...information technology security measure, on cutting edge and growing threats to internet security. Threats and new ways to make the internet ‘unsafe’ occur every minute and it is up to information technology professionals to play defense and protect the individuals that use it. This was a lengthy article, so I chose to write about some key concepts I found interesting and would like to talk about. The first issue I am discussing is financial institutions protecting against cybercriminals. A large number of financial intuitions were severely affected by the latest global financial crisis. This in turn caused many of these institutes to shut down or merge with each other. With such a headache and instability, you would think cybercriminals would stay away from this. On the contrary; in 2009, one year after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the financial sector was still one of the top targeted by phishing attacks. Phishing is a term that is used when someone is trying to con you into getting sensitive data from a user in an ‘unethical’ way. Financial institutes were targeted by fishing 74% compared to other sectors. In comparison, retail stores were targeted 6% and insurance companies 3%. A lot of fishing is used by the elderly who, unwillingly, appear to be naïve. Baby boomers are a little more willing to give up information such as checking account number, social security number, birth date, and the list goes on. With these cybercriminals getting...
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...Illegal Cyber Activities Technology is everywhere. Walk into a local Starbucks and connect any electronic device to the store’s Wi-Fi Network. Pick up a phone, touch the screen, and instantly be connected to the Internet, check an e-mail, or post to a social media website. Need directions? With satellites all around, it only takes a few seconds to find step-by-step instructions to a desired location. While all of these wonderful things make life easier, they can also turn that convenience into a web of nightmares. As the Internet continues to grow and as technology becomes more advanced, the need for regulation becomes more essential; otherwise, the Internet will become the perfect medium to get away with any crime imaginable. One of the biggest concerns individual people face when using the Internet is privacy. Almost every website has its very own log-in system with a unique username and password section. Not only that, but each website has different requirements for what kind of passwords can be used – some require uppercase letters, lower case letters, numbers and even a special character to make the passwords more secure. According to the University of Maryland’s Computer Science Department, “the best password is one that is totally random to anyone else” (Sanjour). Along with storing a username and password, most websites offer a bio section filled with name, date of birth, phone number and mailing address and even the option to save credit card information for...
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...electronic communications. They are; a) Unauthorized access, modification or impairment with intent to commit a serious offence, b) Unauthorized modification of data where the person is reckless as to whether the modification will impair data, c) Unauthorized impairment of electronic communications. There is a maximum penalty for these offences. Investigation powers relating to search and seizure of electronically stored data have been increased (Find Law Australia, 2012). Culprits of cybercrime can ignore the realms of Australian jurisdiction and launch an attack from anywhere in the world or even design attacks that seem to come from foreign sources. Approaches like this make legal and technical involvement of investigating and prosecuting cybercriminals more difficult. A major problem facing cyber crime investigations involves how to determine the jurisdiction where court proceeding shall take place, especially when offences have been committed in different nations or where the suspect’s and victim’s...
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...world in which we live is becoming more socially connected than ever before. It seems that technological advances have met, if not exceeded, anyone's expectations as new ways to communicate continue to develop. Due to the innovations of mobile connections, global technologies, and the ominous cloud, information can be shared and accessed at the touch of a screen or the sound of one's voice. Digital equipment that were unheard of just five years ago now inundates both professional and personal arenas. As a result, organizations, as well as their employees, have begun to feel the pressure placed on them to address current and potential threats to the security of their systems and clients (CloudTweaks, 2013). Cybercriminals can retrieve and analyze information gained through technological access from a single business or entity and use such confidential data to give competitive advantages to other organizations, to satisfy the requests of influential individuals, or to benefit national security. The World Wide Web permits immediate and boundless communication and the ability to interface on a global level, which can have its downfalls just as much as its benefits. Unapproved access to, and abuse of, information, technology and fundamental systems can irreparably damage a person or organization’s character, financial status, sense of stability and, in specific instances, physical well-being. Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, more complex and more effective as hackers develop...
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...Trends in Cybercrime-“Sextortion” in Teens and Children Curtis M. Styles CJA/570 April 23, 2012 Ray Gagne Trends in Cybercrime-"Sextortion" in Teens and Children Electronic methods of committing crimes in society today, is generally a new phenomenon. Modern crimes directed against the operation of computer technology itself, presents new crimes that are as new as contemporary technology. The Internet has opened a variety of new rooms for cybercriminals to commit cyber-based terrorist attempts, computer intrusions, and major cyberfrauds. Cyberextortion is an outsider threat designed to obtain money, products, or favorable considerations from an organization or individuals by using illegal means of persuasion related to computer intrusion (Cybercrime Investigation & Intelligence, 2012). This paper addresses the relatively new form of sexual exploitation called “sextortion” that has emerged on the cybersex crime scene recently, and its affect upon teenagers and children. In addition, the paper addresses the dangers of scams associated with “sextortion”, its criminal profile, law enforcement initiatives to combat “sextortion”, and the penalties for committing these types of crimes. “Sextortion” is a method of sexual exploitation in which individuals are extorted with nude images of themselves shared online over the Internet. Texting has become the modern day method of communication among teens and children, and in the case of “sextortion” these images are displayed...
