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Running Head: POTENTIAL THREATS & MALICIOUS ATTACKS ON NETWORKS Potential Threats & Malicious Attacks on Networks
Jacob Nelson
Dr. Morton
CIS 333
January 31, 2017 1 POTENTIAL THREATS & MALICIOUS ATTACKS ON NETWORKS 2 Attacks on organization networks, have become an issue of great concern in this age of
great technological advancements. New attack methods are witnessed each day. The new attack
strategies are increasing in creativity, especially due to the dynamic nature of technology and the
innovative nature of hackers. Even though, there are laws that deal harshly with those found
guilty of such crimes, the cyber criminals have not been discouraged at all; instead, they have
become even more active by even, going after large organizations. This paper discusses some of
the malicious attacks committed by hackers and, the potential threats that organizations are
exposed to in relation to their network system. The paper also explores the extent of damages
that an organization might experience in the event of a successful attack and, how to prevent
such attacks from occurring.
Malicious network users are known to be on the prowl to access other networks without
being discovered. They exploit any vulnerability in the system. Some of these vulnerabilities
include:
• Poor Intrusion Detection Systems (PIDS) that will make any attack or impending attack go unnoticed.
• Poorly deployed firewalls • Weak password configurations
• Poor anti-virus implementation and many others (Dhawan et al. 2015).
Potential Malicious attacks and threats Common threats
The three common threats include; POTENTIAL THREATS & MALICIOUS ATTACKS ON NETWORKS 3 Malicious hackers: this is the most common threat that the organization’ systems are exposed to
every day. These are users who tend to sneak into a system to cause harm of their choice.
Hackers can be from within the organization or outside the organization.
Physical and infrastructural threats: These are the physical components of the network that
may break down to cause huge data losses. When this occurs, the organization is likely to suffer
huge losses in trying to repair and recover the data that they might have lost.
Errors, omission, theft and fraud: This kind of threat occurs in three levels, there is firstly, the
unintentional omission of certain programming configuration that causes some form of error in a
network system. When the error occurs due to an omission, the network is left open to outside
attacks that may lead to theft of data and other kinds of fraudulent activities (Klimburg, 2013).
Common Malicious attacks
The three common malicious attacks include;
Reconnaissance Attack: This kind of attack occurs where the hackers conduct a general analysis
of the entire network system to discover any vulnerable areas where they can launch an attack.
This attack takes place in the following three ways; Firstly, Packet sniffers, which refers to the
tool used by the hackers to eavesdrop on the network to establish the data link layer on which to
conduct the packet attack. This tool can also be used to establish the weak packets. Packet
sniffing can either be passive which is done on the HUB networks since the hubs broadcast
packets in the network or active which is done in switched networks. Secondly, Port Scan and
Ping Sweep; these two activities are mainly known as p-robes used to diagnose any form of
vulnerabilities in the network. Basically, it is done to find an open port. Once a hacker finds an
open port, he gets into the network to initiate the attack. POTENTIAL THREATS & MALICIOUS ATTACKS ON NETWORKS 4 Phishing attacks: This is another form of attack where the hackers try to gain access to the
organization data by sending links embedded with malware to unsuspecting employees’ e-mails.
When the employees click on these links, all access authority is granted to the hackers. The links
are sent through domains that will request the user to fill in some details which are then captured
and used to gain total access. Phishing can also be done through the use of image hyperlinks.
This kind of attack is initiated when the hackers figure out the flaws of the organization’s Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (Kumar et al. 2015).
Distributed Denial of Services attack: this type of attack is similar to DOS, however, it
involves taking control of the network activities by the attacker; the attacker targets a single
computer to prevent outgoing services. It is from the computer that the attacker initiates control
on the entire network. This attack is very hard to identify and if it is created, tracing it will be
very difficult.
Potential impact on the company
Security breaches can cause damage to the company’s reputation. When the customer’s
data is stolen, they will obviously lose trust in the organization's data reliability and integrity.
Some customers will withdraw from the company. The other impact is the high cost that the
company might loose when trying to repair any damaged network infrastructure as well as that
money they might be requested to pay as compensation to affected customers.
Security control
The most important security control is to make sure that a regular diagnostic is done to
detect any form of malicious activities before they occur. Again, the company must invest in
training its employees about phishing threats and the importance of trying to verify that any POTENTIAL THREATS & MALICIOUS ATTACKS ON NETWORKS 5 received mail is from a reliable source before clicking on it. Network administrators should also
use the tools that hackers may use in reconnaissance attacks to check for vulnerable ports and
switches I the network. Finally, the company must adopt various cyber security policies put in
place to regulate network security (Kumar et al. 2015).
Potential concerns for data loss and data theft in a network
Confidentiality: This concern involves privacy of data and the entire communication process in
the network. It involves four main issues; firstly, secure storage of sensitive data to prevent
unauthorized access. Secondly, authentication of users which is the regulation of the number of
people with access to various types of data. Thirdly, granular access control; which is the
restriction of the amount of data that a particular user is allowed to see. Finally, privacy of
communication; this is the end to end encryption of messages to eliminate the threat of
eavesdropping.
Integrity: This is the act of making sure that data is kept valid without any tampering while in
the servers and, while it being transferred to another server. Data tampering can take the forms of
deletion or, alteration of its contents through editing.
Availability: Making data available is one major security concerns. Data must be available as
and when it is required. Availability takes care of the following aspects: resistance to any form of
attack, scalability, that is, the system must remain efficient regardless of the number of users,
flexibility, and ease of use (Von Solms & Van Niekerk, 2013).
Impacts of the three concerns POTENTIAL THREATS & MALICIOUS ATTACKS ON NETWORKS 6 Making sure that data confidentiality is high will eventually make customers seek
services of the company since everyone loves their information kept private at all times. A secure
network will market the company by maintaining its reputation at the highest levels. If an
organization keeps its data secure and not interfered with, the information it relays will be
accurate, and therefore people will always opt for its services. Finally, making information
available every time they are requested for makes the network convenient and for users.
Security controls
Implementation of network segmentation and firewalls: Segmenting the networks helps in
categorizing the network tools into groups as well as personnel then restricting access to these
groups. Firewalls will prevent any form of unauthorized access to data.
The configuration of a secure remote access: this involves the use of encrypted VPNs to
ensure that by-passing the security controls is close to impossible.
Establish Role-Based Access Controls and Implement System Logging: Role-Based Access
Controls will ensure that the users and hackers are locked out of the parts of the system that they
are not allowed to access while system logging will help in monitoring the activities of the users
in the system.
Password strength: Password policies must be put in place to control the strength of passwords.
The system must be designed to conduct strict password encryption (Von Solms & Van Niekerk,
2013). POTENTIAL THREATS & MALICIOUS ATTACKS ON NETWORKS
REFERENCES
Dhawan, M., Poddar, R., Mahajan, K., & Mann, V. (2015, February). SPHINX: Detecting
Security Attacks in Software-Defined Networks. In NDSS.
Klimburg, A. (2013). National cyber security framework manual.
Kumar, M., Meena, J., Singh, R., & Vardhan, M. (2015, October). Data outsourcing: A threat to
confidentiality, integrity, and availability. In Green Computing and Internet of Things
(ICGCIoT), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 1496-1501). IEEE.
Von Solms, R., & Van Niekerk, J. (2013). From information security to cyber security.
Computers & Security, 38, 97-102. 7