Cyber attacks and digital terrorism

Cyber attacks and digital terrorism1.a.Cyber Attack and Digital TerrorismIntroductionThere ar dissimilar reasons why people initiate cyber attacks or execute digital terrorisms, whatever it is, the goal is to cause damage and destruction, with motivations that range from anything personal, political, economic or any. Below argon list of few reasons why cyber attack and digital terrorism occursi.Personal Anger people who are psychologically angry at their organization, for whatever reason for caseful not being promoted for long time or no increment in the salaries or made redundant. The individual might plant viruses into the companys network or delete some of the important functions of a program which may create problem in the future. It can happen flush a superior is pressurizing his ally. The subordinate may embed a virus in an e-mail attachment in a view to corrupt the superiors computing device as revenge. This oddball of doings can be categorized as a personal digit al terrorism.ii.Hired Service Occasionally individual can hired another individual (usually professionals intruders) to write out into someones computer network and luxate important information or get down the computer by wiping off all digital trails and the intruder is paid substantially. scour then the professional intruder can double-cross by inform the tar bewitched company that the companys network home is at risk and he can solve the problem. This type of natural process can be sort out as a professional digital terrorism.iii.Ransom Money Sometime a person might need property desperately and nobody is there to help him, the banks also do not want to give a loan 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 go forth activate at a authorized time and will cause severe damage or even crash the banks networking system. He/she may ask for ransom money. Once 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 dislike by conducting demonstrations and so forth One way as a strugglening 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 governments 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 publicly declared their all out contend against countries or organizations. 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. All 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 put in to be executed, usually without user knowledge or permission, which can cause clogging computer memory, destroy programs or data, reformat a computer hard criminal record or can cause a progr am to run improperly. Virus typically spreads from computer to computer when action such as sending an electronic mail attachment or copying an infected file(as we know companies are going online, so uses net is extensively in dealing ). 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 cipher 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 not multiply itself and may attack only equit able one computer.A Trojan horseThis is a aegis-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 take 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 invading a large number of computers on the network (usually internet) and instructing the computers to simultaneously send repeated messages to a butt end computer, thus either overloading the computers input buffer store or jamming the communication lines into the computer so badly that legitimate users cannot pay off 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 collide with of Death or the Teardrop. Information and Identity theft in the digital worldThe word Theft is simply obtaining something (materials or non-materials) through illegal means. So information 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 take or theft. Identity theft according to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is someone (somebody else) is appropriating your personal information without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft. For example, an identity thief uses information about someone, such name, address, social security nu mber, 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 reference book of information theft with the user wanting to impersonate you or be identified as you using that stolen identification information to be used for many another(prenominal) 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 system (to hack an d variety show your date of birth, your gender status, your parents names, etc), the police crime 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 Security System (to visit and say hello to the most powerful man in the world), the FBI and CIA computer systems etc.Conclusion net application 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 manage 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 earlier and damages can be minimise or avoided such as using an intrusion detection system to monitor and filt er 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.