Computer Security Incidents and their Types

What is a Computer Security Incident?

Computer Security Incident

A computer security incident is an event related to the breach of data and security of a system due to failed protective measures. Computer security incident involves unauthorized access, use, breach, modification, or destruction of data.

Types of Computer Security Incidents 

Following are some types of computer security incidents:

1. Unauthorized Access Attack

This type of security incident involves unauthorized access to a system by a malicious attacker or person. Cybercriminals can access the accounts of users to extract personal information like Bank details, Addresses, Contact details, etc, and use this information for causing harm. Two-factor authentication reduces the chances of unauthorized access attacks.

2. Privilege Escalation Attack

This type of security incident happens when an attacker gains unauthorized access to a computer and also takes admin privileges or blocks the privileges of the original admin. This security incident allows the attacker to gather more sensitive information that can cause financial and essential harm to the organization.

3. Insider Threat Attacks

This security incident happens when a security breach is done by employees, former employees, or third-party persons who are somehow related to the organization and customers. Insider threats can be intentional or unintentional and they are difficult to identify. However, we can prevent insider threats by monitoring the activities of employees using spyware scanning software.

4. Phishing Attack

Phishing Attack

This security incident occurs when the attacker impersonates an authorized organization and sends malicious links and emails to the victim and tries to obtain important information like login, password, and account information through these links. The victim thinks that he/she is entering the details on an authorized page but the information is entered on a phishing page created by an attacker.

5. Malware Attack

Malware Attack


This security incident occurs when the attacker injects malware like trojans, worms, spyware, adware, ransomware, etc into the system of the victim. These malwares can steal the information stored in the system or malfunction the normal working of the system or lock the system and demand ransom to unlock it. A proper Anti-virus should be used to prevent malware attacks.

6. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack

This security incident occurs when a large amount of traffic comes from a different location at the same time and crashes the server so that the server is unable to process the service request of the users. This attack can be prevented by using a firewall that can block unwanted traffic.

7. Man-in-the-middle attack

This type of security incident occurs when a third person comes between the connection of two persons that is the sharing of data and information can go through that third person and that person can tamper with the data packets and can steal the information. This attack can take place via session and email hijacking.

8. Password Attack

This type of security incident occurs when an attacker uses a variety of methods like a Brute force attack, a Dictionary attack, etc to crack the password of the system. This attack can be performed using automated password-cracking software that uses all possible combinations of passwords to enter into the victim system. 

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