Network Security

 

This week's four assignments will cover information and systems security, which is paramount at both individual and organizational levels. In the individual segment, securing sensitive Information like financial records, social security numbers, and personal communications is critical considering the threats of identity theft, monetary loss, and privacy infractions. For the organizational segment, sensitive data, intellectual property, and customer information are vital to organizational success, and protecting them is critical to maintaining trust between customers and organizations, remaining compliant with regulations, and avoiding both financial and reputational damage. Additionally, security breaches can result in monetary losses and legal liabilities and compromise an organization's reputation.

Ping Commands

Ping commands can be done inter-device, and, on a network, which is common, to ping instead for something malicious. An example of an attack is the Ping Flood Attack, a form of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack. For this example, in this attack, an attacker sends numerous ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) echo requests to a target system. This can drain the target's bandwidth and resources so much that it can't handle real traffic.

 

Vulnerabilities

There are many reasons why computer systems have vulnerabilities. Security holes, or vulnerabilities, are the gaps in software, hardware, or network setups that an attacker can target. These vulnerabilities can result from coding mistakes, failure to update, or misconfigurations outdated software or default Passwords. Furthermore, phishing attacks target humans, not technology. Phishing attackers use emails, messages, or websites that appear legitimate to deceive individuals into providing sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, or login credentials. Users are susceptible, as they may lack the education or training to spot a phishing attempt.

Symptoms and Damage

Ultimately, there are symptoms that indicate a potential cyber security breach on a computer or device. As a result, these issues, such as system instability, data theft, corruption, crashes, and potentially installing malware or backdoors to maintain access for future attacks, stem from the attacks used by hackers.

Advisories for Safeguarding

To protect against hackers, Users should be regularly trained to identify and avoid social engineering attacks. Additionally, installing email filtering and anti-phishing tools can help email filtering solutions that identify and prevent phishing emails from reaching users' inboxes. Next, updating the device or computer's antivirus software helps protect against hackers who use malware and other malicious programs

 

  Conclusion

In today's world, Information and system security are critical to protecting people and organizations from numerous threats. As an open-use technology, awareness of the attack types available including ping commands and security holes such as those exposed by Phishing will help write protective procedures to secure applications and data. Some key strategies to mitigate the risks are regularly updating the software programs, user education, and utilizing security tools.

 

Reference

Stallings, W. (2017). Network Security Essentials: Applications and Standards. Pearson.

Whitman, M. E., & Mattord, H. J. (2018). Principles of Information Security. Cengage Learning.

 CERT Coordination Center. (n.d.). Understanding Denial-of-Service Attacks. Retrieved from https://www.cert.org/

Svensberg, P. (2023). Software-defined zero-trust network architecture: Evolution from Purdue model -based networking. https://core.ac.uk/download/581147681.pdf

InsiderThreat|SoftwareEngineeringInstitute.(n.d.)Www.sei.cmu.edu. https://www.sei.cmu.edu/our-work/insider-threat/index.cf 

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