...There are five phases that a hacker will go thru when trying to attack your system. Each one is different and requires different ways to limit the hacker’s ability to gain information about your system. The first phase is reconnaissance, this can be passive or active. One of the things that a hacker might try is social engineering to gain information on the system. The best way to combat this, is by training and more training of the employees on the various ways that a hacker will attempt to get information. There is also dumpster diving, the only way to combat this is to make sure that the information that is being of disposed is of such a nature that it is useless to them. Information that they could use to gain access to the system, should be destroyed in such a way that it cannot be reconstructed in any way. Also a hacker could try sniffing the network, this is where system hardening will assist in preventing the hacker from gaining information. The second phase is scanning, in this phase the hacker will try to scan the network to see what information he can obtain to assist him in determining what weakness exist. This scanning he can find out such information as to what type of OS is being used, the version of the OS, and many other things about the network. To help prevent him from getting this information, system hardening is the best defense. This will include but not limited to disabling all ports but those that are needed, turning off certain ICMP features which...
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...networking 11. Learn diassembler language (its the most basic language for understanding machine language and very useful to ubderstand when anything is disassembled and decoded) 12. Learn to use a Unix os. (a Unix system is generally loaded with networking tools as well as a few hacking tools) 13. Learn how to use Exploits and compile them. (Perl and c++ is must) ETHICAL HACKER Traditionally, a Hacker is someone who likes to play with Software or Electronic Systems. Hackers enjoy Exploring and Learning how Computer systems operate. They love discovering new ways to work electronically. Hacker is a word that has two meanings: 1-Recently, Hacker has taken on a new meaning someone who maliciously breaks into systems for personal gain. 2-Technically, these criminals are Crackers as Criminal Hackers. Crackers break into systems with malicious Intentions An ethical hacker is a computer and network expert who attacks a security system on behalf of its owners, seeking vulnerabilities that a malicious hacker could exploit. To test a security system, ethical hackers use the same methods as their less principled counterparts, but report problems instead of taking advantage of them. Ethical hacking is also known as penetration testing, intrusion testing...
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...system is to collect as much information as you can. You may start with domain name, from there try to obtain an IP address to open ports, then try to see what operating system is running, and finally see what applications are running and what versions of software are being used to run that system. Scanning is when you use information gathered in the reconnaissance step to detect vulnerabilities of the targeted system in order to deploy hacking tools. It is common practice that attacker will use automated or semi-automated tools to conduct security surveys and to generate reports of security-related vulnerabilities. Gaining Access phase is where the actual hacking takes place. Vulnerabilities that were discovered during the reconnaissance and scanning phase are now exploited to gain access. The method of how the hacker was able to exploit a connection can be a local area network (LAN, either wired or wireless), local access to a PC, the Internet, or offline. In Maintaining Access Phase a hacker has already gained access, and wants to maintain that access for future exploitation and attacks. Hackers sometimes harden a system in order to keep other hackers or security personnel out by securing their exclusive access with backdoors, rootkits, and Trojans. Once the hacker owns the system, they can use it as a base to launch additional attacks. Covering Tracks Phase is where the hackers have been able to gain and maintain access; they cover their tracks in order to avoid...
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...Chapter-1 1.0 Introduction With the tremendous advancement of Internet, different aspects of it are achieving the highest peak of growth. An example of it is e-commerce. More and more computers get connected to the Internet, wireless devices and networks are booming and sooner or later, nearly every electronic device may have its own IP address. The complexity of networks is increasing, the software on devices gets more sophisticated and user friendly – interacting with other devices and people are a main issues. At the same time, the complexity of the involved software grows, life cycles are getting shorter and maintaining high quality is difficult. Most users want (or need) to have access to information from all over the world around the clock. Highly interconnected devices which have access to the global network are the consequence. As a result, privacy and security concerns are getting more important. In a word, information is money. There is a serious need to limit access to personal or confidential information – access controls are needed. Unfortunately most software is not bug free due to their complexity or carelessness of their inventors. Some bugs may have a serious impact on the access controls in place or may even open up some unintended backdoors. Security therefore is a hot topic and quite some effort is spent in securing services, systems and networks. On the internet, there is a silent war going on between the good and the bad guys – between the ones...
