The threat catalogue
Brute force, DDoS, malware, phishing/pharming, social engineering, data interception.
Cambridge expects you to know the standard catalogue of cyber threats. Each one has a different mechanism β and a different best defence.
Brute-force attack. The attacker tries every possible password until one works. Mitigated by long, complex passwords, account lockouts after failed attempts, CAPTCHA and MFA.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service). A botnet (many compromised devices) floods a target server with traffic, making it unreachable to legitimate users. Mitigated by traffic filtering, rate limiting, anti-DDoS services (Cloudflare, AWS Shield).
Data interception. Capturing data while it's being transmitted (e.g. sniffing on a public Wi-Fi). Mitigated by ENCRYPTION β SSL/TLS, VPN, encrypted file transfers.
Malware. Malicious software in many forms (viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware, spyware). Mitigated by anti-malware software, automatic updates, careful downloading, sandboxing.
Phishing. Fake emails / messages that look legitimate, tricking the user into clicking a link and entering credentials on a fake site. Mitigated by user education, anti-phishing browser extensions, link previews, MFA.
Pharming. DNS or hosts-file compromise that redirects a user to a fake site even when they type the correct URL. Mitigated by anti-malware scanning, DNS over HTTPS, certificate validation, user awareness.
Social engineering. Manipulating people psychologically β impersonating IT staff, urgent fake requests, baiting. Mitigated by user training, verification procedures, zero-trust policies.
Cambridge tip. Mark schemes ask candidates to MATCH each threat to a relevant defence. Memorising the threat list isn't enough β pair each one with its mitigation.
- Six big threats: brute force, DDoS, data interception, malware, phishing, pharming, social engineering.
- Each has a SPECIFIC defence; matching them is the exam skill.