Cyberattack

A cyberattack is a deliberate attempt by individuals, groups, or state actors to breach, disrupt, or destroy digital systems, networks, or data. Such attacks aim to steal information, alter or erase records, deny access to services, or otherwise degrade the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of technology-enabled resources. Cyberattacks can target individuals, businesses, governments, critical infrastructure, or infrastructure sectors, and may be motivated by financial gain, espionage, political objectives, or disruption.

Common techniques include malware such as ransomware and trojans; phishing and social engineering to obtain credentials; distributed denial-of-service to overwhelm networks; zero-day exploits; credential stuffing; and supply chain attacks that compromise trusted software or service providers. Attacks may exploit software vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, weak authentication, or poor security practices and often involve multiple stages, from reconnaissance to initial access, lateral movement, and execution of the objective.

Impacts can include financial losses, theft of sensitive information, reputational damage, regulatory penalties, and service outages. They can threaten national security and public safety when essential services are affected. Responses emphasize defense-in-depth strategies, including patch management, access controls, encryption, network segmentation, backups, incident response planning, user training, and collaboration with law enforcement and cybersecurity firms.

Notable incidents have shaped policy and practice, such as ransomware campaigns disrupting hospitals and municipalities, and supply chain compromises tied to widely used software. Ongoing efforts focus on improving detection, attribution, resilience, and international cooperation to deter and respond to cyber threats.