Implication of Threats

Implication of Threats

1. Malware

   • Viruses
     • a program that copies and inserts itself into programs running on your computer system.
     • it spreads by attaching to another system, such as via an email attachment or files on a USB stick.
   • Trojans
     • A harmful program, wearing a disguise as a different program
   • Spyware
     • a malicious program that monitors user activity for the purpose of stealing personal information.
     • Such as a keylogger, typically spreads as part of a trojan
   • Worms
     • Similar to viruses except they dont need to attach to files
       • They instead are standalone programs and spread through tunnelling through a network and exploiting security holes in systems to gain access.
   • The impact
     • Individuals
       • personal photos that have real emotion value could be lost forever causing a lot of distress.
       • Malware, especially spyware, could also be used to gather personal data, such as bank details, in order to steal money from individuals or to commit identity fraud.
     • Organisation
       • Corrupt or delete data being stored on IT systems
       • If they have no backups could be disatrous as lose things such as stock levels, employee pay data, etc

2. Hackers

   • Impact
     • individuals
       • Could be hacked for blackmailing purposes
     • Organisations
       • Normally hacked to obtain bank details or business records, or even stealing peoples infomation which could be used in identiy fruad
   • A hacker is someone who gains unauthorised access to a computer system.
     • This can be done in a variety different ways, others more complex, such as guessing the password
   • They use programs to help gain access, such as brute forcing attacks
     • There are many other more technical methods of hacking which require programming knowledge and an understanding of the flaws in a computer system and its software.
   • Not all hacking is bad, white hat hackers test system for security flaws by trying to access a system
     • There are even “bounties” paid out to hackers who detect security flaws in software and report them to the organisation who developed the software.

3. Phising

   • This is where emails are sent purporting to be a reputable company but in fact have been sent by a malicious user for the purpose of gaining personal or financial information.
     • Usually done via posing as a reputable business with a link to what is their "website", which contains a form that a user will have to fill out to obtain infomation
   • Most people don’t fall for these threats but the malicious user can send the email to hundreds of thousands of users at no cost and so any user who makes the mistake will earn the malicious user profit.
   • Recently we’ve also seen phone phishing attempts, where people phone users claiming to be from a legitimate business to try and gain personal and financial information.
   • Impact
     • Organisiation
       • The data stolen from an organisations through a phishing email could be used to then perform a hack on the organisation. For example, a user may reveal their login details. Further Thought
     • Indivduals
       • The goal of phishing is usually to obtain personal and financial information. This is therefore commonly used for stealing money from an individuals or an organisations bank account. Individuals can also be impacted by identity fraud, where personal data is stolen and used to sign up for loans for example.
   • Phising can also take place via phone more commonly nowadays

4. Accidental Damage

   • This includes things like
     • Dropping laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.
     • Spilling liquids on IT systems
     • Misplacing external storage devices, laptops, tablets & smartphones.
     • Accidentally deleting or overwriting files or folders.
   • We can lose data and damage our IT systems through human error
   • Big reason as why backups are required
   • Impact
     • Individual
       • Loss of data, such as sales records for both indivudals and businesses
     • Organisations
     • This is extremely expensive to recover from for both individuals and businesses. You may need to pay a specialist to try and recover the data, or will need to recapture and re-enter data from its source.
       • Finally, you will need to replace any lost or damaged devices which will be costly too, especially to individuals.