Case Study
Jose Rios
SEC-415
Professor Johnson
May 12, 2013

Case Study 1
Cyber attacks are starting to become more popular as companies solely depend on technology to get through their workdays as well to store most of their customers and employees confidential information. Most companies invest money on securing their databases to prevent any type of cyber attack and even though they try to prevent these types of events from occurring hackers are becoming more creative on the way they hack onto companies’ secured network. Hackers go through tremendous amounts of time in order to get to a secured network in order to get the information they are seeking or just to go through private information for their own personal gain. Secured networks are set up throughout organizations to minimize the possibility of a cyber attack from occurring along with other security measures to protect the private information that is being held on those secured networks. Most of the attacks that occur are mainly from people that are disgruntle towards certain companies for their type of work or actions that they have done but others take advantage and commit crimes that affect others. Mark Pollitt, special agent for the FBI, offers a working definition: “Cyberterrorism is the premeditated, politically motivated attacks against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which result in violence against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”(Denning, Dorothy E.) Other cyber attacks are meant to steal valuable information from high-end organizations in order to jeopardize future projects as well as past projects that some how have affected others. No matter how good and secured a network is there always a chance that it can get hacked by experienced hackers and that’s what IT security should always keep up with technology along with the new methods that hackers are using to get in to secured networks.
There are several different methods from preventing cyber attacks from occurring and every day these procedures are being change in order to keep up with the high amounts innovated ways that hackers are coming up to reach their ultimate goal. All employees should follow the rules and regulations that have been established to keep their network secure even if it means not opening any sort of spam email, going through their social network page, sharing password’s or going to any websites that might seem malicious. Employees should encrypt every email they send especially if that email contains private or important information that certain people shouldn’t get their hands on. Every procedure that is put in place is to protect the best interest of an organization secured network as silly as the procedure might be once an employee slips up that’s when hackers take advantage and infiltrate that network to do the most damage as possible.
Finally no matter how well secured a network might seem there is always room for error and when a secured network is vulnerable at it’s most that’s why employees should always be on the lookout for suspicious emails, websites and Bluetooth devices. IT departments should try their hardest to keep up with the everyday growth of technology to keep cyber hackers from hacking into an organization’s network. Even though most secured networks always run the risk of being hacked by experience cyber experts that oppose some sort of danger to an organization.

Reference:
Denning, Dorothy E. “Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism: The Internet as a Tool for Influencing Foreign Policy.” Info War Online. 4 February 2000. Accessed 1 March 2010 from www.iwar.org.uk/cyberterror/resources/dening.htm.