Information Security Threats

Have you ever wondered about today’s ongoing problem with computer-based threats? There are many online complications today with these new generations forming. Computer viruses, malware, identity theft, online predators, cyber bullying, phishing, and hacking (black hat and white hat) are only a few problems going on online, yet they cause so many problems and threats.

Explains what a botnet is, how it is created, used and the amount or types of data that can be collected over time. The ability to track or monitor many of these botnets by antivirus software is reported to be a very low percentage of known botnets. One of the basic principles is almost a “throw everything at it and see what sticks” mentality in that developers will employ a botnet through embedding it in a quasi-convincing spam message and hoping the reader is dumb enough to click on the link (Mittleman 67.)

The Internet is a worldwide communications system that allows millions of computers to exchange information.

Malicious bots are software applications that run automated tasks. These bots are also increasing; when they are used they create automated attacks on networks.

It uses the flaws in Windows computers to break into a computer and links other affected or unaffected computers together into a huge botnet (“Conficker”, 2015). The botnet can be controlled remotely by the author(s)’ of the worm. Conficker worm infected 9 million to 15 million Windows computers in over 200 countries in the world including government, military, business, and home computers. So far the author of this worm is still unknown (“Conficker”, 2015).

Dangers to the Government concerning security ever exist. As a result, the Intelligence Security of the U.S, both the military and researchers should ever be alert and take immediate action whenever security threat exist either internally or globally. As technology advances day and night, even the security weapons for defense and attack also change (Reyes and others 2010, 79).

Processes involved in the normal operation of a botnet has no comprehensive approach to either the stages encompassing the life cycle, or the lack of compartmentalization between them (see Figure 1, Botnet Life cycle Taxonomy). Apart from normal operations, so far there’s no qualitative analysis on how these stages should be characterized, defined, or distinguished. A proposed botnet life cycle stage starts with conception and ends with reaching the desired malicious intent, i.e. a successful attack and can include DDoS, spam, phishing, or click fraud. Corresponding mechanisms to these stages of the botnet life cycle are typically focused on attempting to hide the botnet (communication processes, location of the bots, and botmaster), some of these methods include IP spoofing, multi-hopping, polymorphism, and fast-flux networks. (Garcıa-Teodoro, Macia-Fernandez, & Rodrıguez-Gomez, 2012). Any defensive approach to overcoming a botnet is dedicated to preventing execution of a particular process in one of the botnet life cycle stages or combine processes in one or more stages. Deterring execution of a single stage in the botnet life cycle can thwart a malicious and devastating outcome. In principle, prevention of hidden mechanisms doesn’t suggest deterrence of the botnet goal, but increases the probability that a botnet will be identified by a defense method.

This paper is written in the form of an advice by a chief security officer to the CEO of a company. It shows the general physical and IT threats that a company is faced with and how it can be dealt with. The study shows that there are physical threats that affect a firm’s computer hardware. This includes threats to the hardware itself and threats to the premises and intermediary systems. IT threats includes threats to data security and breaches to the system. This can be handled through a strategic approach that involves risk assessment, formulation of an IT security plan and its implementation.

Information Security has been a growing role in businesses and will continue to grow because of the ever changing ways of technology. Microsoft has been a leader in the information security industry since it was founded in 1975. Bill Gates and Paul Allen are the founders of this business and have made it a global billion dollar company. With the company venturing in all devices such computers, cell phones, and even cars the sky is the limit for this company to continue to thrive in the technology business. Since 1975 the industry has expanded rapidly and security within the technology business has tightened and has tried to stay ahead of the criminals and hackers as they are always looking to disrupt and break in. An information security

What is Botnet? Botnets are malicious software that criminals distribute to computers and turn them into a zombie. When a computer is infected with a botnet your computer can perform tasks over the internet while you have no clue its happening. Normally criminals infect a large number of computers forming a network or a botnet. Botnets send out spam emails to spread viruses attack other computers and to commit other kind of crime and fraud. Some botnets can be large some can be small but size does not matter either way damage will be done regardless.

In these days, cyber-attacks have become a huge problem for online communities. Malware, such as viruses, Trojans, worms, spware, ad-ware, and many other forms are becoming an increasingly popular methods to infect computer machines. Malware, also known as malicious software, is used by hackers, and criminals around the world to disrupt computer activities, and gain access to private, or important information in computer systems, and to gather that information illegally. There are countless forms of malicious software, and they can be located everywhere, such as on widely known websites, advertisements being displayed, and more.

Security threats have not only grown and matured quickly, but the people behind these threats have become more creative in disguising and hiding their work. These criminals have become more adept at eluding their identification and are now relying on cryptography. Some of the more frequent used threats were listed in the Security Threat Report 2014 such as botnets, android malware, attacks on Linux platforms and Mac OS X, web-based malware, targeted threats to your financial accounts, unpatched windows systems and re-invented spam (Sophos, 2014). These items are dangerous and can destroy companies and their employees. The more complex these threats get, the harder it is to protect or prepare to defend against them. A botnet is a network of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owner’s knowledge. Criminals distribute malicious software that can turn your computer into a “bot”. When this occurs, your computer can perform automated tasked over the Internet without your knowledge. This type of malware is typically used to infect large numbers of computers.

Once a potential victim is identified, the malware then attempts a brute-force login of the device, pulling from a pre-determined list of default usernames and passwords for IoT devices. Once successful, the details of the compromised victim are sent back to the “hub” of the botnet where the device is then further targeted by the primary piece of malware. The device is compromised with a payload that turns the device into a zombie for the botnet, hiding its tracks by deleting downloaded binary signatures and hiding its process name through obfuscation (Antonakakis, April, & Bailey, 2005). In a coordinated effort, these fully compromised devices are then recruited to execute a coordinated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against a victim; in this case the Dyn Corportation, whose DNS architecture is as a major backbone of the larger Internet’s DNS service. Unable to keep up with the shear amount of traffic, multiple frequently-visited and well known online providers such as CNN, Netflix, and others were brought down. A graphical representation of the Mirai attack methodology is represented in Figure 1.

Botnet: This is a network of zombie computers used for malicious actions on the Internet, generally without computer’s owners the knowledge (Stallings & Brown, 2015).

Even those that are very familiar with computing often have issue and are very unclear with terms which are related with computer virus, worms, Trojan horse, malware, botnets, DDoS, hackers, pharming, phishing, ransomware, and spoofing. One reason why it is hard for people to understand the terms is that it is impossible to say in all given circumstances if a given program is malicious or not. Even when it comes to threats to big companies such as hackers cause sometimes developers would miss or might not create a security feature to