Website security threats and cyberattacks pose a material risk to organizations across all industries and company sizes. The overall volume of attacks continues to increase, and this trend is expected to persist — and potentially accelerate — in 2026, as threat actors adopt more sophisticated, automated, and targeted techniques. In addition, the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence further amplifies website security risks.
Companies increasingly train their own AI models and embed AI assistants into websites, customer support platforms, internal systems, and developer workflows. While these technologies improve efficiency and user experience, they also introduce new attack surfaces and security risks when implemented without proper controls.
In this article, we will provide an overview of the main types of website attacks, how to identify them, what actions to take if you encounter a cyberattack, and, most importantly, how to protect your website from such threats.
Websites are targeted due to a combination of economic, technical, and operational factors, including:
- direct financial motivation and monetization opportunities;
- vulnerabilities in application logic, software components, or CMS platforms;
- inadequate or poorly implemented security controls;
- insecure AI integrations, APIs, and data processing pipelines;
- the high strategic value of user data, business information, and AI training datasets.
Consequently, robust website security is essential for enterprises, e-commerce platforms, startups, and online services. Even short-term service disruption or limited data exposure can result in financial losses, regulatory risks, and long-term reputational damage.
What Are Website Attacks?
A website attack is a deliberate attempt to compromise a web application or digital service in order to gain unauthorized access, disrupt availability, steal sensitive data, or misuse system resources for financial or operational purposes.
Modern threats originate from multiple vectors, including technical attacks (such as DDoS and injection), social engineering, and attacks on hosting infrastructure and CMS platforms. The attack surface is further expanded by AI-driven systems: insecure AI integrations, exposed APIs, weak access controls, and unprotected data pipelines enable prompt injection, data leakage, model abuse, and unauthorized access to business and training data.
Websites are targeted due to financial incentives, exploitable vulnerabilities, inadequate security controls, and the high strategic value of user and business data. Consequently, robust website and AI security measures are critical across all industries, as even brief disruptions or limited data exposure can result in financial loss, regulatory risk, and long-term reputational damage.
Technical Attacks on Websites
DDoS Attacks
A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack floods a website or server with massive volumes of traffic, preventing legitimate users from accessing the service.
Typical indicators of a DDoS attack include:
- sudden traffic spikes;
- degraded website performance;
- HTTP 502/504 errors;
- complete service outages.
Effective protection measures include:
- CDN and Anti-DDoS solutions;
- traffic filtering across OSI Layers L3–L7;
- automated attack detection using DDoS sensors.
Learn more about the principles of protection: https://stormwall.pro/ddos-protection
3.2. SQL Injection
SQL Injection is an attack technique that injects malicious SQL queries through vulnerable input fields.
Potential impact:
- exposure of databases;
- deletion or modification of data;
- full website compromise.
Prevention methods:
- parameterized database queries;
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) protection;
- regular website security audits.
3.3. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
An XSS vulnerability allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by users.
Common XSS types include:
- Stored XSS;
- Reflected XSS;
- DOM-based XSS.
Mitigation techniques:
- strict input validation and output encoding;
- Content Security Policy (CSP);
- WAF-based filtering.
3.4. Remote Code Execution (RCE)
Remote Code Execution (RCE) is one of the most critical web application vulnerabilities.
Why RCE is dangerous:
- attackers gain full control over the server;
- malicious backdoors can be installed;
- servers may become part of botnets.
How RCE is prevented:
- timely vulnerability patching;
- strict privilege management;
- comprehensive WAF and server protection.
3.5. Brute Force and Password Attacks
Brute force attacks attempt to guess passwords to gain access to administrative panels and user accounts.
Modern defense techniques include:
- limiting authentication attempts;
- two-factor authentication (2FA);
- bot detection and filtering.
4. Social and Behavioral Threats
4.1. Phishing Attacks
Phishing involves deceiving users into revealing credentials or sensitive information.
Protective measures include:
- domain and DNS security;
- monitoring for fraudulent websites;
- user awareness training.
4.2. Social Engineering
Instead of exploiting technical vulnerabilities, attackers manipulate people.
Organizational safeguards include:
- employee cybersecurity training;
- clearly defined access policies;
- role-based permission management.
5. Infrastructure Threats
5.1. Attacks on Hosting and Servers
- control panel compromise;
- insecure configurations;
- missing security updates.
5.2. CMS-Based Attacks
Popular CMS platforms are frequent targets.
Preventive actions:
- keeping CMS core and plugins updated;
- WAF protection;
- access restriction and hardening.
5.3. Malware Infections
Common malware threats include:
- backdoors;
- cryptominers;
- malicious redirects.
Detection methods:
- file integrity monitoring;
- scheduled security scans;
- malware detection tools.
- Emerging Threats in 2024–2025
- AI-powered attacks;
- large-scale botnets;
- zero-day vulnerabilities;
- supply chain compromises.