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...RLOT Task 2 With the availability of open source tools and resources to cybercriminals, it has become extremely difficult to combat distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Typically DDoS attacks occur at the network layer by SYN flooding, ICMP flooding, and UDP flooding. Some times DDoS attacks fail at the network layer when this happens cybercriminals shift to application layer attacks. Application attacks occur by sending an overwhelming number of HTTP GET requests (HTTP flooding) or running a massive number of queries through the victim’s database query or search engine. This guide will address the information technology (IT) industry’s best practices to counter denial of service (DoS) and DDoS attacks. These countermeasures are patch management program, antivirus software, and host-based intrusion prevention systems. Patch Management Program One important aspect of security is patch management. Patching is software code that a vendor distributes to fix functionality problems or vulnerabilities for applications and network devices. Without a patch management program hackers could exploit vulnerabilities to gain access into the university’s information system, elevate privileges, and steal data. The amount of patches released can be overwhelming to the university’s network technicians. The patch management program will ensure that security risks are reduced to an acceptable level and reduce manpower requirements. The university will use an automated patch management...
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...written by hackers and the security programs used to track down and apprehend these criminals. Michael Rundle a reporter for the Huffington Post in the UK wrote an article titled ‘Heart bleed’ Bug: Change All of Your Passwords Warn Security Experts. Today, we use the internet to do pretty everything banking, email, social networking and online purchasing of goods and services. Technology known as an Open SSL is used to encrypt communications on the internet. A little “padlock” image at the bottom of your browser indicates the site is secure. The article went on to discuss how researchers established a flaw in the program Open SSL that let hackers steal passwords and other personal data leaving no trace for the past two years. HTTPS or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure is a communications protocol over a computer network, is trusted to keep all passwords, personal emails and credit cards safe provided all private information making it accessible to hackers who knew about the exploit. Due to the internet along with advanced computers, and software identity theft is at an all-time high. Cybercriminals have turn identity theft into a multi-billion dollar industry by ruining people lively hoods through credit card fraud, bank fraud, income tax fraud, and invading the homes of those who post pictures up on social media websites of themselves; telling the world where and when they are vacationing. Adults, teens, and children who utilize social media outlet should be...
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...drug trafficking as an instant criminal moneymaker. Apart from that, it is so surprising to know that somebody’s identity is stolen so quickly as fast as within only 3 seconds due to cybercrime. Besides that, for us to deeply concern, we need to realize that our unprotected PCs can become affected in a bad way and it takes only four minutes right after it connect to the internet. To those who never worried about these matters before, the moment you knew it, you should really be careful when you want to deal with the cyber world. It might sound so joyful when you can connect to other people in a far distance with the aid of the devices and the internet connection, but there is a risk that you cannot simply ignore. Let’s just defining the cybercriminals as the perpetrators, they are all can be divided into seven foremost basic categories. Hacker, cracker, script kiddie, corporate spy,...
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...Running Head: Cyber Crime- Online Predators 1 Cyber Crime A Study of Online Predators Amber Ellis Ivy Tech Community College CRIM 101 David De La Cruz December 4, 2012 Running Head: Cyber Crime- Online Predators 2 I have chosen to my term paper on Cyber Crime. I chose this topic because I myself have been a victim of this malicious crime in the past. With knowledge I can warn others. Cybercrime can only be described as illegal activity committed on the Internet. I thought it would be good for me to make myself aware of all the research behind this topic so that I will not be a victim again. Cybercrime is a very serious offense and a lot of people do not even realize they have been a victim of it. Cybercrime is no laughing matter. Criminal activities in cyberspace are on the rise. (National Research Council, (NRC), 1991) Computers today are being misused for illegal activities like e-mail espionage, credit card fraud, spams, and software piracy and so on, which invade our privacy and offend our senses. The internet, along with its advantages, has also exposed us to security risks that come with connecting to a large network. Cybercrimes can basically be divided into three categories: Cybercrimes against persons, cybercrimes against...
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...The internet is a system of networks to provide information and resources across the world. The internet gives endless options of resources and information that could be used in various ways. Even though the internet is convenient and necessary, there is little security on the web. The internet is dangerous and provides little security for the people who go on it. There are so many ways that someone could be harmed from using the internet. Some of these dangers can be prevented while others are unstoppable. There are pedophiles, as well as hackers that use the World Wide Web to get what they want, since there is little security to stop them. Novice level hackers can be stopped by spyware installed on a computer to prevent low level viruses. However, someone faking their identity on the internet is unstoppable because there is no way of seeing if they are telling the truth. Social media is one dangerous component of the internet that has little security. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all public. This means that all the information that is posted on this website can be seen by anyone who is able to go online. Once a profile is created on one these websites, they are automatically created as public accounts. The person creating these websites would need to manually make their accounts private. Most users would not know to do this and anything they put on their accounts can be viewed by anyone. Additionally, anything that is put on the internet is permanently...
