A cyber attack is an attack launched from one or more
computers against another computer, multiple computers or networks.
Cyber attacks can be broken down into two broad types: attacks where the
goal is to disable the target computer or knock it offline, or attacks
where the goal is to get access to the target computer's data and
perhaps gain admin privileges on it.
Josh Fruhlinger posting on CSO fills us in on cyber attacks using some of the major recent cyber attacks and analyses what we can learn from them.
Read his article - What is a cyber attack? Recent examples show disturbing trends