Malicious Attacks

Introduction Commonly referred to as: malicious software/ “malware”, computer viruses Designed to enter computers without the owner’s permission

Background Started out as “pranks,” more annoying than harmful, created by programmers to see range until around viruses started to be used as forms as vandalism: destroying files, corrupting system 2003 Broadband Internet  profit promotion via spam, spyware advertising

Viruses first spread via floppy disks  activated when program runs or disk boots 1990 Microsoft Windows platform  rising of “macro viruses”—damage documents instead of applications

Recovery Methods System Restore – restores the registry and critical system files to a previous checkpoint Reinstall the operation system – 1. reformat the computer’s hard drive 2. install OS from its original media These methods are simpler and faster than most anti-virus software However, the computer’s user preferences must be restored every time; while backing up software, one may put another computer in danger Anti-virus software prevents, detects, and removes viruses from computers (sometimes downgrades a computer’s performance

Phishing

Phishing: attempting to get private information like usernames and passwords by pretending to be a trustworthy source.

Usually takes place through and instant messaging – Links that prompt one to put info into what looks like a legitimate site. First known case of Phishing was done in 1996 Started with cases in AOL, then moved to financial institutions

Social Networking Sites are now the target of Phishing Most methods of phishing make a link appear to belong to a fake organization. – Misspelled URLs or the use of sub domains are common tricks – Phishers have used images instead of text to make it harder for anti-phishing filters to detect text commonly used in phishing s

WHAT IS A COMPUTER VIRUS? “A COMPUTER PROGRAM ABLE TO INFECT OTHER PROGRAMS BY MODIFYING THEM TO INCLUDE A POSSIBLY EVOLVED VERSION OF ITSELF”

TYPES OF VIRUSES BOOT PARTITION INFECTING VIRUS EXECUTABLE FILE INFECTING VIRUS MULTI-PART VIRUS DIRECTORY INFECTING VIRUS

WHAT CAN THEY DO? FORMAT DISK COPY, RENAME, AND DELETE FILES COPY THEMSELVES WITH NEW CONFIGURATION INFORMATION MODIFY FILE DATES AND EXTENTIONS CALL OTHER COMPUTERS TO UPLOAD AND DOWNLOAD FILES

HOW DO THEY DO IT? APPENDING INSERTION INTERCEPTION REDIRECTION REPLACEMENT

Prevention Install software such as; firewalls, a spyware scanner, a Trojan horse program, and antivirus programs Run up to date scans Don’t download materials from questionable sources Remove unused communication ports Understand how an attack could happen so you see one coming

Conclusion There are six types of malicious attacks: trojan horses, worms, viruses, hoaxes, spam, and phishing Good computer practices can help a user minimize the threat of a malicious attack