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...PWR Session 6A Eli Task Template |Claim |Source 1 Forbes |Source 2 Economist |Source 3 Nytimes |Trends Observed | |1 |“while today’s complex digital world requires |“Data breaches are becoming ever bigger and more |“CryptoWall has primarily affected Windows |Rising trend of data infiltration by hackers, | | |secure end-to-end communications, where traffic |common. Last year over 800m records were lost, |computers and Android cellphones so far, there is|across all different technological devices | | |might cross many intermediate nodes – all of |mainly through such attacks “ |no technological barrier that prevents the virus | | | |which become weak points ripe for MiM attacks.” | |from infiltrating Macs like mine.” | | |2 |“Dispersive’s approach clearly makes MiM attacks |“ A need to provide incentives to improve |“ Keep our computers backed up on an independent |Better security infrastructure will lead to | | |quite difficult, and sometimes increased |cyber-security, be they carrots or sticks. One |drive or by using a cloud backup service like ...
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... First, indentifying Risk, Threat and Vulnerabilities within each of the seven Domains that make-up the firms IT infrastructure. Secondly, proposed security measures and controls for headquarters and each branch office. Keeping information assets secure is challenging for any business, regardless of its size. It seems there's no limit to the ingenuity and maliciousness of today's cybercriminals, hackers and identity thieves. In fact, hackers have become so sophisticated and organized that their operational methods are similar to those of traditional software development and business practices(Symantec 2008). What's more, while yesterday's attack activity consisted of a single compromise aimed at gaining access to the data on a computer, current attack techniques are multi-staged. Hackers use their initial compromise to establish a beachhead from which they can launch subsequent attacks. With an estimated 1.25 billion Internet users worldwide, according to Computer Economics, cybercriminals have never had a bigger pool of potential victims from...
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...Mobile Security Mobile security is where the protection of cell phones, smartphones, laptops and other portable electronic and wireless devices from threats and to be taken slightly. The importance of the mobile security is that these devices are used vulnerabilities. These devices are called mobile because we move with them from place to place and in the process they are subject to threats. Since the number of mobile devices has greatly increased in the last decade, it is therefore most likely that the threat associated with them will be high as well. It is common at any given second to have someone using a mobile device because some people say that they help them pass time. However, the security of these devices is vital and need not as storage devices for our personal and private messages which we do not want to share. When they are exposed to threats, there is a likelihood that the data may be changed or modified and this may lead to the real owner of the data being misled if he or she uses the data which is not accurate. Smartphones may contain credit card numbers, social security numbers and when they fall in the hands of criminals, the owner may end up having his money stolen. (Ruff & Nicolas (2011). Professionals like managers and professors use smartphones as their calendar and they store their appointment dates and details and if the data contained in them is tampered with, they may end up not staying on their schedule and if this...
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...Student Instructor: IT 294 January 10, 2014 IT 294 - WINTER 2014 - HOMEWORK WEEK 1 / CHAPTER 1 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Objectives 2 Objective 1: Describe the challenges of securing information 2 Objective 2: Define information security and explain why it is important 3 Objective 3: Identify the types of attackers that are common today 5 Hackers 5 Script Kiddies 5 Spies 5 Insiders 5 Cybercriminals 6 Cyberterrorists 6 Objective 4: List the basic steps of an attack 6 Objective 5: Describe the five basic principles of defense 7 Layering 7 Limiting 7 Diversity 7 Obscurity 8 Simplicity 8 Works Cited 8 Chapter 1 Objectives To accomplish the learning objectives for Chapter 1: • I have read all of Chapter 1 in the course textbook (pages 1-39); including understanding the key terms on (pages 28-29). • I have read and answered all of the review questions on (pages 29-32), then compared my decisions with the solutions posted on Canvas, any incorrect answers I corrected and confirmed in the chapter. • I have read and worked through Hands-On Projects 1-1 through 1-4 to facilitate in achieving each of the stated learning objectives. • I have read, worked through and evaluated Case Projects 1-1 through 1-8 on (pages 36-38). • I have participated in all class presentations and discussions about Chapter 1 • I have read through and examined Chapter1 slide presentations. The learning objectives for this chapter are as follows: Objective...
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...Government Intervening To Protect Our Cyberspace University of Maryland University College Table of Contents Introduction page…………………………………………………………………..3 Justification to Regulate Private Industry Cybersecurity………………………3-4 Real World Threat…………………………………………………………………4-5 Methods for Government Intervention:…………………………………….……5 Government’s Intervention Impacts on National Security………………….….5-6 Real World National Security Breaches…………………………………………6 Arguments of the Private Sector to Take Responsibility.................................6-7 Failure to Take Responsible Action................................................................7 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………7-8 References.....................................................................................................8-9 Introduction In 1969, the first ever network was born into existence (ARPANET) also called advanced research projects agency network. The Government Defense Department worked diligently on this break through in order to link some of the United States most prominent research universities with a couple of purposes in mind:...
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