network security

network security

1. network vulnerabilities and risks

   • Malware, short for malicious software, is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of harmful or intrusive software, including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware, and other malicious programs
     • Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details
     • Ransomware is a type of malicious software from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid
     • Trojan horse, or Trojan, is any malicious computer program which misleads users of its true intent
   • A brute force attack is a trial-and-error method used to obtain information such as a user password or personal identification number (PIN). In a brute force attack, automated software is used to generate a large number of consecutive guesses
   • a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack where the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the Internet
   • Social engineering, in the context of information security, refers to psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme.
   • n cryptography and computer security, a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM) is an attack where the attacker secretly relays and possibly alters the communication between two parties who believe they are directly communicating with each other
   • Each time any communication is sent across a network, whether it is a Local Area Network or a Wide Area Network, it is split up into packets and sent by various routes. As they travel from one part of the network to another, they are at risk of being intercepted, read, altered or deleted.
   • Packet sniffing is the act of capturing packets of data flowing across a computer network.
   • SQL injection is a code injection technique, used to attack data-driven applications, in which nefarious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field for execution (e.g. to dump the database contents to the attacker)

2. network prevention methods

   • worms - Anti-virus and anti-spyware software are helpful, but must be pattern files at least every few days. The use of a firewall is also recommended and it needs to be kept up-to-date with new updates.
   • Brute force attack-An attacker can always discover a password through a password guesser, but the downside is that it could take years to find it. Depending on the password's length and complexity, there could be trillions of possible combinations. To speed things up a bit, a brute-force attack could start with dictionary words or slightly modified dictionary words because most people will use those rather than a completely random password. So to protect yourself you could make a more complex or completely random password
   • Social engneering - Be suspicious of unsolicited phone calls, visits, or email messages from individuals asking about employees or other internal information. If an unknown individual claims to be from a legitimate organization, try to verify his or her identity directly with the company.Do not reveal personal or financial information in email, and do not respond to email solicitations for this information. This includes following links sent in email.
   • Dos attack - An effective defense against an HTTP flood can be the deployment of a reverse proxy – in particular a collection of reverse proxies spread across multiple hosting locations.
   • Packet sniffing - to prevent packet sniffing you could use encryption to encrypt all of your data or you could use a VPN.
   • Man in the middle - Most of the effective defences against MITM can be found only on router or server-side. You won’t be having any dedicated control over the security of your transaction. Instead, you can use a strong encryption between the client and the server. In this case server authenticates client’s request by presenting a digital certificate, and then only connection could be established.
   • Trojans - Trojans are so named because they need your permission to run on your computer, either when you run the program yourself, or if you open a document or image that then runs the program. With this in mind, the first and best defense against Trojans is to never open an email attachment or run a program when you aren't 100 percent certain of the source, which includes all files downloaded from peer-to-peer programs or websites. But this is rarely possible in today's interconnected world, so a few more specific security measures are called for.
   • Ransomeware - An antivirus company said in a statement: “We advise all companies to update their Windows software, to check their security solution and ensure they have back pup and ransomware detection in place.” Jeffrey Esposito of Kaspersky anti-virus also recommends that everyone backs up their files “religiously”