Network Security

The assignment of week 4 for INT100 asks to look into network security.

The internet has become more than a fascinating tool for people to find information, entertainment, work, and many other useful things throughout the past three decades. Still, unfortunately, many individuals choose to use it for nefarious purposes. Most people who use pinging to contact sites for connectivity purposes do not realize that although it seems harmless, pinging a site with enough packets can cause the site to crash. The most commonly known ping interruption is a Denial of Service (DoS) attack in which a single person or group flood a web site server with packets to overload its bandwidth (Vahid and Lysecky). Other types of ping attacks include MAC flooding, evasive UDP land attacks, and “Ping of Death” (Sankar). To mitigate these attacks, network administrators need to detect illegitimate traffic at the routing level, manage the bandwidth of their services, and be mindful of the site architecture so that it can handle a high amount of traffic (Sankar).

Other than DoS attacks, there are several different forms of malicious computer security breaches, including computer viruses and email spam. Computer systems are vulnerable to these types of attacks because they can inadvertently install damaging software or malware that can corrupt a person’s computer or company’s computer network (Vahid and Lysecky). Some computer virus symptoms include the computer not functioning properly, slow processing, or complete OS failure. Symptoms of email spam include virus installation and mass emails sent from your email address, causing the email service provider to lock your account (Vahid and Lysecky). The best way to prevent computer viruses is to install anti-virus software and to update the computer’s software with the latest updates (nortonsecurityonline.com). To avoid spam email, users should carefully evaluate emails that contain attachments. Users should make sure that they know exactly what the attachment file is and if they know the sender, ask them if they are aware of an email they sent with an attachment. Emails that seem suspicious should be converted to plain text instead of HTML format to avoid possible infections (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee). Lastly, users should not post their personal email online on social media or a website, and they should not attempt to reply to a spammer (Stucken).

Conclusion

As wonderful as the internet and computers are, it is necessary to know the possible dangers of attacks from would-be hackers. Attacks become more sophisticated every year, and a lack of prevention becomes more costly. With good information, awareness, and tech-savvy, anyone can protect themselves from becoming victims from those of ill-intention.

References

Norton Security Online (N.D.) Computer Viruses and Their Spread Prevention.

    Retrieved October 1, 2020 from:

    https://www.nortonsecurityonline.com/security-center/computer-viruses.html

Sankar, K (December 2013) Type of Attacks

    Retrieved October 1, 2020 from:

    https://community.cisco.com/t5/security-documents/type-of-attacks/ta-p/3154808

Stucken, A (September 2010) How can I stop getting spam emails?

    Retrieved October 1, 2020 from:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/stopping-spam-emails

Vahid, F., Lysecky, S. (July 2015) INT 100: Fundamentals of Information Technology &

    Literacy. Retrieved September 9, 2020 from:

    https://learn.zybooks.com/zybook/ASHFORDINT100AcademicYear2018

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (N.D) Tips for Avoiding Computer Viruses

    Retrieved October 1, 2020 from:

    https://uwm.edu/itsecurity/tips-for-avoiding-computer-viruses/