One of the most common and potentially dangerous types of attack is the brute force attack. As a result, organizations and individuals must take steps to protect themselves against these attacks.
Victims of a brute force attack can...
- Suffer from data loss
- Experience an increased server load
- Get malicious code uploaded
- Get damage to reputation
There are many reasons why you should implement brute force protection.
For example, it is an excellent addition to your existing firewall, helps you detect intrusion attempts, and prevents overall pressure on your network from an attack.
In this article, we will explore seven reasons why brute force protection is important for ensuring the security and integrity of your system.
Avoid Unauthorized Access
Brute force attacks are used to gain unauthorized access to a system or account. The breach can lead to the theft of sensitive information or the compromise of valuable resources.
Brute force protection can block these login attempts before they are successful.
Misfortune Never Comes Alone
Attackers often use combinations of tactics to increase their chances of success.
For example, they may use an initial attack, brute force, to launch other types of cyber attacks.
Once the attacker has launched a successful brute force attack and guessed the correct password, they can use that access to deploy malware or ransomware onto your network.
This is why a proper brute force defense is important, as it can also help avoid other attacks.
Prevent Unexpected Server Load
Brute force attacks can create a large amount of traffic and consume a lot of resources, such as network bandwidth and processing power, putting a strain on your server.
The extra pressure can lead to slower performance and higher costs for the affected system.
Brute force attempts can even lead to services being completely unavailable by disrupting the normal operations of a system, causing denial of service (DoS) problems.
Brute force protection can help minimize this load by stopping an ongoing attack.
Difficult to Detect Attacks
Brute force attacks can be difficult to detect without intelligent software, as they at first look like legitimate failed login attempts that may not trigger traditional security alerts.
The protection software can distinguish a regular user from an attacker before it becomes a bigger problem.
Low Effort — High Impact
Brute force attacks are often automated, meaning they can run for long periods without the attacker intervening manually. And with the difficulty of detecting a brute force attack, it can run for a long time without getting noticed.
On the other side, the victim will have a tough time thanks to this small effort from the attacker. And as long as the attack isn’t blocked, the attacker gets infinite tries to log in to the server or network.
The brute force protection helps stop these attempts and blocks out the intruder.
From Anywhere, Against Anyone
Brute force attacks can be launched from anywhere in the world, making it difficult to track down the source of the attack. In addition, the attack can target any system or account that requires some form of password as authentication.
Several brute force attacks are carried out simultaneously against multiple targets to increase the chance of a successful breach. However, the network the attacker chooses to attack does not have to be carefully selected.
For example, they could attempt to strike against all IP addresses in a list without knowing what lives on the other end. Because even if it is a small business, there is always something valuable to exploit.
Unfortunately, this means that no one is safe; a breach can happen to anyone.
It is essential for all organizations, regardless of size, to secure themselves and their network with proper brute force protection.
Complement Antivirus and Firewalls
Even with firewalls and antivirus software, wherever a legitimate user might need to log into your server or network, an intruder or attacker gets infinite tries to log in to this account.
Some servers have built-in defenses, which usually involve locking out the user the intruder is trying to log in as. Unfortunately, besides being unhelpful and annoying for the innocent user, it does nothing to stop the attack or protect you from the intrusion attempt.
With a proper setup, brute force protection distinguishes legitimate users from attacks and avoids locking them out of their accounts while still blocking the intruder.
Conclusion
We can summarize this article by pointing out that this seemingly simple method of attack can have dire consequences. For example, the heavy burden of login attempts can make your services slow or even unusable.
In case of a breach, unauthorized access can lead to the loss of valuable data or the attacker deploying malware, or even ransomware, to your network.
Additionally, everyone is at risk, regardless of organization size.
Consider implementing brute force protection because it will improve your security solution by blocking unwelcome traffic to your system.
Here we have four tips on how to prevent brute force attacks you can start with.