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...Certified Ethical Hacking - The 5 phases Every Hacker Must Follow The 5 Phases Every Hacker Must Follow Originally, to “hack” meant to possess extraordinary computer skills to extend the limits of computer systems. Hacking required great proficiency. However, today there are automated tools and codes available on the Internet that makes it possible for anyone with a will and desire, to hack and succeed. Mere compromise of the security of a system does not denote success. There are websites that insist on “taking back the net” as well as those who believe that they are doing all a favor by posting the exploit details. These can act as a detriment and can bring down the skill level required to become a successful attacker. The ease with which system vulnerabilities can be exploited has increased while the knowledge curve required to perform such exploits has shortened. The concept of the elite/super hacker is an illusion. However, hackers are generally intelligent individuals with good computer skills, with the ability to create and explore into the computer’s software and hardware. Their intention can be either to gain knowledge or to dig around to do illegal things. Attackers are motivated by the zeal to know more while malicious attackers would intend to steal data. In general, there are five phases in which an intruder advances an attack: 1. Reconnaissance 2. Scanning 3. Gaining Access 4. Maintaining Access 5. Covering Tracks For More Informaton contact EC-Council – (505)341-3228...
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...Assignment 1: Attack Methodology and Countermeasures Terrance Moore Professor Siplin Perimeter Defense 10/31/2013 When you are utilizing security features in an application, consideration should be given to the design, implementation, and deployment. It would helpful if you understand how a hacker thinks and then utilize the tools a hacker would use. Today, every company is becoming completely networked, through the exchanging of information on desktops, laptops, tablets and smart phones. Thinking like a hacker and understanding a hacker’s tactics and scams could make you aware and become more effective when applying countermeasures. There are several methods for carrying out ethical hacking, the most common are limited vulnerability and penetration testing. Limited vulnerability analysis, focus on entry points to gather critical systems and data. By understanding the basic approach used by hackers to target organizations, you will be better equipped to take defensive measures you will be better equipped and know what you are up against. There are steps involved in scanning a network, the following points will highlight them. 1) Check for live systems, 2) Check for open ports, 3) Fingerprint the operating system, 4) Scan for vulnerabilities, 5) Probe the network. Tools that can be used to detect scanning threats and countermeasures that a company can use to deter and avoid vulnerabilities are as follows. “Spoofing user identity -use strong authentication for passwords...
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...Attack Methodology and Countermeasures Strayer University SEC420 Professor Gillen July 24, 2015 Attack Methodology and Countermeasures When most people hear the term “hacker” they think of an evil person committing crimes by hacking into their computers to steal, destroy and/or steal identities. This is so in some cases, but not all hackers are bad. Hackers are merely curious technically skilled individuals who gain unauthorized access to computers, networks of various companies, organizations and individuals. Good hackers are considered white hat hackers. They are the ones, who are hired to break into systems as a way of testing the vulnerabilities and security issues that may be present in the computer system. Consider this: company XYZ, a mid-sized corporation, is in the middle of satisfying their regulatory compliance needs. The manager of security at the company has been tasked by the CIO (Chief Information Officer) to report on the company’s current security posture. If the manager decided to outsource an ethical or white hat hacker in attempt to test their security measures. Over the course of this document various things the third party hacker would need from the company, things he or she would provide to the company and some predictions for the tests. In order to exploit the targeted systems the initial steps to gain as much information as possible about the targets. In this case, the manager is the contact in which questions may be posed. The hacker would...
