Identifying Security Threats And Vulnerabilities 2 Flashcards
List types of social engineering
Spoofing. Impersonation. Hoax. Phishing. Vishing. Whaling. URL hijacking. Spam & slim. Shoulder surfing. Dumpster diving. Tailgating.
What is a social engineer attack
A type of attack that uses deception to trick users into providing sensitive data or violating security guidelines.
Spoofing
Human based or software based social engineering attack. Goal is to pretend to be someone else for identity concealment. Can occur in IP Addresses, MAC Addresses, and email.
Impersonation
Human based social engineering attack where attacker pretends to be someone they are not. Successful in situations where identity cannot easily be established
Hoax
Email based or web based social engineering attack. Intended to trick the user to perform undesired actions or give up important information or money.
Phishing
Email based social engineering attack where attacker sends an email that seems to come from a respected institution. Wants the user to provide private information to verify an account.
Spear phishing
Email based social engineering attack targeting specific individuals or institutions
Pharming
Similar to phishing social engineering attack but redirects a request for a website to a similar but fake site
Vishing
Human based social engineering attack where the goal is to extract personal private information using the phone system IP based voice messaging services such as VoIP
Whaling
social engineering attack a form of spear phishing that targets individuals of great wealth
URL hijacking
Also called typo squatting. Exploits typos that users sometimes make when entering a URL into a browser
Spam and slim
social engineering Email based threat where the users inbox is flooded with emails that carry advertising material for products. Can sometimes deliver viruses or malware.
Slim attack is Similar to spam done through instant messaging
Shoulder surfing
social engineering attack where an attacker looks over shoulder to get passwords and PIN numbers
Dumpster diving
Social engineering attack where the goal is to get private information by inspecting the trash
Tailgating
Also called piggy backing. Human based social engineering attack where the attacker follows an employee through a secure area.
What is a white hat hacker
Discovers and exposes security flaws in apps and OSs so that manufacturers can fix them Geoffrey becoming wide spread. Aka ethical hack
What is a black hat hacker
Discovers and exposes security flaws for financial gain or malicious purpose.
What is a grey hat hacker
Discovers and publicizes security problems without the permission or knowledge of an organization. Moral intent is in question.
Why does social engineering work
Common and therefore successful. Exploits basic human trust, thought processes and behavior. Takes advantage of users who aren’t thinking critically or the human need to want to belong to groups and defer actions to the wisdom of crowds. The weakest link can compromise an entire system
Categories of attackers
Malicious insider Electronic activists Data thief Script kiddie Electronic vandal Cyberterrorist
A malicious insider threat is
A threat originating from an employee in an organization who performs malicious acts. Fueled by resentment motivated by financial gain
Electronic activist or hacktivist
Motivated by a desire to cause social change or promoting a message by replacing the info on public websites. Cause damage to organizations deemed socially irresponsible or unworthy
Data thief
Blatantly steals resources or confidential information for personal or financial gain. Covers their tracks to avoid detection. Exploits unauthorized access or acts in collusion with a disgruntled employee
Script kiddie
Aka Novice attacker has limited technical knowledge and motivated to gain and display skill
Electronic vandal
Attacker wants to cause as much damage as possible
Cyberterrorist
Attacker tries to disrupt computer systems to spread fear and panic.
Basic explanation of malware
Most prevalent threat to computers. Is insidious and difficult to remove. A collection of different methods that can exploit vulnerabilities in your information security.
A malicious code attack
A type of software attack where undesired software or malware is Inserted into a target system
What are some potential uses of malicious code
Denial of Service (DOS) attacks
Hosting illicit or illegal data
Skimming personal or business info for identity theft, profit, or extortion
Displaying unsolicited ads
A virus is
A piece of code that spread from one computer to another by attaching itself to other files through self replication. Code executes when the attached file is opened and interferes with the functioning of the machine.
What is a worm
Malware that replicates itself across the infected system. Does not attach itself to files. Intended to interrupt network capabilities. Primary function is to spread and cripple network bandwidth
What is adware
Malware that automatically displays or downloads unsolicited advertising when used. Appears as browser pop ups. Have been associated with spyware. Reduces productivity by slowing down systems.
What is spyware
Malicious software intended to track and report the usage of a target system or collect other data.
What is a Trojan horse
Or simply a Trojan is hidden malware that causes damage to a system or gives an attacker a platform for monitoring and controlling a system. Do not replicate themselves or attach to files. Usually propagated by social engineering when users download an email or program
What is a rootkit
Malware code that is intended to take full or partial control of a system at the lowest levels. Hide themselves from monitoring or detection and modify low level system files when integrating into system. most install backdoors or spyware,
What is a logic bomb
A malware piece of code that sits dormant on a target computer until it is triggered by a specific event. When detonates performs the programmed actions often includes erasing or corrupting data on target system.
What is a botnet
A set of computers that have been infected by a control program called a bot that enables attackers to exploit those computers to mount attacks. These infected machines are referred to as zombies or drones. Used to coordinate DoS attacks, send spam email and mine for private info.
What is ransomware
Malware in which an attacker infects a victims computer with code that restricts access to the to computer and the data on it. Then the attacker demands ransom with the threat of destroying the data.
Polymorphic malware
Encrypted viruses that infect files with an encrypted copy of itself. The decryption module is altered each time the virus infects a file.
What is an armored virus
Virus attempts to trick or shield themselves from antivirus software. Virus is able to obscure it’s true location in a system
A software attack is
Any attack against software resources. Goal is to disrupt or disable the software running on the target system
A password attack is
Attacker attempts to obtain and make use of passwords illegitimately.
Types of password attacks
Guessing Stealing Dictionary attack Brute force attack Rainbow tables Hybrid password attack Birthday attack
Guessing password attack is
Making individual repeated attempts to guess a password by entering different common password values
Brute force password attacks uses
Attacker uses password cracking software to attempt every possible alphanumeric combination. Most effective at cracking short passwords.
Rainbow tables password attacks
Sets of related plaintext passwords and their hashes. Executed by comparing the target password hash to the password hashes stored in the tables then work backward to determine a girls password from known hash
