What Are Various Internet and Network Attacks, and how can users safeguard against these Attacks?

• Internet and Network attacks

Internet and Network attacks are the criminal offenses done with use of the Internet and computer networks to divert money or to perform crimes. There are many of them and I’m going to give a definition of the 11 most known ones according to the Norton Security Center and list some of the others. Here is the link: http://www.symantec-norton.com/11-most-common-computer-security-threats_k13.aspx

Viruses: A computer virus is a program written for the purpose to spread stealthily and quickly to other computer program. It more or less seriously disrupts the functioning of the infected computer. It can spread through any means for exchanging digital data AS the Internet, including through emails or their attachments. The danger is very high.

SPAMs: It is massive and automatic delivery, sometimes repeated of unsolicited emails to persons with whom the sender has had no contact and he recovered email addresses irregularly. The danger is low.

Spoofing: Also known as identity theft, spoofing is the use of your identity or documents that could identify you (name, address, identity document…), without the user’s knowing or his complicity, by another person to gain an advantage: obtaining certain rights, claim to have gained some qualifications, fraud at your expense. It is very common on the Internet and the danger is very high.

Spyware: As the name says, a spyware is a software that spies. It is malicious software that collects personal information without the user knowing to retransmit them through the Internet connection. It is installed on a computer when a user browses the Web, makes a download from an untrusted site, or when using an instant messenger or file sharing. The danger is high.

Key Logging: Keylogging is the action of using a keylogger, which is a type of specialized spyware to spy on keystrokes on the computer that hosts it, and transmitting them over the Internet to an address where a hacker can exploit them. A keylogger is very dangerous as it can collect and transmit your passwords, ATM pin, and other logging private details.

Worm: A worm is program that can self-replicate and move across a network using the network mechanisms without actually needing a physical or logical media (hard disk, host programs, file…) to spread; a worm is a network virus. The danger is very high.

Trojan Horse: A Trojan horse is a seemingly harmless malware, yet very dangerous. One of the dangers is that it allows a hacker to break into an infected computer and take control of your computer, and, without the user knowing.

Blended threats: Blended threats is a multifaceted threat to both the level of the means of propagation and that these consequences. It combines different threats together, which makes it very dangerous. Nimda is an example of a blended threat. It is the first threat that uses four different means of propagation, thus ensuring maximum dissemination and eradication in infected, difficult is laborious.

Denial-of-service attack (DOS Attack): In Denial of Service attacks the attacker sends a large number of connections of information requests to a target with the aim of making it unable to meet the requests of its user’s computer application, which will overload the system that will be unable to respond. Mail servers can be victims of these attacks. This type of attack is extremely difficult to block because it is often impossible to differentiate a real application of a query DDos. The DDoS attack often uses a multitude of zombie PCs infected with backdoors exploited remotely by an attacker and attacking a single target simultaneously.

Phishing: Phishing is a fraudulent technique used by hackers to retrieve information from users using a fake website sent through emails that appear to be coming from a trusted company (usually banks). The information entered on this fake websites are then sent to the hacker.

Mail Bombing: Mail bombing is quite similar to DoS. It is when a cybercriminal sends a large amount of emails to the victim, usually hundreds of them. It disturbs the person’s network and while the victim is trying to fix it, the perpetrator uses this period of time at his advantage to get access to the victim’s personal information.

 Some of the Internet and Network attacks include SPIM or SPIT, Adware, man-in-the-middle, scareware, backdoor, wabbits, exploit, BotNet, dialer, dropper, fake antivirus, bluesnarfing, bluejacking, BootSector virus, browser hijackers, chain letters, virus document, mouse trapping, pharming, crimeware and SQL Injection. A brief definition of each is given on this link: http://forums.iobit.com/forum/iobit-security-software/iobit-security-softwares-general-discussions/other-security-discussions/15251-28-types-of-computer-security-threats-and-risks

• How can users safeguard against these attacks?

In order to avoid the attacks mentioned above, users have to take precautions. Here are some few habits you should adopt to safeguard against malwares. First, make use of safe and strong password that will be hard for other people to crack and be careful while entering critical credentials and when you do, make sure the website is recognized and never reply to an email or SMS that asks you for personal information. Second, be careful about where you are downloading data as viruses and adware could be attached to your file, also disable autorun as viruses could install themselves automatically. Third, do not connect any devices to your computer without scanning them and also scan your computer regularly. Lastly, it is important to think well before clicking on a link and verify the sites you download stuff from. Also, keep in mind that once information is shared, it is not easy to take them back or erase them forever. Therefore, beware of everyone and do not share your life with everyone, especially your personal and private things to not fall into social engineering.

It is impossible to completely avoid your computer from being totally safe from viruses do not exist. All computers are exposed to such. Fortunately for Internet users, there are some ways to prevent those attacks and avoid viruses, SPAMs and others. A user can also safeguard against these attacks using these methods:

Encryption: To encrypt means using a secret code that is unknown to other computers. Users must make use of encryption method before sending messages to avoid having their messages intercepted and altered.

Antivirus: Get a safe antivirus to guard your computer from getting infected by viruses and worms. An antivirus is a software that detect viruses by inoculating existing files and protects your computer against those.

Firewalls: is a computer security software that protects Internet users from being spied on without them knowing. Indeed some malware (trojans, spyware and other malware) allow people located remotely to take control of the infected computer or just to gather information about the user. To overcome this problem the firewall controls inbound and outbound connections, we therefore talk about managing the flow of data.

Virtual Private Network (VPN): a virtual private network is an extension of a private network that encompasses links across shared or public networks like the Internet . It enables the exchange of data between two computers across a shared or public network in a manner that emulates a point- to-point private link .

Read more on the topic on this link: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-ways-to-avoid-viruses-and-spyware/ I find their tips interesting and they give a well detailed explanation on the methods of protections.