Network Security

Network Security

Network security is a crucial concern that organizations and individuals should have as our lives go more digital. As technology advances and our dependence on networks for e-commerce, communication, business, education, etc., so does the potential for cyber threats. Network security encompasses a wide range of measures and protocols to help protect us against cyberattacks, unauthorized access, and data breaches. There are different types of ping attacks, email spam, and social engineering that can impact anyone. 

Importance of Information and System Security

    Information and system security is crucial for organizations and individuals for various reasons. Having security in place serves as a shield for protecting sensitive data such as social security numbers, financial records, medical history and protects against identity theft for individuals. For organizations, protecting extensive amounts of confidential data such as those of employees and customers and proprietary information. If there were a breach to occur, it could lead to severe legal repercussions, loss of trust from customers, and, most importantly, a substantial financial loss. Another risk is an individual and/or an organization’s reputation can be impacted if sensitive information is exposed, which could lead to the loss of personal and professional relationships. Individuals and organizations both have to make an effort to protect themselves against cyber-attacks because the threat of one is imminent and almost guaranteed.

Attacks via Ping Commands

Ping is a common tool used to test network connectivity between devices and determine the latency or delay between two devices. While the ping command is not a tool used for attacks, unfortunately, it can be used in that capacity. The ping of death attack is a denial-of-service (DoS) attack that happens when a hacker crashes, destabilizes, or freezes computers by sending many oversized ping packets to their targets (Ping of Death, n.d.). The goal of the ping attack is to overwhelm a system’s resources, which will cause it to crash. The Ping of Death is an old attack in which most computers and devices have been protected. However, it is still possible that an organization can still be vulnerable to one of these attacks (Ping of Death, n.d.). Another form of attack via ping commands is a smurf attack. A Smurf attack is a DDoS attack that overloads computers with Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo requests (ping) packets to devices across the network (What is a Smurf Attack? n.d.). The attacker will send a large number of ping requests with a spoofed IP address, which causes the network to send a reply. This can overwhelm a network with requests, which can make it inoperable. Network administrators must use various security measures to defend against these types of attacks by using firewalls, packet filtering, regular patching, and updates. 

Email Spam

    Email spam is known as unsolicited email messages that are often commercial or malicious and are sent to many recipients. These messages can range from annoying advertisements to potentially dangerous phishing attempts. Spam senders usually hide their identity or pose as legitimate companies to trick you into clicking on their links. These links can lead you to websites that appear to be legitimate and request that you enter your personal or account login information. This is done to steal your information to allow the spammer to log into the legitimate company and impact your finances significantly. Another reason why spammers may want you to click on their links is to download viruses and malware onto your computer. Spam email costs different service providers and organizations a bandwidth loss of billions of dollars (Akinyelu, 2021 sec. 2.4.2). According to Akinyelu (2021), spam emails can be tackled by training machine learning (ML) models to distinguish spam emails from legitimate emails. The ML models can be built to identify spam emails based on different parts of an email message. This makes machine learning-based techniques extremely effective because they can automatically classify datasets and extracts hidden patterns (Akinyelu, 2021, sec. 3)

    Social engineering is a technique used to deceive individuals or organizations into revealing information that can be used to gain unauthorized access. The best way to explain what social engineering is and how it can impact individuals and an organization is by discussing the recent MGM data breach in Las Vegas that occurred earlier this month. On September 11th, the Las Vegas casino chain MGM Resorts was brought down by a cyber-attack. According to Morrison (2021), hackers from the Scattered Spider group went to Linked In and found an employee of MGM. The hackers called MGM’s IT help desk, pretending to be the MGM employee, and were able to gain access and infect their systems. This is the perfect example of what social engineering is. This group’s unauthorized access wreaked havoc on MGM’s systems and hotels for about ten days, costing the company roughly $80 million (Cole, 2023).

    According to Salama et al. (2023), various types of social engineering attacks can be used to steal our information. Phishing attacks and spam phishing are both types of email spam. Spear phishing is a phishing attack on a specific person, like the CEO of a company, who would have much greater access to systems within an organization. Search engine phishing is when fake websites are placed at the top of search results. Baiting attacks are when a scammer tries to take advantage of a user’s data. They will accomplish this by leaving a USB drive in public or sending email spam with offers for free items. Physical breach attacks are when attackers show up in person to hack the system. Quid attacks pro attacks offer special deals or free giveaways in exchange for your personal information. DNS spoofing is when a victim is infected with DNS spoofing and enters a legitimate website; it will redirect them to a malicious site that looks real. Scareware attacks are cyberattacks that try to scare the victim into taking quick action; otherwise, there will be an unfortunate outcome.

Protecting Against a Security Breach

    Salama et al. (2023) provided methods to help prevent being a victim of social engineering, which could lead to cyber security risks for you and/or your company. Never click on links in email or text messages that you are not 100% certain are authentic. One highly recommended tool I have been implementing lately is multiple-factor authentication MFA). This provides an extra layer of protection if a hacker can get my account login details, but they will remain unsuccessful without having my passcode from MFA. Another is to create stronger passwords that include upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. Implementing these recommendations will reduce your chances of being scammed or hacked significantly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, network security remains a critical concern in our constantly evolving digital world. The potential for cyber threats increases as we rely more on the internet for our personal and work lives. I highlighted the various cyber threats and their impact on individuals and organizations. It is also important to emphasize security for safeguarding sensitive data, privacy, finances, and more. By implementing some of the recommended strategies, we can all reduce our risk of being a victim of a cyber attack.