Brute force, dictionary, or password attacks, is when an attacker systematically tries to access a password-protected site or server.
How do brute force attacks work?
The brute force attack’s aim is to decrypt your encrypted data. An automated program tests millions of PINs, passwords, and phrases in an attempt to eventually guess the correct one; a systematic and intelligent trial-and-error technique. Like a computer shooting arrows at a
target, testing different angles, strength, and starting positions – learning faster after each failure – until it hits bullseye at which the computer now knows the exact settings.
Who is vulnerable to brute force attacks?
Brute force attacks are ever-increasing and infamous hacking methods today. Verizon’s Data Breach Investigation Report (2020) found that over 80% of breaches within Hacking methods involve Brute force or the Use of stolen credentials, with web applications as the top hacking vector. The following year, Verizon’s DBIR (2021) the trend continues:
“Brute force and credential stuffing attacks are extremely prevalent according to SIEM data analyzed in our dataset. We found that 23% of the organizations monitored had security events related to those types of attacks, with 95% of them getting between 637 and 3.3 billion(!) attempts against them […]”.
Today, the web is filled with inexpensive automated brute force attack software applications which allow even the less technical individual to access servers to which they are unauthorized.
Why would someone attempt to perform brute force attacks?
The reasons are many, brute force is usually used for financial reasons or espionage to gain access to some sort of data or intel. This can be anyone with an interest to gain in the case of a company suffering damage or disturbance. Such as a disgruntled ex-employee, a competitor, a saboteur, political activists…
What can be done to prevent brute force attacks?
Simply increasing password strengths is a good place to start, but is rarely enough when facing sophisticated software.
This is where Syspeace is a great solution for your company. Syspeace was created with the intention of keeping you safe from brute force attacks.
Our computer protection software reasons about the pattern of failed login attempts and sequentially blocks the attacker once it can discern the attack from a legitimate user logging in incorrectly.
You can read more about how Syspeace works, or contact us for any specific queries. In the meantime, feel free to download and try our 30-day free trial.
We don’t have any brute force attack problems…
Sometimes the damage is irreparable. Most of these attacks go unnoticed and intruders have gained continuous access for long periods of time. Moreover, these hard-to-discover Brute force attempts do not happen all at once. Verizon data breach report (2021):
“[…] more often than not for the organizations we reviewed, those [brute force] attacks happened in very uneven intervals. It seems the cost of keeping up with potential credential dumps can’t be simplified as something you should do every month or so.”
The brute force attacks are unpredictable and can strike at any given time. That is why your data needs intelligent protection 24/7 that can distinguish these attempts from regular activity. Syspeace is an inexpensive solution. However, the economic costs of a hack could be unfathomable.
It is also possible to check if you’ve had any recent unauthorized failed login attempts in your Security Event Log. If the event ID 4625 is showcased from a source that should not have access then your servers have been exposed.
You can also download and try our 30-day free trial for one or more servers. This will allow you access to data reports on attempted intrusion attacks and ultimately decide if Syspeace is for you – once you have hands-on experience about what Syspeace can do against your brute force attacks.