Types of Attacks
The motivations for cyber-attackers are too numerous and varied to list. They range from the novice hacker who is attracted by the challenge to the highly skilled professional who targets an organization for a specific purpose (such as organized crime, industrial espionage, or state-sponsored intelligence gathering). Threats can originate from outside the organization or from inside. External threats originate outside an organization and attempt to breach a network either from the Internet or via dialup access. Internal threats originate from within an organization and are usually the result of employees or other personnel who have some authorized access to internal network resources. Studies indicate that internal threats perpetrated by disgruntled employees or former employees are responsible for the majority of network security incidents within most organizations. There are three major types of network attacks, each with its own specific goal:
Reconnaissance attacks
Access attacks
Denial of service (DoS) attacks


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