Threats Explained

Phishing, ransomware, malware and the rest: how each attack actually works, step by step, and what it looks like from the receiving end.

14 resources

Start here

Cyber Security Threats: The 12 That Actually Cause Breaches

Every list of cyber threats has twenty entries and no sense of proportion. These are the twelve that account for nearly all real breaches, in the order the evidence ranks them, with the mechanism of each drawn out.

13 min read

Beginner

Business Email Compromise: How It Works and How to Stop It

Business email compromise is the fraud that arrives with no malware, no link and no obvious lie: a real invoice from a real supplier, with the bank details changed. It is the second most expensive crime reported to the FBI.

18 min read

Beginner

Credential Stuffing: How the Attack Works and How to Stop It

Credential stuffing does not guess your password. It already has one, taken from a site you forgot you signed up for, and it is trying that exact password everywhere else you might have used it.

12 min read

Beginner

Insider Threat: Definition, Types, Examples and Controls

An insider threat is not a kind of person you can pick out of a room. It is a piece of access doing something it was never meant to do, and most of the time nobody involved meant any harm at all.

16 min read

Beginner

What Is a Data Breach? How They Happen and How to Check

A data breach is an event about data, not about damage, and the two get confused constantly. Here is what the word actually covers, how one unfolds, and where to look to find out whether your information is already in one.

19 min read

Beginner

What Is a DDoS Attack? How It Works and How to Stop It

A DDoS attack does not break into anything. It buries a website in traffic until nobody else can reach it, and the defense has to sit upstream of the thing being buried.

15 min read

Beginner

What Is a Man-in-the-Middle Attack? Types and Signs

The version everyone pictures, a stranger reading your email over the cafe Wi-Fi, mostly stopped working. The idea underneath it moved to the login page, where it works better than ever.

11 min read

Beginner

What Is a Zero Day? Vulnerabilities, Exploits, Attacks

Zero day is three different things wearing one name, and the difference decides what you can do about it. Here is what the clock is counting, how many are really out there, and what protects a system that has no patch available.

14 min read

Beginner

What Is Malware? Types, Signs and How to Remove It

Malware is not one attack, it is the whole category, which is why the word feels vague right up until something on your machine starts behaving oddly. Here is what it covers, how it arrives, and what actually gets it off.

18 min read

Beginner

What Is Phishing? How It Works and How to Spot It

Phishing is the attack everyone has seen and most people still fall for, because the good ones do not look like the bad ones. Here is how it works, what gives it away, and what to do when you have already clicked.

10 min read

Beginner

What Is Ransomware? How It Works and How to Stop It

The ransom note is the last thing that happens, not the first. By the time it appears the attackers have usually been inside for days, taken a copy of everything worth taking, and deleted the backups. The week before the note is where this is won or lost.

16 min read

Beginner

What Is Social Engineering? How These Attacks Work

Social engineering is the attack that never touches your software, because it does not have to. It asks a person, politely and plausibly, and the person says yes.

15 min read

Intermediate

What Is a Supply Chain Attack? Examples and Defenses

A supply chain attack does not start with you. It starts with a company you bought something from, and it arrives signed, expected and trusted.

17 min read

Intermediate

What Is SQL Injection? How It Works and How to Stop It

SQL injection turns a form field into an instruction the database obeys. It is one of the oldest flaws on the web, second on the latest list of the most dangerous software weaknesses, and one of the very few problems in security with a complete fix.

18 min read