Network Security

• Forms of attack include:

  • malware
  • social engineering / phising
  • brute force attacks
  • denial of service attacks
  • data interception and theft
  • SQL injection
• malware is a type of harmful program that can damage or gain unauthorised access to your computer
• types of malware:

  • virus
  • worm
  • trojan
  • spyware
  • keylogger
  • ransomware
• a virus can replicate and spread itself and is only activated when opened by a human
• a worm can replicate itself and spreads by finding weaknesses in the software
• worms can spread very quickly and doesn't need human interaction to spread
• trojan is harmful program that look legitimate so users are tricked into installing it
• spyware secretly records the activities of a user. it records usernames, passwords and credit card information
• keylogger secretly records a users key presses and records usernames, passwords, and credit card details
• ransomware locks files using encryption so that the user cant access them
• ransomware attackers demand money from the victim to decrypt their data
• SQL is a programming language that manipulates data in databases
• SQL injection can trick the website into giving unauthorised access to the database
• SQL injection can be used to view and edit a database
• denial of service attack is when the hacker repeatedly sends requests to a server to slow it down
• brute force attack tries every possible combination of passwords until one is found
• social engineering is when hackers trick users into revealing their personal data by pretending to be a trusted company
• data interception is when data packets is copied to a different location
• packet sniffers is software that intercepts and analyses data packets
• prevention methods:

  • penetration testing
  • anti malware software
  • firewalls
  • user access levels
  • passwords
  • encryption
  • physical security
• penetration testing is used to deliberately hack a system to find any risks or weaknesses
• anti malware software locates and deletes malware from a computer system
• anti malware also checks all emails coming in and out
• anti malware checks files and scans the hard drive for viruses
• a firewall manages incoming and outgoing network traffic
• a firewall checks each data packet to check whether it should be given access.
• secure passwords minimises the chances of unauthorised users in a system
• user access levels allow certain users to access and edit files
• encryption is the process of scrambling data that can only be understood with a key