10 Types of Security Incidents and How to Handle Them

Businesses today are facing a greater risk of assault than ever before due to the growing landscape of cyber security active threats. According to research, by 2025, the annual damage of cybercrime is expected to reach $10.5 trillion globally. To respond to security incidents, privacy violations, and cyberattacks as they happen, businesses must continuously analyze the threat landscape. There are different kinds of security breaches that could lead to network invasions in a company. The top 10 different kinds of security events are discussed in this article, along with the various risk mitigation strategies like security incident report and cyber threat management. To begin with, it is essential to comprehend what a security incident is.

What is a Security Incident?

A security incident is any intended or proven unauthorized use, exposure, manipulation, or destruction of data. This involves tampering with IT operations and violating rules, regulations, and guidelines. Security incident types include the following examples:

  • Breach of the computer system
  • Accessing or using devices, programs, or information without authorization
  • Unlawful modifications to networks, software, or data
  • Loss or damage to equipment used to store information assets
  • Deny-of-service attack
  • Using IT resources in a manner that isn't permitted
  • Compromised user accounts

What Are the Different Types of Security Incidents?

The sophistication of information security incident and attacks varies from simple to complex, meticulously decided long operations. A security attack would be the theft of equipment, such as a laptop or USB drive. A security event is also when software or information is accessed, exploited, or modified without authorization. Finally, security attacks even include breaking into user profiles and denial-of-service attacks. The 10 most typical attack types used to compromise security are listed below:

1. Activities made without authorization to access databases or systems

Any unapproved activities by a malicious attacker to access databases or systems using an authenticated user's account fall within this type of security incident. Even after an attack, it's often unknown how a cybercriminal obtained user account credentials.

2. A privilege escalation assault

After attempting to get unauthorized access to computer systems, an attacker could use a technique called privilege escalation to attempt to obtain access to a greater range of privileges. Successful privilege escalation operations provide threat operator’s exposure to privileges that are not accessible to normal users. Privilege escalation typically happens when a malicious party leverages a glitch, programming neglect, a coding fault, or any other weakness in a system or an application to obtain privileged access to secure data. This generally happens after an attacker has already compromised a network by acquiring admission to a username and password and is attempting to acquire administrative status, i.e., full access to a company's current IT network, to either analyze the structure more extensively or execute an attack.

3. Internal threat

Imminent threats from within your organization to the security of your company's data might be nefarious, deliberate, unintentional, or accidental. This kind of security event is commonly linked to former or present employees, as well as external stakeholders including service users, suppliers, and contract employees.

Today, no firm wishes to acknowledge that one of its personnel is capable of doing something deliberately, however, this is an unpleasant harsh reality that must be carefully confronted.

4. A malware assault

This is a general word for different forms of computer viruses (malware) that are deployed on a system in an organization. Ransomware, Malware, worms, spyware, adware, and other viruses are all forms of malware. Whenever a worker clicks on an advertisement, views a malicious site, or downloads free software or other programs, some malware may accidentally be installed.

Bizarre system behavior, such as a sudden loss of hard drive space, extraordinarily poor performance, repeated breakdowns or crashes, a surge in undesired web activity, and pop-up commercials are all indications of the virus.

5. A phishing attack

A phishing assault occurs whenever an offender appears to be a reputable firm or individual in an email or any other medium of communication. Dangerous URLs and files that can extract user credentials or banking information from targets are circulated by the perpetrator using phishing emails which can lead to phishing attacks. When the offender takes the time to carefully research the target to carry out a more large-scale phishing attacks, it is called spear phishing.

6. Attacks that cause a denial of service

An attacker uses a denial-of-service (DoS) assault to bring down a single machine or an entire system, leaving it incapable to respond to increasing demands. DoS attacks achieve this by giving the target an enormous amount of data or information that causes a breakdown.

7. Attacks involving a man-in-the-middle (MitM)

An attack described as a "man-in-the-middle" happens when an intruder discreetly decrypts and alters communications transmitted between two or more parties who assume they are speaking directly with each other. The intruder in this assault deceives both recipients to obtain information. The hijacking of conversations, emails, and Wi-Fi transmissions are a few instances of Malicious activities.

