These days we are using the internet and computers like the oxygen. Believe it or not Cyber Attacks are the clear and present danger to every one of us who is using the computers and internet and the cyber attacks are growing at the lighting speed every day because of the reliance of business on the internet and email is also increasing day by day. E-mail threats continuously becoming the most common so far as the cyber attacks are concerned. In spite of the growth shown in respect of the cyber attacks by various security agencies, CERT teams from various countries many of us blindly presumes that they can never be a victim of any kind of cyber attack and cracker wont attack their computers because the people strongly believes that they have nothing which can find value for cracker.

Trust me or not the fact is every one of us have something to hide from the public at large. Don’t disclose to anyone but try to be honest in answering the above question to yourself only. I’m sure that the answer to the question “Do I have anything to hide?” will be affirmative. When people say I have nothing to hide, which really means that they are aware of the fact that losing the password for internet banking means giving the key of your own dwelling house to thief. Some banks who offer internet banking, online trading institutions offer passwords to their services via email to their customers. Clicking on the “Forget Password” could be good way to obtain password of the secure systems. You know what I have seen many people who uses the same password everywhere they are required to put the same. This means if I crack one password of some services, I will be the King of all times and I can access other accounts of the victim. Some online services might not be as trustworthy as others – they might be vulnerable to some cyber attack, Phishing frauds etc.

Most of the cyber attacks are opportunistic in nature, which means attacker/cracker attacks many computer systems at a time looking for opportunity to crack the system. As some one has said correctly security is the problem of weakest link. Finding weakest link means finding some vulnerability in the computer systems. Whenever the attacker finds the weakest link he cracks the computer system. Opportunistic attacks are always been preferred due to the broad spectrum available to the attacker than the target based attacks. Opportunistic attacks always have better chances of winning as compared to the target based attacks. On the other hand targeted attacks can cause relentless damage as compared to the opportunistic attacks. Preventing target oriented attacks is the most difficult task since the methods of attacks used in such attacks are customized ones.

The second most common attack is the DoS attacks. DoS attacks are again difficult to prevent and it’s the great challenge to the IT Security persons. The most importantly in near future what I could able to see is that the profile of crackers is sprouting at the lighting speed. The span of time in making attacks by the attackers is also developing as the profile of cracker is changing too. The crackers are becoming more and more professional and sophisticated in using their hacking/cracking tools. The crackers are developing sophisticated tools for better attacks just because they have been funded well these days. The crackers are getting funded through software piracy and the worst part is that we are using pirated software in a way we are helping the crackers to commit cyber crimes.

Fighting against these attacks is the matter of focused risk management. In today’s time of recession I do understand about the Budgets do matters in the risk management but it’s important to note that prevention is better than cure. So people don’t be under wrong assumptions like no one will attack on computer, cyber attacks will never happen so far as I am concerned or don’t ever say that I have nothing to hide or I am too small for such cyber attacks. This is time to fight pro actively. Don’t just sit back and relax. At least now don’t let your guard down. According to my perception we might see the rapid cyber attacks and we won’t have sufficient time to defend the same. So please don’t sit and relax waiting for the future severe cyber attack. We may not afford the luxury of sitting idle.