Network Security Threats

Network Security Threats

1. Brute-Force attack

   • A Brute-Force attack is when unauthorised software is used to try a lot of possible password combinations to try and get access to the system.
   • You can run anti-malware software on your computer periodically and make sure it is up to date.
   • Methods of prevention
     • Making sure you have strong passwords or a strong password so that the possibility of the malicious software

2. Phishing

   • Phishing is when someone sends an email to someone disguised as an official brand/company. They may talk about how your account may have been locked because of unauthorised access. However, that is all a scam and links that they send people may require them to fill in their personal details.
   • To prevent this, you can regularly update your password and learn how to recognise the difference between scams and legitimate emails from your selected bank, gym, membership etc.

3. Social engineering

   • Social engineering is the manipulation of people to get personal information or to find out something about a person, a company or something along those lines.
   • Methods of prevention
     • Creating multiple user access levels so that they may have to get more access to get what they want.
       • Ensuring you have a strong password or strong passwords
     • Using biometric measures (fingerprint, facial recognition etc.)
       • Increasing awareness about what a scam looks like and how you can identify an illegitimate email or message.
         • Using website filters

4. The different forms of attack

   • Passive Attack – data is monitored e.g. wiretap
   • Active Attack - data is modified e.g. malware
   • Inside Attack– by someone within the organisation
   • Outside Attack – by an illegitimate, external user

5. Types of security threats

   • Brute-force Attack – when all possible password combinations are systematically tried, with the hope of getting it right.
   • Denial-of-Service Attack (DoS) - when a network resource becomes deliberately overloaded (‘flooded’) with unnecessary requests, preventing it from responding normally.
   • Distributed-Denial-of-Service Attack (DDoS) – when the requests come from many sources so you cannot just block a single IP address.
   • Structure Query Language (SQL) Injection – when a website is linked to a database and allows a user to enter information, it makes it possible for malicious code to be entered into a website form, in order to modify the SQL statement being executed. This will result in unauthorised access to the SQL database and the hacker will able to modify, delete or add data.