Although ping sweeps and port scans have been around for some time now, they are still considered huge security threats, especially in a business where sensitive data flocks the network. Ping sweeps and port scans are computer activities allowing the person using these activities to gain access to a network or a device; they can be very useful in the right hands but also very dangerous in the wrong hands. A ping sweep is when an intruder sends an ICMP ECHO, or a ping request, to several devices on a network in search of any devices that are currently on. Any devices that are on in that network will send a ping back “saying” that specific device is on. Whichever devices that are not on will not see the request and won’t send anything back so they are ignored by the intruder. But, knowing what devices are on and what devices are not gives the intruder an easy starting point for his/her intrusion attempts. Just because ping sweeps can be used by intruders, this doesn’t mean only intruders use them; network administrators will also use ping sweeps for troubleshooting purposes. They are great tools to use but can cause severe damage if the person using them wanted to.
Now that we have talked about ping sweeps, port scans are another tool that intruders can use to access a network or a device. The difference from ping sweeps and port scans though are enormous making port scans much more dangerous. If we look back at what ping sweeps do, look to see what machines are on and which ones are off, and add another thing to look at, what ports are open for access and which ones are not, you get port scan. So port scans not only are able to see what machines are on or not, they are also able to see what ports are open for access on the machines that are on. After knowing what ports are open, the port scans will take it a step further and see what services are currently being ran