Cyber Security

Question 1

What are 7 examples of cyber attacks?

Answer 1

1. Brute force - all combination of letters, numbers, and symbols are tried to find a password. Often uses the high processing speed of a computer to do so.
2. Data interception - packet sniffers examine data on a network and read the data being moved across a network, transmitting the data to a third party (War driving uses a computer to intercept Wi-Fi wireless signals).
3. Distributed denial-of-service - DDoS attack prevents anyone accessing part of a network e.g. web server. It uses multiple computers to send out masses of spam requests to the network, causing it to break down.
4. Hacking - gaining illegal access to a computer system without the users permission.
5. Phishing - the sending out of legitimate-looking emails to users containing a link or attachment, which begins the attack once the user opens the link or attachment.
6. Pharming - malicious code installed on a users computer or web server without their knowledge, automatically initiated by the stored code.
7. Social engineering - cyber criminals creating social situations that can lead to a potential victim ‘dropping their guard’ involving the manipulation of people into breaking their normal security procedures.

Question 2

What are 6 examples of malware?

Answer 2

1. Viruses are programs that replicate and copy themselves with the intention of deleting or corrupting files; they take up space in the computers cloud storage.
2. Worms are stand-alone viruses that can replicate themselves with the intention of spreading to other computers as well. They use networks to search for computers with weak security, prone to such attacks.
3. Trojan horses are malicious programs often disguised as legitimate software. They replace all or part of the legitimate software with the intent of carrying out some harm to the users computer system.
4. Spyware is software that gathers information by monitoring e.g. all activity on a users computer and captures personal data. It can also record all key presses of a user (key logging software) which they can use to obtain passwords.
5. Adware is a software which floods a users computer with unwanted advertising (usually pop-ups).
6. Ransomware are programs that encrypt data on a users computer, so a decryption key is needed. Once the user pays a sum of money, the decryption key will be sent.