What is watering hole attack in cybersecurity and how do we protect ourselves from this attack?
Watering hole attack is a form of cyberattack that targets groups of users by infecting websites that the users commonly visit.
A watering hole attack is a security exploit where the cyber attacker infects legitimate websites frequently visited by members of a targeted group or organization being attacked. And the goal of watering hole attack is to identify computer used by one or more of the targeted group or organization members when they they surf the infected or malicious website.
Watering hole attack – This is an attack orchestrated through websites containing malicious code. It is an attack performed by introducing malicious code on a web site that is believed to be frequently visited by personnel of a target organization, much like animals will visit a common watering hole to quench their thirst and targeted by preys.
Protection against watering hole attack may include:
- The primary method to prevent watering hole attach is to deploy centralized web filtering system that blocks access to known malicious websites.
- Installing latest anti-malware solutions and malware analysis procedures helps to thwart watering hole attack.
- Another usual method would be to conduct web security awareness raising sessions.