{"id":4720,"date":"2012-10-16T16:03:38","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T16:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/attack\/"},"modified":"2023-10-04T12:50:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T12:50:54","slug":"attack","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6060\/attack","title":{"rendered":"Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_attack_mean\">What Does Attack Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>An attack is an information security threat that involves an attempt to obtain, alter, destroy, remove, implant or reveal information without authorized access or permission. It happens to both individuals and organizations. There are many different kinds of attacks, including but not limited to passive, active, targeted, clickjacking, brandjacking, botnet, phishing, spamming, inside and outside.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_attack\">Techopedia Explains Attack<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>An attack is one of the biggest security threats in information technology, and it comes in different forms. A passive attack is one that does not affect any system, although information is obtained. A good example of this is wiretapping. An active attack has the potential to cause major damage to an individual\u2019s or organization\u2019s resource because it attempts to alter system resources or affect how they work. A good example of this might be a virus or other type of malware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Attack Mean? An attack is an information security threat that involves an attempt to obtain, alter, destroy, remove, implant or reveal information without authorized access or permission. It happens to both individuals and organizations. There are many different kinds of attacks, including but not limited to passive, active, targeted, clickjacking, brandjacking, botnet, phishing, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[218,250],"class_list":["post-4720","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-cybersecurity","definitioncat-information-assurance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is an Attack? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Attack and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Attack\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Attack and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6060\/attack\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-04T12:50:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6060\/attack#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6060\/attack\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Attack\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-16T16:03:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-04T12:50:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6060\/attack\"},\"wordCount\":147,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6060\/attack#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6060\/attack\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/6060\/attack\",\"name\":\"What is an Attack? 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