Network Security

One of the most important jobs that we have as individuals is to protect ourselves and our privacy. This should translate to every part of our lives. With the ever-growing world of technology and the emphasis of safe sites and protected passwords, we lose sight of how much information we are really putting out there for everyone. By not protecting our online identity against scammers, we could have valuable information stolen and possible financial downfalls as well.

            One form of attack that is very popular and has caused huge security breaches and financial loss is the Denial of Service or DoS attacks. Vahid and Lysecky (2017) stated “A denial of service (DoS) attack is achieved by submitting huge numbers of access requests simultaneously to one target website, causing that site's web server to be overloaded, thus preventing legitimate requests from being handled (those requests are "denied service"). A DoS attack may be used to try to hurt a company's business, to hassle an organization, to express dissatisfaction with a government, etc. DoS attacks are of course illegal in most countries” (8.6, para 1). These are often used through a process known as pinging. Ping techniques are not always a bad thing. They are a wonderful source of troubleshooting to find out where a connection may be faltering. Many people have figured out how to use these commands to cause problems for other people and possible scam individuals or hurt businesses. Since pings request a response, you can determine the reachability of a site and determine where a breach could possibly be made.

            Email spam is one of the easiest ways to dupe an unsuspecting individual is. According to Swetha and Sarraf (2019) “Studies show about 59.56% of all emails sent in 2018 were spam” (page 1, intro). Most people do not think twice about an email that comes from their bank, for example, that asks for specific account information. Think twice however and look at the address again. Validate the address. Many spammers will make it look legitimate but there will be a characteristic that is not right. You will try to log in and they then have your account information to go to the real banking institution and walk away with your money. Email spam is one of the most popular methods as well since there is little investment for the spammer, so if no one responds then they are not out much but they have the potential to steal tons from unsuspecting victims. You can also infect your system as well by accepting these spam emails as they often have malware attached. People just need to be careful with unsolicited emails before opening.

            Phishing is another highly used form of gathering information from computer systems. This is another type that comes in email form but with a more specific agenda of gathering that banking or credit card information. People really need to be careful about giving out information just because you believe it really is from your bank, Amazon, or another trusted company you use often, such as Paypal for example. Look closely at the web addresses and names to verify that these are legitimate companies and not someone just trying to get your information to use it for malicious means. There are many types of phishing and some more severe than others. According to Vida M. Vilic (2019), “Identity theft using malicious software (pharming) is a special form of phishing in which a hacker attempts to redirect electronic communication and data from a legitimate website to a completely different internet address. This type of abuse is usually performed by changing files on a user's computer or by exploiting the shortcomings on the server that the victim has been used” (pg. 5, para 3). The sheer variety of phishing schemes out there is mind-blowing so we must all be vigilant.

            With so many ways out there for spammers to get to your personal information, we must make a conscious effort to always be vigilant with our choices of what we post and share, what information you freely give out, and verifying the sites that is asking for our information. The more vigilant we are, the better protected you will be.