Assignment 1: Computer Memory Hacking
Albert Pigg|
|Mr. De Monte’ Thomason| |CIS106|
|05/09/16|
Assignment 1: Computer Memory Hacking

Hacking of Memory
When it comes to the term “hacking” essentially the “hackers” are usually categorized in two categories, “white-hat” and “black-hat.” White-hat refers to the hacker affiliating themselves with light and justice. Black-hat refers to the hacker affiliating themselves with the darker side of the net and with malicious intent. What is “hacking”? Essentially it is accessing, altering, or such manipulation of data while circumventing preventative measures. There is however numerous preventative measures corporations, governments and other private institutions take to secure their data. (Harvey, 1985)

Common Tools of a Hacker
“To catch a thief, it takes a thief.” We’ve all heard it sometime in life likely. To first take the steps of understanding how to prevent hacking, we must familiarize ourselves with some of their tools.
DDOS and DOS Attacks
Denial of service attacks are a frequent occurrence on the internet. Often referred to as “DOS attacks”. DOS attacks are initiated by hackers sending packets, or bits of data, very repetitively to the victim’s computer until it is unable to communicate any other packets. (PBS, 2001) One such attack was executed against some big United States companies. On February 8th 2000, “MafiaBoy” or Michael Calce attacked sites such as Yahoo!, CNN, eBay, and E-Trade, with repeated DOS attacks. Even though he was only able to bring them down momentarily, it is a pretty big accomplishment given their security measures. (Gross, 2011)
Trojan Horses
Trojan horses are much like you would assume from ancient Greece and their history with the Trojan horse, they usually attach themselves to a program, or e-mail or even an alert on your iPhone, and unknowingly the user initiates a whirlwind of repercussions. Once installed the Trojan horse can control the computer without the victims’ knowledge, and often times, hide programs to run later causing further harm or malicious intent. One of the most renowned Trojan horse to date is likely “Black Orifice” developed by a collective known as Cult of The Mad Cow. Once Black Orifice infected the end target victim, it had complete control over any system running Windows 95/98 systems or later. (PBS, 2001)
Best Practices of Computer Protection
Given the previous real-life examples of havoc most hackers cause, taking preventative measures are absolutely necessary. Some of the best practices of security include installing a firewall, using anti-virus software, and using anti-spyware software. (State Of California Dept. Of Justice Office Of The Attorney General)
Installing a Firewall
Installing a firewall is one of the best preventative measures likely to combat viruses and unauthorized access to or from your private network. Installing a firewall in either software or hardware is a step in the right security direction. All messages sending or receiving in a private network pass through the firewall, it is then filtered and secured. Often firewalls are updated near daily to stay current with developments of intrusion methods. (Indiana University)
Anti-Virus Software
Anti-virus software is much like a firewall in a sense. The software often scans the entire system, or heavily frequented files where viruses tend to attack. Though false positives sometimes occur, the ratio is relatively small. The issues, after detected by the software, are either quarantined or deleted entirely. (Gordon, Howard, 2000)
Anti-Spyware Software
Anti-spyware software is crucial to the privacy and security of any computer user. Spyware is much like viruses, software that it attaches itself to other intended use programs or files. “Piggy-backed” spyware is particularly common in programs for file-sharing such as Limewire. Essentially the spyware sits back and discretely collects private data and keystrokes of passwords. (Levy, Gribble, Brackin, Moschuk)
Hacking in Modern Society In 2000, the total cost of all hack attacks to the world economy was estimated at a staggering $1.5 trillion. In 2003, hacker-created computer viruses only, costing businesses $55 billion twice that of what they incurred the previous year. (Gunkel, D. 2005) Some hackers, hack for fame, while others hack for profit in some tangible or intangible way. One modern “hacktivist” group Anonymous, rallies around current presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, while hacking and exposing opposing democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. (Anonymous 2016)
References
Anonymous (2016) Anonhq.com Retrieved from http://anonhq.com/
Gordon, S. and Howard F. (2000) Antivirus Software Testing for the New Millenium Retrieved from http://csrc.nist.gov/nissc/2000/proceedings/papers/038.pdf
Gross, D. (August 15th, 2011) ‘Mafiaboy’ breaks silence, paints ‘portrait of a hacker’ Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/08/15/mafiaboy.hacker/ Gunkel, D. (2005) Editorial: introduction to hacking and hacktivism Retrieved from http://gunkelweb.com/articles/hacktivism.pdf Harvey, B. (April, 1985) Computer Hacking and Ethics Retrieved from https://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/hackers.html
Indiana University What is a firewall? Retrieved from https://kb.iu.edu/d/aoru
Moschuk, A. Bragin, T. Gribble S. and Levy, H A Crawler-based Study of Spyware on the Web
Retrieved from http://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse454/15wi/papers/spycrawler.pdf PBS (2001) A Hacker’s Tools of the Trade
Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hackers/whoare/tools.html
State Of California Dept. Of Justice Office of the Attorney General Protect Your Computer from Viruses, Hackers, and Spies Retrieved from
https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/facts/online-privacy/protect-your-computer