to plan and execute cyberattacks with greater precision and effectiveness.

2. Initial access

Stage 2 is initial access. In an initial access attack, the threat actor engages with the internet-facing open applications using software or a command to gain unauthorised access to the system. Once within, the attacker creates an unanticipated behaviour. This initial access then leads to the successive stages by providing a foothold for further exploitation as lateral movement and data exfiltration.

Also read: Secure Your Smart Home in 7 Steps

3. Lateral movement

Stage 3 of the cyberattack is lateral movement. In network security, lateral movement is the process by which attackers spread across an entire network after gaining access from an entry point.

4. Privilege escalation

Stage 4 is Privilege escalation which witnesses attackers aiming to gain unauthorised higher-level access within a security system. The attackers elevate their access rights in the victim’s network to gain control over more sensitive systems or data. Common reasons for successful privilege escalation can be non-adherence to the principle of least privilege, insufficient security controls, and exploitable software vulnerabilities. Essentially, it results when threat actors gain undue access to sensitive information in a system.

5. Data exfiltration

Considered Stage 5, data exfiltration involves a cybercriminal stealing data from a corporate or personal device may be a computer or mobile phone. Various cyberattack methods could be employed. A common data exfiltration is the theft or unauthorised removal or movement of any data from the victim’s device.

6. Covering tracks

Stage 6 consists of the cybercriminal covering tracks. Once the bad actor has gained access in the victim’s system, they cover their tracks to escape the security personnel. How do they do this? By clearing the cache and cookies, tampering with the log files, and shutting down all the open ports. This final step is extremely important to any cybercriminal because it clears the system information thereby making hacking harder to track.

Effective Cybersecurity Strategies

It is important to develop strong and effective cybersecurity strategies that are congruent with your larger business goals. An effective cybersecurity strategy is essentially a plan that strengthens the security and resilience of your company. It uses an established set of objectives (that may be customised for your business needs) and protocols to keep your business safe from cybercriminals. We may consider the following steps in customising a cybersecurity strategy for any business:

Step 1: Start by performing a security risk assessment

A security risk assessment is designed to get a detailed view of the possible cyber threats to your business. At the same time, it takes into account your capabilities to manage the associated risks. The range of threats varies across businesses, so an in-depth risk assessment becomes the starting point and key step in understanding vulnerabilities and possible gaps in your existing policies and procedures.  Other than understanding your own risk profile, a risk assessment can also help in identifying third and fourth-party risks, which is an important part of the journey of getting security. Without a thorough risk assessment in place, a business might not discover where the challenges lie, what aspects of cybersecurity to prioritise and invest in, prevent disruption and attack, and essentially remain secure.

Step 2: Define and establish security goals

A critical step in developing a cybersecurity strategy is to ensure that it is aligned with your larger business goals.  Defining security goals that align with and do not compromise the goals of your business is important, or else the process is a waste eventually. Creating security goals can be challenging. However, the process can be simplified if the following questions are put up and answered honestly -

Q1. What is your company’s maturity level?
Q2. What is your company’s risk appetite?
Q3. Are the goals being set realistic and achievable?

Step 3: Assess your technology level vis-a-vis industry best practices

While developing a cybersecurity strategy for your company, it is important to evaluate technology and check if it meets current best practices. With the rapid development of the tactics, techniques, and procedures of malicious actors, the technology in an organisation, ideally, should be up-to-date with the latest patches and security updates. Having outdated technology leaves a business vulnerable to cyberattacks. If there are security gaps in a system, it leaves the network compromised as attackers find it easy to enter.

Step 4: Choose the right cybersecurity framework

A cybersecurity framework is a system of standards, guidelines, and best practices to manage risks that arise in the digital world. As there is a range of cybersecurity frameworks a business can choose to help guide its overall cybersecurity strategy, it makes sense to enlist the help of a specialist to choose the right one.

Step 5: Keep reviewing existing security policies and developing newer ones

A security policy is a document in writing that details how a company plans to protect its physical and information technology assets. Security policy documents should be revised regularly and amended to reflect any changes in technology, vulnerabilities and security requirements. Part of this step is to review existing security policies and include new ones that are now needed.

Step 6: Enforce risk management

A very important part of creating a cybersecurity strategy is preparing for the worst, no matter how strong your cybersecurity measures are. There is every possibility that your business may fall prey to a cyberattack or data breach because threat actors are always on the prowl. Identifying the potential risks to your organisation’s information security when the going is good is a wise way to mitigate the repercussions associated with an attack.

Step 7: Implementation and Evaluation

With the above steps, your cybersecurity strategy has been planned out. Policies have been created, and risk management is in place. Finally, it is time for implementation. After the cybersecurity strategy has been implemented by your information security or project management team, it is important to evaluate its performance. Evaluation needs continued support from the assigned team. Vulnerabilities will keep cropping up as threat actors discover new methods of attack. Therefore, remember your cybersecurity strategy is not written in stone. It needs to be continuously monitored and tested to make sure it matches the existing threat environment of the time.

As incorporating and upholding the cybersecurity strategy of any business should ideally be the responsibility of the entire task force of the organisation, it is important that key stakeholders are identified and awareness created top down. Furthermore, responsibility should be clearly delegated and personnel identified be held accountable for oversight. Additionally, an annual risk assessment can help identify and fill in any gaps that keep appearing as threats evolve. Feedback should be encouraged and received from both internal and external stakeholders. This can be a good way of receiving insight on how to best improve the existing cybersecurity strategy of any company.