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...Megan Patterson IS4560 Monday E1 Class Week 1-Penetration Test Plan June 17, 2013 Attack and Penetration Test Plan Megan Patterson IS4560 Childers June 17, 2013 External Penetration testing tests the security surrounding externally connected systems from the Internet, as well as within a corporate network. Controlled tests are used to gain access to Internet resources and ultimately to the DMZ, which is an internal network; by going through and around firewalls from the Internet. External Penetration Testing involves the finding and exploitation of actual known and unknown vulnerabilities from the perspective of an outside attacker. The External Attack and Penetration testing Process is as follows: * Phase 1-Discovery * Analysis * Footprint * Identify * Phase 2-Services * Ping * Map * Scan * Phase 3-Enumeration * Extract * Collect * Intrusive * Phase 4-Application Layer Testing * Manual * Depth * Blind * Phase 5-Exploit * Attack * Penetrate * Compromise The purpose of the External Attack and Penetration testing plan is to outline on what to do for an external penetration test within a corporate network. The goals for this plan if it is successful, is that to go ahead and deploy whatever the tester is testing after documentation has been written, saved, and reviewed by the IT staff. If the plan is not successful, then the tester needs to go through the steps of retesting the application...
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...Biometrics within Financial Institutions Abstract This paper presents a problem with the use of technology within the Credit Unions and Banking industries. Technological innovations have allowed the industry to be more open to consumers and challenges that the current economy has posed. Modern technology is also change the landscape of how, when and where business is conducted with financial institutions and consumers, businesses, and other organizations. Technology driven issues such as privacy, security and trust, have been pushed to the forefront, which makes the line between mobile banking and banking online increasing difficult to distinguish. Credit Unions like other banking institutions rely on gathering, processing, analyzing and providing information to meet the demands of the consumer. Given the importance of information systems within banking its not surprising to find, risks within the systems are developing in nature. History Truliant Federal Credit Union was started in Winston-Salem, North Carolina around 1952. They serve over 180,000 member owners and more than 900 business and organizations with $1.6 billion in assets. Truliant as it will be referred to in this paper has 21 financial locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. One philosophy that stands out or is a representation of what this particular Credit Union stands for is “ people helping people”. Like other not for profit organizations, they provide individuals and small business with...
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...Item A: Maintaining access Item B: Maintaining access refers to the phase when the hacker tries to retain his 'ownership' of the system. Hacking Phase 4 (2018). Item C: When an attacker infiltrates a target system, the attacker can choose to use both the system and its resources and further use the system as a botnet, or a network of private computers infected with malicious software. The attacker can control the systems as a group without the owners' knowledge to scan and exploit other systems, or remain hidden all while continuing to take advantage of the system. All of these actions can be dangerous for an individual or a business. In a business setting, the hacker could use a sniffer to capture all network traffic, including telnet and ftp sessions with other systems....
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...the digital information assets of a company. This paper describes the various goals of network security which are: Maintaining information integrity, protecting the information confidentiality and ensuring that the information is available. It is therefore very important that all the networks be protected from all the threats and vulnerabilities for the company to achieve its full potential and goals. Potential malicious attacks and threats A threat is defined as any event or circumstance that has the potential to adversely affect the organizational assets, or operations which includes image, functions, mission, or reputation of the company through unauthorized access, disclosure, destruction, modification of information or denial of service. An attack is an exploit or intrusion, which is an assault to a system that makes intentional use of a vulnerability. Examples of malicious attacks are; Hacking, SQL injection, and Password Cracking. Hacking: Hacking is the unauthorized access of a computer system to get information or data that belongs to someone else. The hacker accesses the system by exploiting s systems’ vulnerability or weakness. The various channels that a hacker gains access to a system are:...