8. A password breach

A user's password or an account's credentials is the focus of this kind of cyberattack. Attackers utilize a wide range of methods to gain unauthorized access, including password-cracking tools, dictionary attacks, credential sniffers, and brute-force password guesswork.

A software tool called a password cracker is employed to discover forgotten or lost credentials for a network or personal computing device. This aids a hacker in gaining inappropriate access to information. A dictionary attack entails inputting every word in the dictionary as a password in an attempt to gain access to a password-protected system or server.

9. Attacks on web applications

This incident uses a web application as the attacker's weapon and includes both the manipulation of the application's software flaws and the corruption of authentication processes. Cross-site hacking is one kind of web application assault. A malicious script or other data is inserted into data from supposedly trusted websites in this type of security attack.

10. Advance persistent threat (APT)

An advanced persistent threat, or APTs, are prolonged, coordinated attacks that are often carried out either by cybercriminals or government hackers. In this attack, the hacker gets access to a computer network and lingers around there for a long time without being detected.

Instead of causing harm, the APT's primary goal is to monitor network activities and steal information.

How Can Security Incidents be minimized or eliminated?

There are several steps you can take to put an end to or reduce the risk of each of the common security incidents listed above. To make things simpler, here are some things you should do to minimize security issues for your company.

Detection of Security Incidents

The first step in preventing security incidents is to set up the proper systems and tools to detect security attacks before they occur. The ability to track and trace the sources of security incidents enables you to take the necessary security controls. Security incident detection is crucial for not only recognizing and reacting to problems before they cause damage but also to prevent them from happening again.

Security Incident Reporting

To make sure that all security incidents are recognized, recorded, and controlled at the workplace, filing a security incident report is an important factor to prevent future information security incidents or other incidents. Every type of security incident should be documented using a security incident report form, with follow-up administration including an inquiry, risk analysis, remedial action, and sign-off. There are various forms of security incidents, from physical security incidents involving theft or a security guard responding to IT security events including a security or data breach. To effectively manage a security issue, it is necessary to enable the capacity to document what happened so that all critical information may be recorded at the moment of the incident or soon afterward. This helps with efficient incident handling and prevents the occurrence of any serious incident.

Observing user account activity

To track user account behavior, start by adopting behavior analytics tools. Set a standard for what "normal" activity looks like before you begin to look for any anomalous behavior. Once you've identified this pattern, you can begin looking for unusual patterns of behavior, particularly for authorized individuals. Any out-of-the-ordinary activity can be a sign of information security incident.

In addition, keeping a close eye out for any unauthorized parties who might be trying to access systems and databases or requesting access to data that isn't necessary for them to perform their duties is crucial. A malicious insider threat actor extracting sensitive data for harmful objectives, or a malicious operator who has already gained access to sensitive information, are the two situations that this type of behavior points to.

Observing network traffic

The easiest strategy to stop attackers from gaining unauthorized access to your organization's sensitive data is to keep your network more secure since it serves as the point of entry for your data assets. However, it's important to keep a check on incoming and outgoing traffic from your network, and also traffic that is traveling outside of it.

Furthermore, if your business solely runs in one region, keep a look out for any traffic coming from or going to unknown locations.

Administrators should generally check the legitimacy of any unapproved or dubious criminal activity. In this instance, it's better to be safe than sorry even if there isn't anything nefarious happening currently.

Keeping a track of suspicious activity

Monitoring user account activity such as an employee monitoring software and network traffic are just two examples of how you might prevent possible security problems from happening. Additionally, you should keep an eye out for the following criteria:

  • Increased Cache memory or hard drive performance on the server could be signs that an intruder is trying to gain access.
  • Unauthorized changes and software updates, such as the installation of starter programs, reconfiguration of systems, or network changes, are frequently an indication of potential fraudulent attacks.
  • A data breach could be detected by hidden folders with suspicious names, volumes, or locations.
  • Abnormal browsing habits, such as constant pop-ups, unusual redirection, or configuration alterations in the browser.

