1. Information security is more of a management issue because it is up to management to decide what end users should have access to and what they should not. Also technology can only do what it is told to do but if management sets up training to teach end users about the threats of say opening an unknown email then the company is safer.
2. Without data an organization loses its record of transactions and/or its ability to deliver value to its customers. Page 42 Principles of Information Security
3. Both general and It management
4. It has created more and the reason why is it is much easier to spread viruses, worms, etc. now that the can get from system to system without having to attach to a physical disc.
5. Information extortion occurs when an attacker or trusted insider steals information from a computer system and demands compensation for its return or for an agreement not to disclose it. Page 60 Principles of Information Security. An example would be if someone would steal the latest album from a well-known artist before its release date and demanded to be paid or it would be released onto the internet.
6. Employees are one of the biggest threats for several reasons the can accidently allow someone access to the system by installing a back door or it is possible for them to become angry with the company and just hand out IP to rival companies. It is also possible that they could accidently delete valuable data from the system that has no backup.
7. Make sure nobody is looking over your shoulder when viewing valuable data also you can get a screen cover that only allows you to see the data on the screen if you are looking at it from straight ahead.
8. Because of television and movies hackers are normally perceived as heroes or heroines because they always crack a code that will “save the day” or reveals information to catching the bad guy. A modern hackers profile is Age 12-60 male or female unknown background with varying technological skill levels may be internal or external to an organization. Figure 2-6 page 53 Principles of Information Security
9. An expert hacker normally writes software and codes while a novice hacker uses the software to attack an organization. The protection against them is the same because most attacks are not done by expert hackers. If an expert hacker wants into your system it is very likely they will get in.
10. The most common malware are viruses worms and Trojan horses. The difference between a virus and a worm is that a virus needs a host file to replicate whereas a virus does not. A Trojan horse is a program that normally disguises itself as a helpful program and then releases either viruses or worms on to your system.
11. Polymorphism causes greater concern because the files are constantly changing things like file size to make it much harder to detect.
12. The most common IP breach is the unlawful use or duplication of software based intellectual property. Page 45 Principles of Information Security. Most organizations fight against it by using digital watermarks, embedded code, copyright codes, intentional placement of bad sectors, or an online registration process. Two agencies that fight against it are the SIIA and BSA.
13. Fire, Flood, Earthquake, lighting, land slide, tornado, hurricane etc. All major cities will have a certain force of nature that could affect their systems for example Miami would have to account for hurricanes while LA would worry more about earthquakes.
14. Antiquated or outdated infrastructure can lead to unreliable or untrustworthy systems. Page 64 Principles of Information Security. The IT professionals play the biggest role in making sure all technology is not outdated.
15. All IP has value for instance the company I work for remanufactures engines and we have certain specs to the way we do things if an attacker were to get ahold of those specs they could release them and then our competition would have our secrets.
16. Password Crack, brute force, dictionary attack. A system administrator can set up the system where passwords have to be complex which makes them harder to crack. For example the password unicorn is a lot easier to crack than Un1c0rn.
17. A DoS attacks a single target from a single attacker while a DDoS comes from several locations at the same time. A DDoS attack is much harder to defend against.
18. He/she would have to install a program or a device and they can be placed almost anywhere.
19. A big method used in social engineering to acquire a user name and password would be the help me. Give an employee a call and say hey I’m Paul I work in accounting and I can’t log onto the system because I have locked my account can I borrow your information for a minute so I can send the boss these important files. It would only vary if the administrator’s assistant had taken a course to learn about social engineering.
20. A buffer overflow or buffer over run is when more data is sent to a program than it is designed to handle. If the attack is on a web server everything that is sent after the server can handle comes out on the system which could be code that contains a virus.