Premium Essay

The Hacker in All of Us

In:

Submitted By mallory5
Words 530
Pages 3
THE HACKER IN ALL OF US
Discussion Points: 1. How vulnerable do you think the typical computer site is?

Your vulnerability will depend on who the user is. Home users are more vulnerable than Business users. The average home user may or may not have antivirus installed on their computer and even when they do they are not using it properly. They rarely schedule scans and install updates. When those pop up come they usually can’t be bothered to let it run. Most computer users try to be safe when they are online. Many of them won’t open emails from people they don’t know and some only go to websites they know they can trust. Unfortunately it’s not enough you are still vulnerable to the latest Hack Attack. Now Business or Corporate users usually have an entire department dedicated to protecting them so they are less vulnerable.

2. What is the magnitude of the risk? That is, if security is compromised, what is the potential cost to the victim?

Again this will depend on the user. Your average home users will run the risk of viruses, loss of data due to system crash and identity theft if they are not careful. With the Business or Corporate users the magnitude of the risk is much greater. If it is a financial institute, we could be talking millions of dollars at risk if security is compromised.

3. What policies and procedures can you suggest to counter the types of threats illustrated in this case study?

* Intrusion Detection: A security service that monitors and analyzes system events for the purpose of finding and providing real-time or near-real-time warning of, attempts to access system resources in an unauthorized manner. * If an intrusion is detected quickly enough, the intruder can be identified and ejected from the system before any damage is done or any data compromised. * An effective IDS can serve as

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Things

...Hackers Jessica Floyd Professor Teresa Ashley CIS 106 February 15, 2015 Hackers “We worried for decades about WMDs – Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now it is time to worry about a new kind of WMDs – Weapons of Mass Disruption.” ― John Mariotti “Hacker; Someone who maliciously breaks into a system for personal gain.” (Beaver, 10) Hacking is a growing phenomenon that has proven itself to be a menace to both the public organizations and business security. In todays modern society it is very important for us to understand how hackers can infiltrate our systems and gain access to our personal information. Being knowledgeable about some of the common tools hackers are using will help us to protect our computers from being cracked into. Hacking has been around for decades dating all the way back to 1903 with the infamous Nevil Maskelyne who hacked into a wireless telegraphy demonstration by sending denigrating mores codes through a projector. (Marks) Another prominent, but more recent scandal was the attack on Target’s security and payment system that left millions of consumers credit card numbers and personal information open and at risk to be obtained for illegal use. Although Target spent 1.6 million on malware protection and had a team of security specialists watching for signs of intrusion, the hackers still gained access to the publics personal information. With all of the protection Target had surrounding its payment system some may wonder how a breach in security...

Words: 1141 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Hacking

...Main University Road, Karachi, Sindh-75300,Pakistan mallick251@hotmail.com MUHAMMAD NUMAN ALI KHAN Department of Computer Engineering, Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology, Main University Road, Karachi, Sindh-75300,Pakistan mallick89@yahoo.co.uk Abstract : This paper explores the ethics behind ethical hacking and whether there are problems that lie with this new field of work. Since ethical hacking has been a controversial subject over the past few years, the question remains of the true intentions of ethical hackers. The paper also looks at ways in which future research could be looked into to help keep ethical hacking, ethical. Keywords— Ethical hacking, hacking, hackers, education and training, risk management, automated security I. INTRODUCTION Understanding the true intentions of the general public is quite a hard task these days, and it is even harder so, to understand the intentions of every single ethical hacker getting into vulnerable systems or networks. Technology is ever growing and we are encountering tools that are beneficial to the general public, but in the wrong hands can create great controversy, breaching our basic right to privacy, respect and freewill. The constant issues highlighted by the media always reporting some type of cyber crime, a study showing that nearly 90% of attacks happen on the inside [1] raising concerns of how easy it is to be working on the inside to be able to infiltrate attacks. Has ethical hacking finally...

