computing

• 6 main threats posed to a network

  - Malware

  - Social engineering

  - Brute-force attacks

  - Denial of service attacks

  - Data interception & theft

  - SQL injection
• what is malware?


  malicious software
• What are some potential consequences of malware?

  Files being deleted, corrupted or encrypted
• How can malware affect internet connection?

  Internet connection becoming slow or unusable
• What is a possible symptom of malware on a computer?

  Computer crashing or shutting down
• 5 different types of malware

  - virus

  - worms

  - trojans

  - spyware

  - ransomware
• what is a virus?

  A program which can replicate itself on a user's computer. It contains code that will cause unwanted and unexpected events to occur
• what kind of issues may a user experience when having a virus on their computer? (three things)

  - Corrupt files

  - Delete data

  - Prevent applications from running correctly
• what is a worm?

  Worms are very similar to viruses, with the main difference being that they will spread to other drives and computers on the network
• how cam worms infect other computers? (four things)

  - Infected websites

  - Instant message services

  - Email

  - Network connection
• what is a trojan (horse)?

  Trojans disguise themselves as legitimate software but contain malicious code in the background
• what is spyware?


  Software which will allow a person to spy on the users' activities on their devices
• how is spyware installed on computers?

  This form of software will be embedded into other software such as games or programs that have been downloaded from illegitimate sources
• what can spyware do?

  Spyware can record your screen, log your keystrokes to gain access to passwords and more
• what is ransomware?

  A form of malware that locks your computer or device and encrypts your documents and other important files
• what does ransomware often demand for?

  money to receive the password that will allow the user to decrypt the files
• what is a negative of ransomware, for the user?

  There is no guarantee paying the ransom will result in the user getting their data back
• what is social engineering?


  Social engineering is exploiting weaknesses in a computer system by targeting the people that use or have access to them
• some forms of social engineering? (three things)

  - fraudulent phone calls

  - phishing

  - pretexting
• what are fraudulent phone calls?

  pretending to be someone else to gain access to their account or their details
• what is phishing?

  Sending fraudulent emails to a large number of email addresses, claiming to be from a reputable company or trusted source to try and gain access to your details, often by coaxing the user to click on a login button
• what is pretexting?


  A scammer will send a fake text message, pretending to be from the government or human resources of a company, this scam is used to trick an individual into giving out confidential data
• do people weak point thing

  okay
• what is a brute force attack

  A brute force attack works by an attacker repeatedly trying multiple combinations of a user's password to try and gain unauthorized access to their accounts or devices
• what's an example of a brute force attack?

  an attacker finding out the length of a PIN code, then trying each possible combination, this method tries popular words or phrases that are used in passwords
• what is a denial of service (dos) attack?

  A Denial of Service Attack (DOS attack) occurs when an attacker repeatedly sends requests to a server to flood the server with traffic, causing it to overload the system
• what happens to the server after a denial of service attack

  The server will slow down to the point of becoming unusable
• what is the larger scale version of a does attack?

  Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack
• how does Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack, work?

  This works in a s similar way to a DOS attack, with the main difference being that the traffic comes from multiple distributed devices in a coordinated attack on a single server/network
• what is the purpose of a DOS attack?

  - A DOS attack will prevent customers from accessing or using a service

  - This will result in companies losing money and not being able to carry out their daily duties

  - A DOS attack can cause damage to a company's reputation
• what is data interception and theft?

  Data interception and theft is when thieves or hackers can compromise usernames and passwords as well as other sensitive data
• what device is used in data interception and theft?

  a packet sniffer
• what does a packet sniffer do?

  A packet sniffer will be able to collect the data that is being transferred on a network
• what do thieves gain from data interception and theft?

  A thief can use this data to gain unauthorized access to websites, companies and more
• what is a SQL?

  Structured Query Language (SQL) is a language used to create, access and manipulate a database
• what is a SQL injection?

  SQL injection is entering an SQL command into a web text field to manipulate the SQL query
• what is the goal of a SQL injection?

  The goal is to insert, modify or delete data from the database
• what is penetration testing?

  - Penetration testing is a method of preventing vulnerabilities whereby a company employs people to try and hack their network and databases

  - This allows the 'hackers' to point out the parts of the system that are vulnerable

  - The companies then use this information to fix the issues that are found
• what form of attack does penetration testing help prevent?

  SQL injection
• what is anti-malware software?

  Anti-malware software is a term used to describe a combination of different software to prevent computers from being susceptible to viruses and other malicious software