Fundamentals of Information Systems Security, 4th Edition

What Are Common Attack Vectors?

Depending on the attacker’s goal, many types of attack vectors can suit their needs and abilities. An attack vector is a specific type of attack that poses a threat against an IT infrastructure and can be summarized in three categories:

• Attacks on availability—These attacks impact access or uptime to a critical system, application, or data.

• Attacks on people—These attacks involve using coercion or deception to get another human to divulge information or to perform an action (e.g., clicking on a suspicious URL link or opening an email attachment from an unknown email address).

• Attacks on IT assets—These attacks include penetration testing, unauthorized access, privileged escalation, stolen passwords, deletion ...