Internet Security Threats

This paper is going to be on the different security threats on the internet, and the different ways to prevent and protect yourself from them. The different

threats that are going to be covered are viruses, trojan horses, hackers, spam, corrupt IP packets, port scanner attacks, DOS(denial of service) attacks, spider

attacks, worms and socail attacks. Also, I will cover different security practices and computer software and hardware that can help protect and prevent these

different attacks on your computer, or network. Many people use the words virus, trojan, and worm interchangeably

when talking about attacks on their

computer,

but in reality, they are different types of attacks, this paper will define and differentiate between the different types of attacks a computer can become a victim of.

A virus is software thats used to infect and damage a computer. The code for the virus is usually imbedded into an existing program so that once the program

that has the virus inbedded into is executed, the virus code activates and copies itself, it then attaches the copies of itself to other existing programs that exist on the

system. Viruses may be simple pranks that just cause messeges to randomly pop up on the screen, but they can also be very damaging to a computer. Viruses tha

damage computers destroy programs and/or data right away when they\\\\\\\'re activated, or on a certain date. There are some viruses that remain dormant and do its

damage once a year. One example of this type of virus is the Michelangelo virus, a virus that usually only attacks MS-DOS systems, but can cause an equal amount

of damage to other operating sytems, which only infects computers on Michelangelo\\\\\\\'s birthday. Computers usually get viruses through downloading and installing

programs that already have the virus inbedded into it, or through e-mails that are infected.

A trojan horse (also known as a trojan) appears to be a normal program, but when it\\\\\\\'s run, it performs illicit activities. Trojans are used to acquire password information, make a computer more vulnerable to future attacks, or simply to destroy data or programs on the hard drives. A trojan is similar to a virus in that it causes damage to a computer system, the only difference is that a trojan does not replicate itself. When a trojan gets into your computer, it usually stays there doing its damage to the system, or it allows somebody from a remote site to gain access and control to the compter. The types of programs that trojans usually use to enter a computer are free games, music files, and other utilities. Trojans get their name from the legend that the Greeks won the Trojan by using a large, hollow, wooden horse to sneek into the town of Troy to take over. Now, a trojan is defined as a malicious, security-breaking program that is disguised as something benign.

A worm (Write Once Read Many), much like a virus, is a program that replicates itself. The difference is that a worm can automatically spread itself across a network to different computers. There are two different types of worms technologies, ablative large-format, which is the traditional type and makes permanent

changes to the optical material, and continuous composite write (CCW) worm, which is a mode in mutilfunction 5.25\\\\\\\'\\\\\\\' optical (MO) drives that emulate a worm drive. The CCW Worm doesn\\\\\\\'t permanent

ly change the data, but the drive it infects contains firmware that ensures that areas that are recorded are not rewritten.

Another type of attack on a computer is a DOS (denial of service) attack. A DOS attack is an attack on a computer that floods the computer with so many additional requests that it causes the regular traffic to either be slowed dramatically, or stopped completely. While a virus, trojan, or worm can cause secere damage to a database, a DOS attack interupts a network service for a certain period of time. Another type of DOS attack is a Distributed Denial Of Service attack or DDOS attack. A DDOS attack uses many different computers on a network that it has previously infected as \\\\\\\"zombies\\\\\\\". The computers work together to send out numerous messeges, causing an increase in the amount of phony traffic on the network.

One of the most common, and possibly the most dangerous attack on a computer is a social attack. A social attack occures when a hacker poses as an employee, authority figure , or a friend in an attempt to get sensitive information about your computer system, and yourself. One of the most common types of social attacks is when a hacker poses as a system administrator and asks you for you password. Social attacks are usually successful because unless they now better, people tend not to second guess authority figures, such as system administrators, and they tend to tell their

friends anything they want. The only real way to defend your computer from a social attack is by being extremely

careful about who you share sensitive information with, and if somebody says that they are a system administrator asks for your password, make sure you confirm that they are who they say they are, either by asking a superior, or by asking the person for identification.

One of the things you can do to help protect your computer against attacks is develop god security practices. One good security practice is to never e-mail anything that you wouldn\\\\\\\'t want to share with other people, these things include personal information social security number, credit card information, and password, unless you have software on your computer that can encrypt e-mails. You should also never submit sensitive information to