Security Incident Management

Every business will eventually need to assess the danger that an attacker could present as well as the weaknesses an attacker might exploit to do so as you closely monitor for risks. The time has sprung if you haven't already, set up a risk management system that will assist your business to detect, analyze, classify, and eliminate any other cybersecurity incident.

Cyber Threat Management

The process of managing cybersecurity risks is continuous, therefore once you've started, you'll need to keep the system running strongly if you wish to see any beneficial effects on your company. It is difficult to determine how to safeguard your resources if you are unaware of what those resources are, thus start by collecting and maintaining a current listing of your company's assets. After that, you must conduct forth a risk investigation to determine the level of threat that each of the assets poses to your company. The next step is to rank those risks according to severity and develop countermeasures for each of them.

To detect flaws in your networks, programs, and apps all through the risk mitigation process, your business should normally attempt to review both security assessments on a routine basis. Additionally, to assess if your internal security procedures are successful in preventing risks from posing harm to your company's reputation, you should also undertake risk evaluation regularly.

Security Incident Response

Today, security incidents are unavoidable, and it is impossible to eradicate all cybersecurity risks. In the case that they cannot be averted, you can choose how your company should respond if they detect security incidents and related activities. To ensure that the right path of action is followed in the case of a security breach, your company should create a comprehensive security incident response plan as a part of your risk management approach.

This involves ensuring that the right individuals are informed what to do in the event of a security incident and that you possess the appropriate plans in place to protect your assets in the case of a range of unforeseen events, such as cybersecurity incident, and much more. In the event of a crisis, an emergency preparedness plan will assist your company in determining business sustainability.

Bottom Line

Protecting your company from security mishaps is not an easy undertaking in the modern world, especially when cybersecurity exposes businesses to new and possibly largely undiscovered threats. Therefore, it's essential to be aware of the many security threats and put in place various risk mitigation measures, such as incident reporting and incident response plans, to make sure that your business is prepared to handle different kinds of information security occurrences. This will cut the price of a security assault and assist in preventing similar ones in the future.

How Can I Detect Security Incidents?

As an enterprise, there are multiple ways to detect whether you are facing a security threat:

  • Check for anomalies in traffic, like unusual boosts in traffic.
  • Accessing account information- When employee account privileges change, it could be a cause of concern and a possible cyber security threat.
  • Increase in the number of suspicious files and beyond average memory consumption- An increase in the number of files in company servers or memory consumption going overboard is a potential sign of hacking.

Examples of Security Incidents?

Infosec threats are waiting to happen at any moment. From malware being released into system servers to advanced hacking, cybercrime is on the rise. So, never let your guard down, and always keep a close vigil on your cybersecurity parameters. In case you feel any protocol needs upgrading, let the decision-makers know. The faster you implement upgraded security measures, the safer you will be in the wake of a cybercrime.

Here’s a list of examples of common security incidents :

  • Malware, like a virus
  • Any insider threats, like a disgruntled employee
  • Trojans and worms
  • Phishing attacks
  • Botnets
  • Exploit Kits
  • Maladverts
  • APTs (Advanced Persistent threats)
  • Denial-of-service prompts

What are the challenges of a security guard?

Security guards are hired for a plethora of needs-activity monitoring, premises control, property protection, guarding main doors and exits, and also as an emergency response team. Undeniably, they are an indispensable part of an enterprise facing a slew of challenges every day.

Here’s a look at some of the most commonly faced scenarios by security guards:

  • Handling Hostile Individuals: Security guards are at the forefront of dealing with hostile individuals who could be potentially dangerous. Often, these people are under the influence of alcohol or drugs and pose a danger to others. Trained security guards can deal with such individuals and ensure safety for one and all.
  • Long working hours: Working as a security guard always means you’ll have to be alert. For most, they have to be on their feet and withstand long-standing hours. They also work on weekends, which can lead to stress and burnout.
  • Staying updated on new-age technology: Security guards are expected to handle multiple pieces of equipment, from alarms to close-circuit vigilance cameras. However, individuals with little exposure to technology may find it challenging to handle modern-day security gadgets.