Words: 3982 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Ethical Hacking

...Technology, Main University Road, Karachi, Sindh-75300,Pakistan mallick251@hotmail.com MUHAMMAD NUMAN ALI KHAN Department of Computer Engineering, Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology, Main University Road, Karachi, Sindh-75300,Pakistan mallick89@yahoo.co.uk Abstract : This paper explores the ethics behind ethical hacking and whether there are problems that lie with this new field of work. Since ethical hacking has been a controversial subject over the past few years, the question remains of the true intentions of ethical hackers. The paper also looks at ways in which future research could be looked into to help keep ethical hacking, ethical. Keywords— Ethical hacking, hacking, hackers, education and training, risk management, automated security I. INTRODUCTION Understanding the true intentions of the general public is quite a hard task these days, and it is even harder so, to understand the intentions of every single ethical hacker getting into vulnerable systems or networks. Technology is ever growing and we are encountering tools that are beneficial to the general public, but in the wrong hands can create great controversy, breaching our basic right to privacy, respect and freewill. The constant issues highlighted by the media always reporting some type of cyber crime, a study showing that nearly 90% of attacks happen on the inside [1] raising concerns of how easy it is to be working on the inside to be able to infiltrate attacks. Has ethical hacking finally come...

Words: 3974 - Pages: 16

Free Essay

Cultures

...originator Julian Assange, and the exchange of him has run from Raffi Khatchadourian's June picture in The New Yorker, which makes Assange resemble an expert spy in a John le Carré novel, to Tunku Varadarajan's epic muckraking bloviation in The Daily Beast: "With his bloodless, pallid face, his thin hair emptied of all shade, his languorous, exceptionally un-Australian appendages, and his atmosphere of blinding whiteness that seems to concede no subtlety, Assange looks every last bit the flippant, uber-geek blackguard." Some have gotten for making Assange bankrupt" (regardless of the fact that we must maltreat universal law to do it), while others, going from Daniel Ellsberg to Assange himself, suppose he is (in Ellsberg's statements) "in some threat." I don't question that Assange is in peril, yet regardless of the possibility that he is made bankrupt by capture, death or character indictment with charges of sexual offense, it might not stanch the stream of mystery reports into the general population area. To think generally is a failure that reflects a huge misjudging of the way of Wikileaks and the subculture from which it developed… It has long been a moral rule of hackers that thoughts and data are not to be...

Words: 576 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Hacking and Refactoring

...published works and to me personally. Fowler has gone so far as to include open source on his list of agile-movement schools. I agree that we belong on that list. But I also agree with Fowler's description of of open source as a style, rather than a process. I think his reservations as to whether open source can be described as just another agile school are well-founded. There is something more complicated and interesting going on here. and I realized when I read Fowler's description of open source that at some point I was going to have to do some hard thinking and writing in an effort to sort it all out. While doing research for my book The Art of Unix Programming, I read one particular passage in Fowler's Refactoring that finally brought it all home. He writes: One argument is that refactoring can be an alternative to up-front design. In this scenario, you don't do any design at all. You just code the first approach that comes into your head, get it working, and then refactor it into shape. Actually, this approach can...

Words: 2291 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Hacker

...University of Phoenix Alejandro Granados Keeping the Hacker Out CMGT / 440 Oct/3/2011 Keeping the Hacker Out Knowledge is the best way to keep systems secure. According to an article on Security News Week Magazine, knowing what methods the hackers use to attack is the best weapon a CEO can use to protect its company data. And whether or not he can prevent an attack knowing a Hacker “know how” Is the best way to identify future potential treats to a company’s network. According to Terry Cutler in an article posted on Security Week magazine . People responsible of company network are familiar with web defacing and executive spear phishing They have become aware that hackers are waiting and gathering information and concealing themselves Also known as footprinting. When hackers attack it doesn’t just cost millions to a company but also earned reputations can be compromised or destroyed. SIEM or Security Information and Event Management software are necessary automation tools for a company network security, That determine the severity of treats . SIEM is capable of detecting suspicious employee activity which is extremely important. Let’s say a swipe card system identifies an employee entering the company office after business hours in Montreal, then it identifies the same employee entering another company facility 20 miles away. If each entrance occurs within a space of 20 minutes, something is off because it is impossible for one person to travel 20 miles...

