Cyberattack

A cyberattack is a deliberate and malicious attempt to breach, disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to digital systems, networks, or data. Carried out by threat actors ranging from individual hackers to state-sponsored groups, cyberattacks can target a wide variety of entities, including government agencies, corporations, cloud infrastructure, and individual users.

The goal of a cyberattack varies depending on the attacker’s intent. It may include stealing sensitive information, disrupting operations, demanding ransom, achieving geopolitical objectives, or conducting espionage. As organizations become more digitally connected and cloud-dependent, the frequency, sophistication, and impact of cyberattacks continue to grow. 

What is a cyberattack?

A cyberattack occurs when a malicious actor exploits vulnerabilities in software, systems, or user behavior to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Cyberattacks may exploit code flaws, misconfigurations, social engineering techniques, or access control weaknesses to infiltrate environments and execute malicious actions.

Cyberattacks are not limited to a single method or entry point. They often unfold in multiple stages and may involve:

• Initial access (via phishing, malware, or exposed credentials)
• Lateral movement across systems
• Privilege escalation
• Data exfiltration, destruction, or encryption
• Establishing persistence to maintain access

Modern cyberattacks are increasingly automated, opportunistic, and capable of scaling across cloud and hybrid infrastructures. Attackers frequently leverage stolen credentials, cloud misconfigurations, vulnerable APIs, and unpatched software to reach sensitive data or disrupt operations.

Common types of cyberattacks

There are many types of cyberattacks, each with different techniques and objectives. Some of the most common categories include:

Malware attacks

Malware—short for “malicious software”—is used to infect systems and carry out unauthorized actions. Types of malware include:

• Ransomware: Encrypts files or systems and demands payment to restore access
• Trojans: Disguised as legitimate software but deliver harmful payloads
• Worms: Self-replicating malware that spreads across networks
• Spyware: Collects user activity or sensitive information without consent

Phishing and social engineering

Phishing attacks trick users into revealing credentials, clicking malicious links, or downloading malware. Common variants include:

• Email phishing: Fake emails mimicking legitimate sources
• Spear phishing: Targeted attacks on specific individuals or roles
• Smishing and vishing: Phishing via SMS or voice calls

Social engineering attacks exploit human trust rather than technical vulnerabilities.

Denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)

DoS and DDoS attacks flood systems, servers, or networks with traffic to exhaust resources and render them unavailable. These attacks may be used to disrupt services, distract security teams, or as a precursor to more sophisticated intrusions.

Credential-based attacks

These attacks involve the theft or abuse of usernames, passwords, and access tokens. Techniques include:

• Brute force and credential stuffing: Automated login attempts using leaked or guessed credentials
• Password spraying: Trying common passwords across many accounts
• Token abuse: Leveraging exposed API keys, OAuth tokens, or cloud credentials

Exploitation of software vulnerabilities

Threat actors often exploit known vulnerabilities (e.g., those documented by CVEs) in operating systems, applications, or libraries. Common methods include:

• Remote code execution (RCE)
• Privilege escalation
• Injection attacks, such as SQL injection or command injection
• Cross-site scripting (XSS) and other web-based flaws
  

These exploits can be automated and scaled across environments through attack frameworks and scanning tools.

Supply chain attacks

Rather than targeting a victim directly, supply chain attacks compromise trusted third parties—such as software vendors, CI/CD tools, or container registries—to inject malicious code or tamper with systems upstream. These attacks are particularly dangerous because they exploit trust relationships and can affect many downstream organizations.

Who launches cyberattacks?

Cyberattacks originate from a diverse range of actors, each with different capabilities, motives, and resources:

• Cybercriminals: Primarily financially motivated; may deploy ransomware, steal credit card data, or sell access to compromised systems
• Nation-state actors: Target critical infrastructure, government systems, or intellectual property for espionage or political disruption
• Hacktivists: Launch attacks to advance political or ideological causes
• Insiders: Employees or contractors with legitimate access who abuse their privileges
• Script kiddies: Less experienced attackers who use prebuilt tools or malware kits

These actors may operate alone, in coordinated groups, or as part of criminal networks offering cybercrime-as-a-service.

Consequences of a cyberattack

Cyberattacks can cause significant harm to organizations, including:

• Data loss or theft: Sensitive data (e.g., PII, PHI, IP) may be stolen, leaked, or destroyed
• Operational disruption: Systems or services may be taken offline, affecting customers, partners, or employees
• Financial loss: Ransom payments, remediation costs, regulatory fines, and lost revenue can all accumulate
• Reputational damage: Public trust may erode, particularly after high-profile breaches
• Regulatory impact: Failure to protect systems or data can lead to non-compliance with laws like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS

In some cases, cyberattacks can also pose national security or public safety risks—especially when they target infrastructure, healthcare, or defense systems.

Cloud-based cyberattacks

As organizations increasingly migrate to the cloud, attackers have adapted their techniques. Cloud-specific attack vectors include:

• Misconfigured storage buckets: Unprotected S3, Azure Blob, or GCP buckets that expose data
• Over-permissioned identities: Service accounts or IAM roles with excessive privileges
• Compromised APIs: Poorly secured or unauthenticated APIs can serve as an entry point
• Vulnerable containers and images: Insecure dependencies in container images can expose workloads
• Inadequate segmentation: Flat network structures enable lateral movement between cloud resources

Cloud environments also face increased risk from automation—where attackers exploit cloud-native tools to scale their attacks and evade detection.

Defending against cyberattacks

Protecting against cyberattacks requires a multi-layered security strategy that spans people, processes, and technology. Common defenses include:

• Security awareness training: Educating users to recognize and report phishing and social engineering attempts
• Cloud security: Deploying cloud security tools like Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPPs) to prevent security issues from reaching production environments, proactively mitigate security risks, and defend against in-progress attacks 
• Patch management: Applying security updates to fix known vulnerabilities
• Endpoint protection: Deploying antivirus, EDR, or XDR to detect and stop malware
• Identity and access management (IAM): Enforcing least privilege, MFA, and periodic access reviews
• Network segmentation: Isolating critical systems to prevent lateral movement
• Threat detection and response: Monitoring for suspicious activity and automating incident response
• Data protection: Encrypting sensitive data and enforcing backup policies to ensure recoverability

For cloud and hybrid environments, these controls must extend across platforms and integrate with cloud-native security capabilities.

How Orca Security helps

The Orca Cloud Security Platform helps organizations proactively defend against cyberattacks across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and Kubernetes. 

With Orca, security teams can:

• Help prevent security risks from reaching production environments with comprehensive scanning of git repositories and other code artifacts, as well as guardrails 
• Detect vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and malware across cloud environments
• Identify exposed secrets, public assets, and excessive permissions that attackers could exploit
• Visualize attack paths to crown jewel assets and prioritize based on real risk
• Continuously monitor for drift, privilege escalation, and lateral movement
• Align findings with threat models, CVEs, and compliance frameworks to stay ahead of evolving threats

Orca empowers organizations to detect and mitigate cyberattack risks before they become breaches—without slowing development or burdening cloud operations teams.