Malicious Attack : Malicious Attacks And Threats That Could Be Carried Out Against The Network

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.

All three of theses are high for impact as they can cause great deal of damage to the network and control I’ve listed as medium because there is the human action that must be considered. Virus and malware detection software should be installed and kept up-to-date as well as training for users to understand how to use email. Users should always be aware of who is sending them email and not open attachments from users they do not know or unsure of. Phishing is easy and generally great way of gaining access to a network, people in general want to help, they may get an email or a phone call from someone posing as something they should be able to trust and provide details that could allow the hacker to gain access to their network. Information such as equipment type (server, firewall, routers), IP address, email addresses, any of this information could be used to stage an attack on the network. Again training is key here. If you train your employees well on data security they will know what they can and can’t answer and whom to send request to so they can be followed-up on. The last one for the Workstation is the

The next step is to identify the risks, threats and vulnerabilities. Hackers attack from the Internet, failure of hardware or software systems, or network outages are the most common threats. And common vulnerabilities are absence of firewall and antivirus software, absence of update patches, not adequately trained associates etc.

(Samuel Folledo) How many of us know exactly what Denial-of-Service attacks is? Aside from how powerful and easy it is to perform these attacks, its mysteriousness alone illustrates a huge danger in the computer world. A deep understanding of DoS can save a lot of headaches as these cybercriminals are able to steal from personal informations to bringing down sites and companies. The first wall of prevention against these attacks is always awareness. This is why being knowledgeable on Denial-of-Service attacks important. (End of Intro)

Multiple of organizations have gone to great lengths to make sure their networks are fully functioning correctly because it is the best way to facilitate information being shared and distributed as well as keep sensitive information secured. Organizations will eventually become exposed to potential malicious attacks and threats over a period of time. One of the potential threats to any organization is internal threats, which is a disgruntled employee that knows how the organization they work for operates. They already have some sort of access to a computer system in order to cause the most damage to an organization for a specific reason by putting a virus, Trojan horse, or a worm inside the network (Microsoft, n.d.). The second potential threat to any organization could be malicious individuals, groups, or organizations that are known as structured external threats (Tech-FAQ, 2012). These attackers are highly skilled on how a network works, and already know what damages and losses they will cause an organization. The motives for many structured external threats have to do with greed, politics, terrorism, racism, and criminal bribes (Tech-FAQ, 2012). The third potential threat to any organization is an unstructured external threat, which is an attacker often known as a script kiddie because they lacks the skills to develop the threat on their own when they try to attack an organization. They would use any cracking or scripted tools on the Internet that are already made to

Hacking is among one of the many things that all users have to deal with in technology of the current times. It has been an issue for some time and is only getting worse there are ways to attempt to fight off the attempts that will eventually happen. Some of these methods involve software that is able to be purchased online or in a physical store. Other methods involve software that is able to be downloaded via the internet and installed on a computer. The question is which ones are the best to use and offer the best defense against the possible cyber-attacks from potential hackers? This and more will be explained over the course of this paper in the next few paragraphs. The take away from this should be more methods that can be used to fight against the hackers that will target many end users in the world. The defense of the end users are one of the only things that can protect these end users from harm to the computers that are owned.

The supreme threats we face are attacks on our critical infrastructure. In July of 1996, Executive Order 13010 Critical Infrastructure Protection outlines the value of critical infrastructure as “so vital if modified, shutdown or destroyed it would debilitating US economic” ("EO 13010 Critical Infrastructures 15 July 1996," 1996). Preserving infrastructure operability has always been at the forefront of our security model; human & disaster related hazards used to sit atop the list, now cyber-attacks demand most of the attention. The alarming part to this entire subset, private sectors controls 85% of America’s critical infrastructure. The concern I have not only comes in the form of infrastructure vulnerabilities; but also the timeframe it

A cyber-criminal can create a denial-of-service attack by sending spam emails to a network. The spam emails can be sent to an email account supplied by an employer or a free email account offered by Hotmail and Yahoo. With each email account, the user is assigned a specific quota that specifies the amount of space the account can have at a given time. If the cyber-criminal sends large amounts of spam messages to a user’s email account then the quota will be exceeded and prevent the user from receiving legitimate messages.

When discussing the iPremier denial of service attack, there needs to be some background in order to fully understand the position the company was in at the time. Firstly, a denial of service attack is an attempt to make a piece of hardware like a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. This attack is performed by sending out a flood of information packets that causes congestion within the networks resources, deducing them unavailable. Denial of service attacks are conducted with malicious attempt as displayed by the iPremier case. The iPremier company was founded in 1990s by two students in Seattle, Washington. The company specialized in selling web-based commerce, such as luxury products, rare merchandise, and vintage goods over the internet. iPremier’s competitive advantage was their flexible return policies which allowed the customer to thoroughly check out the product and make a decision to keep the product or return it. The majority of iPremier customers are high end and credit limits are not a problem, which also adds to the competitive advantage of utilizing their entire customer base. They were one of the few companies in the 90s that were successful in this business sector and by the end of the decade the company saw sales as high as $32 million and a profit of $2.1 million. Sales had increased by 50% during the last three years of the decade and they were in an upward trend. iPremier’s stock nearly tripled after the company’s initial public

A worm is another way how a network can be attacked, worms are very easy to spread between computers. Worms are transferred from one computer to another without human interaction. The worms can be transferred by emails, USB drives or downloading files. This means that worms have the capability to transfer from one computer to another and to replicate so they can infect vast amounts of computers.

Network security has changed significantly over the past years. There is more and more data to monitor and analyze in order to detect the activity of your data and systems. Securing a network has many variables. Password authentication, network access, patches, anti-virus protection, intrusion detection, firewall and network monitoring tools are just a few of the things you can do to protect yourself.

The most common malicious attack and threat are from viruses and other malware. There are different types of viruses to protect a network and computers from and viruses can get into the network in different ways, mostly by email and websites on the internet. The best strategy for dealing with the risk for viruses and other malware would be risk mitigation. Viruses and other malware cannot be avoided or transferred to another business since our computers and network is here in the business for people to utilize. Viruses are also not an acceptable risk, the damages from viruses will outweigh the money spent to protect the network and computers. For these reasons, the strategies of risk assignment, risk acceptance, and risk avoidance are not appropriate to use to mitigate the risk. Antivirus software can be purchased and placed on the computers to help prevent viruses’ infections would be cheaper than money spent on the time techs to remove viruses from all systems and replace any hardware that may be damaged by the virus.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the article Cyber Threats to Mobile Phones, phones are now sharing hardware and software similar to a PC and becoming each time more like a PC. Therefore, the risks of being hacked are increasing, allowing hackers to attack mobile devices the same way as if they were doing it with a regular PC. Personal and professional information are more often stored on mobile devices therefore it is imperative to have our data secure. Security solutions for mobile devices are not as broad or high-tech as those for PCs. The majority of mobile security relies on the proper use and smart choices that the user makes on a daily basis to be protected against cyber attacks. Even the most careful person can be attacked but the possibilities of that happening are less when you are proactive.

Accessing other user’s files: Users may not alter or copy a file belonging to another User without first obtaining permission from the owner of the file. Ability to read, alter, or copy a file belonging to another User does not imply permission to read, after, or copy that file. Users may not use the computer system to “snoop” or pry into the affairs of other users by unnecessarily reviewing their files and e-mail.

Some of the attacks will be attacks targeting the end-users like Phishing or Social Engineering, those are usually not directly called as network attacks.