D1 - Threats to data and systems

Question 1

Characteristic of threats -

Viruses and malware

Answer 1

Viruses - Copies and inserts itself into programs. Spreads through system

Worms - Standalone programs that spread through tunnelling through network and exploiting security holes

Trojans - Acts as a legit application. Users download thinking it is a legit application have has a harmful payload

Spyware - Monitors users activity which is used to steal personal information. Keylogger is an example, records every keystroke made

Question 2

Characteristic of threats - Hackers

Answer 2

Gains unauthorised access

Brute force attack - program that goes through a list of common passwords to break into computer system

White hat hackers test for security flaws in an organisation network. Get bounties for finding flaws

Question 3

Characteristic of threats - Phishing

Answer 3

Emails sent to people acting as a reputable company

Has link to fill out form but actually gets sent to the malicious user

Most people don’t fall for it but if person sends it to hundreds of thousands of users then the malicious user is bound to get something

Question 4

Characteristic of threats - Accidental damage

Answer 4

Dropping laptops

Spilling liquids

Accidentally deleting files

No malicious intent but can still have catastrophic consequences

Question 5

How do these impact individuals

Answer 5

Malware - Can corrupt or delete data such as photos which can cause distress as emotional value to photo lost

Hackers - Personal information can be taken to be used as identity fraud

Phishing - Can obtain personal and financial information
Used to sign up for loans for example

Accidental damage - Lose data such as photos
Extremely expensive to recover and may need to pay a specialist

Question 6

How do these impact organisations

Answer 6

Malware - Corrupt or delete data can be inconvenience as it would take time to recover the data
Disastrous if there is no back up

Hackers - Steal private and confidential information for blackmail purposes

Phishing - Data stolen can be used to perform a hack on organisation

Accidental damage - Lose important data such as sales records
Extremely expensive to recover and may need to pay a specialist