Malware is a type of application that can perform a variety of malicious tasks. Some strains of malware are designed to create persistent access to a network, some are designed to spy on the user in order to obtain credentials or other valuable data, while some are simply designed to cause disruption.

Phishing attack is where the attacker tries to trick an unsuspecting victim into handing over valuable information, such as passwords, credit card details, intellectual property, and so on. Phishing attacks often arrive in the form of an email pretending to be from a legitimate organization, such as your bank, the tax department, or some other trusted entity.

Man-in-the-middle attack (MITM) is where an attacker intercepts the communication between two parties in an attempt to spy on the victims, steal personal information or credentials, or perhaps alter the conversation in some way.. 

‘Drive-by-download’ attack is where an unsuspecting victim visits a website which in turn infects their device with malware. The website could be one that is directly controlled by the attacker, or one that has been compromised..

DDoS attack is where an attacker floods a target server with traffic in an attempt to disrupt, and perhaps even bring down the target. However, unlike traditional denial-of-service attacks, which most sophisticated firewalls can detect and respond to, a DDoS attack is able to leverage multiple compromised devices to bombard the target with traffic.