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...Unit 9 Assignment 2 Phases of a computer attack Phase 1 - Reconnaissance Phase 2 - Scanning Phase 3 - Gaining Access Phase 4 - Maintaining access Phase 5 - Covering Tracks Phase 1: Passive and Active Reconnaissance Passive reconnaissance: This is the process of scouting out a company or individuals knowledge and processes, such as finding out when employees come in to work and leave work. It can also be the result of researching the company through the internet via search engines. Active Reconnaissance: This is the process of actually scanning the network to find out IP address and services that the network provides. This process will help the hacker determine what vulnerabilities are on the network as well as other important information such as what operating systems the network is using. This is a more intrusive part of reconnaissance than the passive way and has a much higher risk of being detected. Phase 2: Scanning This is the process of using the information discovered in the reconnaissance stage and using programs such as port scanners, network mappers, and sweepers. This can result in getting information such as the user accounts, IP addresses and computer names. Phase 3: Gaining Access This is the phase where you are taking the information gathered from the reconnaissance and scanning phase, the information gathered is used to exploit vulnerabilities in the network to gain access. There are several ways to do this such...
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...receiving end of a sophisticated cyber-attack in April of 2014. Over 53 million email addresses and 56 million credit card accounts were compromised during the attack. I am going to briefly discuss the sequence of events and steps that the hackers utilized to gain all of the information. I will also discuss how Home Depot was able to utilize phase 6 of the security process from the event and secure their network (Smith, 2013). The attackers had to go through a series of steps in order to infiltrate the Home Depot customer information. The attackers first gained access to into the Home Depot private network. Initially one may wonder how this was able to be done to a big business. The lack of patches and updates made the attack obtainable. The second step to the complicated process was to develop custom malware to attack the self-checkout registers that the company owned. Technology is always changing and attackers are always trying to develop new tools. The custom malware utilized in this attack was something that no one had ever seen before. It was developed to run and be undetectable from antivirus and intrusion detection systems. Due to the hidden nature of the malware it went undetected for months. The criminal was also able to load the software onto over 7500 self-checkout machines. The software would copy all of the credit card and debit card information from the customers that utilized the self-checkout. These attacks are very important to reflect upon. ...
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...David W. Dumond Introduction to IT (IT190-1502B-06) June 17, 2015 Individual Project(s) Contents Section 1: Information Systems Overview 3 Section 2: Information Systems Concepts 7 Section 3: Business Information Systems 11 Section 4: System Development 15 Section 5: Information Systems and Society 17 References 20 Section 1: Information Systems Overview The York County Sheriff’s Office is a law enforcement agency tasked with the regional enforcement of state criminal and motor vehicle statutes. The sheriff’s office also serves as the York County public safety answering point (PSAP). Calls for service are received at the PSAP and then dispatched via radio and computer terminal to law enforcement officers assigned to respond. Leading up to the use of Information Systems such as computer aided dispatch (CAD) the PSAP relied on radio’s to communicate information to the law enforcement officers. With the development of CAD and Record Management Systems (RMS) the sheriff’s office recognized the value of these systems and in 2007 adopted IMC CAD+RMS (Information Management Corporation CAD+RMS, 2007). IMC is a multifaceted information dissemination system utilized by dispatchers in the PSAP, emergency responders and their records management departments. IMC utilizes a closed stand-alone network and was developed for emergency management services such as fire, rescue and law enforcement departments. It is expandable and can be provisioned based on the client’s...
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...executing business operations. Organizations and government agencies have to adopt ethical hacking tools in order secure important documents and sensitive information (Harold F. Tipton and Micki Krause, 2004). Ethical hacker professionals have to be hired in order to test the networks effectively. Ethical hackers perform security measure on behalf of the organization owners. In order to bring out the ethical hacking efforts perfectly a proper plan must be executed. Ethical hacking has the ability to suggest proper security tools that can avoid attacks on the networks. Hacking tools can be used for email systems, data bases and voice over internet protocol applications in order to make communications securely. Ethical hacking can also be known as penetration testing which can be used for networks, applications and operating systems (Jeff Forristal and Julie Traxler, 2001). Using hacking tools is a best method for identifying the attacks before it effect the entire organization. Ethical hackers are nothing but authorized users for the sensitive information or networks of an organization. Using hacking techniques for handling employees in organization and for solving critical judicial cases is not a crime. An ethical hacker use same tools and actions as performed by normal hacker. The main aspect in ethical hacking is that target permission is essential for performing...
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