Words: 629 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

It Security

...government rely on technologies that use computers, whether it is used for storage, a medium between the customers and themselves or actual work. With all this information and data being stored, transferred and used it needs to be secured. A bank is open to the public; you would not have this bank unsecured would you? There would be security guards, cameras, and a vault. The same mentality to secure your data should be implied if you have a network that is connected to the Internet. You should have software, hardware, and/or personnel monitoring your networks operations and security. All computers and systems that connect to the internet or networks run off software of some type. People called hackers or crackers, manipulate programs, create worms, and viruses to make systems do thing there not supposed to, access places they aren’t allowed, and shutdown or hinder a system from working properly (Dasgupta). Then there are attacks, phishing attacks which come in the form of email that try to lead you to fraudulent sites, Denial-of-service attacks overload servers causing no one to get on or shuts them down. Then there are SQL injection attacks which are used in security vulnerable web apps, it’s a code that pulls information from the database and sends it back to the hacker, these are just a few of the many threats posed today by hackers ("Top Cyber Security Risks- Origin and Destination", 2009). Cyber security threats are on the climb as cyber criminals persist to increase innovative...

Words: 1949 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Hacking

...there is also one similarity of all this three meaning, finding out weaknesses in a computer or computer network and exploiting them. The early hacker based on the internet article, wrote by Robert Trigaux, for St. Petersburg Times in 2000, this hacker is in early 1970, John Draper who hack the phone system by blowing a precise tone to ask the system to open the line for long-distance call for free. Nowadays, the internet has become the primary medium to perform business transaction and store the important data. Internet also is a primary medium for hacker to do their job. In a modern ways to make all thing easier, all the of a person can be find in internet nowadays, that make the term privacy is no more important to someone[1]. By using this medium also, a hacker can get an IP of a computer, and can breaking the computer system either to upload or download something from it. In the next paragraph will elaborate more on purpose of hacking, the effect of hacking and the way to prevent hacking. The purposes of hacking that are happen on internet or networking system in entire world today is to steal. Steal what? That was depended on the hacker. But, there is hackers who hack to earn money. Usually, this type of hacker hacks into a bank system to make a fake transaction by finding the point of entry into an information system to get banking data. Based on internet article, by, Brian Williams on Wednesday, March 21 2012, a group of hacker had been caught for stealing 70...

Words: 2065 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Ethical It

...Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects us against “unreasonable search and seizures” without proper cause (Freeman 2). This was established to ensure that our privacy was upheld and that agents of the government could not infringe on those rights. However, what happens when the government uses information illegally obtained by an individual outside the jurisdiction of the United States? In these cases we’ve seen that the U.S. government is able to use information illegally obtained by international hackers in order to prosecute U.S. citizens. This essay will review the case of a unanimous white-hat hacker from Turkey using a Trojan horse to find individuals with child pornography on their personal computers. In early 2000, an anonymous Turkish citizen was able to utilize a Trojan horse to identify users that frequent and download child pornography (Freeman 3). The anonymous user was then able to report his findings to the authorities and allow them to further research the allegation in order to prosecute the individual. This led to the arrest and prosecution of Bradley Steiger to 17-years in prison on child pornography charges. The anonymous user was able to garner the same results a year later when he presented evidence to the authorities against William Jarrett of Virginia (Freeman 3). William Jarrett filed an action against the District Court asking for a reversal of the conviction based on the illegal methods used by hacker to gain the evidence that was eventually...

Words: 586 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Ethical Hacking

...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...

Words: 2587 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Attack Prevention

...Cyber-attacks can “inflict economic damage, disrupt a company’s operation and harm to its reputation” (Mead, 2011, para. 1). The different types of attacks are discussed such as; intellectual property theft, fraud, attacks upon infrastructure, and telecommunications. This article also stresses the importance of getting employees involved in the fight against these types of attacks by keeping all employees trained in information security policies and procedures. Some businesses may even require the assistance of the government in fighting off these attacks, and getting them involved if an attack does occur. Intellectual property theft is “robbing people of their ideas, inventions, and creative expressions—what’s called intellectual property—everything from trade secrets and proprietary products and parts to movies and music and software” (FBI, n.d., para. 1). The U.S is known for having cutting edge ideas, therefore making them vulnerable to these types of threats. That is why the FBI has made it a top priority to fight against these attacks with the FBI cyber program. While not all businesses may think this could be a concern to them it very well can be, for example if there network were to be attacked and company policies and procedures were to get into the wrong hands their trade secrets could be exposed giving competitors a leg up against them. Another type of attack companies need to be concerned...

