What are three of the most common categories of network attacks on enterprise networks?

Question

Accepted Answer

The three most common enterprise network attacks are: Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), Data Breaches, and Malware (including ransomware).

Attack Type
Description
Example

DDoS
Coordinated attack from many compromised devices ("zombies") to overwhelm a target's website or resources
Mirai botnet attack (2016) took down DNS (Domain Name System) provider Dyn

Data Breach
Compromise of servers or hosts to steal confidential information
Equifax breach (2017) — 147 million records

Malware
Malicious software infecting hosts — viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware
WannaCry ransomware encrypted data and demanded payment

Key insight: While these attacks get the headlines, they often start with a Layer 2 compromise on the local network. If an attacker gains access to the LAN (Local Area Network), they can escalate to any of these attack types. That's why securing the switch infrastructure (Layer 2) is critical — it's the foundation everything else sits on.
Go deeper:

Denial-of-service attack (Wikipedia) — DDoS via botnets and the Mirai/Dyn 2016 example.
 Data breach (Wikipedia) — breaches, threat actors and notification law.
 Malware (Wikipedia) — viruses, worms, trojans and ransomware (the WannaCry category).

Attack Type	Description	Example
DDoS	Coordinated attack from many compromised devices ("zombies") to overwhelm a target's website or resources	Mirai botnet attack (2016) took down DNS (Domain Name System) provider Dyn
Data Breach	Compromise of servers or hosts to steal confidential information	Equifax breach (2017) — 147 million records
Malware	Malicious software infecting hosts — viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware	WannaCry ransomware encrypted data and demanded payment