Cyber attacks and digital terrorism

Cyber attacks and digital terrorism1.a.Cyber Attack and Digital terrorist actIntroduction on that point atomic number 18 various reasons why raft initiate cyber attacks or execute digital terrorisms, whatever it is, the goal is to energise damage and destruction, with motivations that range from anything someoneal, political, economic or all. Below are bring up of few reasons why cyber attack and digital terrorism occursi.Personal Anger people who are psycho ashes of logically dotty at their organization, for whatever reason for practice session not universe promoted for long time or no increment in the salaries or made redundant. The individual might plant vir dos into the companys network or withdraw some of the important functions of a plan which may create problem in the future. It shadow transcend even a superior is pressurizing his subordinate. The subordinate may embed a virus in an email bond paper in a view to corrupt the superiors figurer as revenge. This type of doings throne be categorized as a personal digital terrorism.ii.Hired Service Occasionally individual basis hired another individual (usually professionals intruders) to hack into someones reckoner network and steal important info or destroy the computer by wiping off all digital trails and the intruder is paid substantially. Even and then the professional intruder passel double-cross by inform the prated company that the companys network infrastructure is at danger and he can solve the problem. This type of activity can be classified as a professional digital terrorism.iii.Ransom Money Sometime a person might need specie urgently and nobody is t here to help him, the banks also do not want to give a give because of poor credit history, even family members do not have money to support him but this person may have special skills. He informs the bank that he have planted a logic bomb into their network which will activate at a certain time and will cause severe da mage or even crash the banks networking system. He/she may ask for ransom money. one time the money is received, the de-activate code for the logic bomb will be send to the bank. This type of activity can be classified as a personal desperate digital terrorism.iv.Political War These is typically against There are some people who get politically angry because those in power do not agree with their views or wishes. They want to display their peoples power or dis standardized by conducting demonstrations etc. atomic number 53 way as a warning is planting logic bombs with a ransom note that says unless the demands are met then the logic bomb will go off. This is typical against goernments or organization/union of governments like The G8, APEC Summit, World Economic Forum etc. This type of activity can be classified as a political group digital terrorism.v.Declared War There exist true terrorist organizations that have publically declared their all out war against countries or orga nizations. They have named their sworn-out enemies. Conducting cyber attacks is one of their strategies to achieve their aims everything is possible in war. Each side will try to destroy or cripple each others war machineries and capabilities. For example In the UN against Iraqi War, the whole radar system of Iraq was jammed by the US during the early phases of the war. exclusively electronic and computer communications infrastructure of Iraq were crippled. This type of activity can be classified as an expected political digital war tactics and not really digital terrorism.1.b. What are viruses, worms, trojan horses, logic bombs and DOS attacks?VirusesA virus is a small piece of malicious code that attacks a computer program or file. A virus can attack a computer in different ways by attaching itself to other software programs or data files in order to be executed, usually without user cognition or permission, which can cause clogging computer memory, destroy programs or data, re format a computer hard disk or can cause a program to prompt improperly. Virus typically spreads from computer to computer when action such as sending an email attachment or copying an infected file(as we know companies are going online, so uses net is extensively in traffic ). As we know anti-virus softwares are designed to check computer system and drives for the presence of computer viruses. Antivirus programs databases are constantly being updated to combat and prevent such attacks. It is recommended Firms those uses net extensively in dealing with its branches, customers and suppliers, it is highly recommended to continually update their anti-virus software with recent virus signature files.WormsA worm is a type of virus that has the ability to multiply or copy itself from one machine to another, gradually over a network. The two key differences between a virus and a worm are the multiplying or copying effect and the spreading across to other computers whereas a virus may no t multiply itself and may attack only just one computer.A Trojan horseThis is a security-breaking program that is introduced into a computer and serves as a way for an impostor to re-enter the computer in the future. It may be hidden as something innocent such as a screen saver or a game. It can damage, delete, or destroy important files, essentially do anything it is programmed to do. The key thing here is not in the type of damage but in how it enters a computer i.e. by a deceptive way. A logic bomb This is a program that is introduced into a computer and set to recall action at a certain time or when a specified event occurs. It can do anything it was programmed to do.A DOS (Denial of Service) attack These are action being implemented by assail a large number of computers on the network (usually internet) and instructing the computers to simultaneously send repeated messages to a target computer, thus either overloading the computers input buffer or jamming the communication l ines into the computer so sternly that legitimate users cannot obtain access to the targeted computer. The key terms here are jamming the target computer or computers so that those targeted computers can no longer provide services (i.e. users are denied of the services). Some people refer to DOS attacks as the Ping of Death or the Teardrop. Information and Identity theft in the digital worldThe word Theft is obviously obtaining something (materials or non-materials) through illegal means. So reading theft is obtaining information illegally, for example, without the owners permission. Publicly published information is legally public and therefore, having such information by whatever means is never considered stealing or theft. Identity theft according to the US federal official Trade Commission (FTC) is someone (somebody else) is appropriating your personal information without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft. For example, an individuation pillager uses information about someone, such name, address, social security number, credit card number and/or other identifying information to impersonate you and obtain loans or purchase items under your credit. Information theft is simply about stealing information for whatever use the thief wants it for, whereas identity theft is the extension of information theft with the user wanting to impersonate you or be identified as you using that stolen assignment information to be used for many things, good and mostly bad.A thief can use the stolen identification information for criminal activities including validating against computer software systems the banks identification system (to steal your money in the bank), the credit card system (to use your credit card to buy things), the immigration system (to run out of the country) and many more. It all looks like it is actually you performing those activities and not the thief. A thief who is also a hacker can do more, for example, penetrate the records registry s ystem (to hack and assortment your date of birth, your gender status, your parents names, etc), the police abuse database system (to hack and say that you committed a crime which you never did), the university records system (to hack and change your grades from A to F, to change your major degrees etc ), the White House earnest System (to visit and say hello to the most powerful man in the world), the FBI and CIA computer systems etc.ConclusionWeb finish attacks are increasing drastically because there is a lack of knowledge in securing the applications, especially during the development and deployment stages of the applications. To control or avoid this menace, we must ensure that security is being implemented not only during the coding stage, but also the deployment stage. The operations of a Web application must be monitored by the administrator so any exploits can be detected antecedent and damages can be minimized or avoided such as using an intrusion espial system to mon itor and filter Web traffic. It is also recommended for all organizations to conduct a security audit assessment to ensure that an application is secured before it is published to the public.