Words: 998 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Ipad

...4th, 2010 and within days a security breach was announced. Hackers from Goatse Security firm tracked down about a 100,000 email ids of new iPad owners which included government officials, politicians, journalists, and other important famous people (IPad Security Breach, 2010). The question now arises is that what are the reasons that forced Goatse Firm from hacking into AT&T’s website? Goatse Security officials shared the email addresses and network ID’s to Gawker Media, LLC, after they informed AT&T and the vulnerability was closed (IPad Security Breach, 2010). Some expressed little concern over the security breach stating that it was “only email addresses” and not personal or financial information. The FBI doesn’t concur. AT&T responded quickly and has worked to mitigate the damage (FBI Investigating iPad Breach, 2010). Goatse’s Firm Objectives The following objectives might help us explain the possible factors that lead to the hacking of the AT&T’s website (Elinor, 2010). • The Goatse Security tricked the AT&T site into disclosing the e-mail addresses by sending HTTP (Hyper text transport protocol) requests that included SIM card serial numbers for iPads. This was because it contained serial numbers called ICC-IDs (Integrated circuit card identifiers) that are generated sequentially which helped the researchers to track down 1000’s of ids. • According to the AT&T spokesman the attack would allow the hacker to take some control of the iPad and that would potentially...

Words: 1158 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Nt1330 Unit 3 Assignment

...staff member to make sure everyone on the server have a great time and don't have any problems with the server or the players on it I will also keep members on the server updated in the change of rules or updates added to the server to improve its stability. How do you think you can assist the server if you become this rank?: I can assist the server in many ways as I have had experience in may of the other servers Minecraft provides for us. Any hackers that proceed to ruin or make the server less fun will be eliminated and recorded for proof if I need to add it to a thread reporting the hacker. I will also be in ts helping throughout the ts server and giving people tips or just a bit of help. I will hopefully make the server a lot more fun for newer people and make it bad for the hackers including banning them when I get permission or just recording them for evidence to give to a higher rank in the staff team. That would be done immediately....

Words: 617 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Project 1

...McKinnon By Aicha Doudou CCJS 390 Professor Daniel Draz University of Maryland University College Gary McKinnon was a Scottish hacker who hacks into NASA computers to search for evidence of aliens and extraterrestrial technology. He believes the NASA and other US government were hiding something from the public and that they had classified documents about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). It all started in 2000 when he decided to look for UFO evidence on the U.S. government's computer systems. He began obsessively researching ways to break into the machines. Using the Perl programming language, he wrote a small script that he says allowed him to scan up to 65 000 machines for passwords in under 8 minutes. After dialing up the government systems, he ran the code and made an astonishing discovery: Many federal workers failed to change the default passwords on their computers. On these unsecure machines, McKinnon installed a software program called Remotely Anywhere, which allows remote access and control of computers over the Internet. McKinnon could then browse through the machines at his leisure and transfer or delete files. Because he was able to monitor all activity on the computers, he could log off the moment he saw anyone else logging on. It is claimed that between February 2001 and March 2002, Gary McKinnon hacked into dozens of US army, navy, air force, and Department of Defense computers, as well as 16 NASA computers. At one point he brought down the U.S. Army's...

Words: 1239 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Foundation of It

...Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..………..8-9 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..10 Abstract End of the twentieth century and the beginning of twenty-first century has marked a great advancing period in technological world, especially Internet. Internet has allowed users around the world to communicate with each other very quick and fast. And with the development of Wi-Fi, these communication methods have been even more available. But Wi-Fi also brings its disadvantages with it since potential hackers can access the network faster than wired networks. In this research paper, our team has put forward a goal to observe and find information about the communications ways through the internet and how to improve the security of a wireless network. During our research our team members carefully researched and practiced all those communication methods. Our goal was to evaluate the best ways of communication. Our team members have also learned the threats that could affect Wi-Fi. Our next goal was to prevent all of those threats, to find security measures and evaluate which security measure would work the best. In order to experiment the Wi-Fi and its security we have taken a hotel in Djizak City, Afrosiyob Hotel, which has been opened in July, 2012 and does not have Wi-Fi system. We will implement a Wi-Fi network and we will suggest security measures for the network and propose our plan to the owner, Mr. Jahon Isakov. Introduction Since the invention of Internet, it has had numerous uses, from...

Words: 2429 - Pages: 10