Chapter-13(protecting Your Computer)

Chapter-13 Protecting your privacy, your Computer and Your Data

Protecting Our Computer

Identify Theft Shoulder surfing Shoulder surfing refers to a direct observation, such as looking over a person's shoulder, to obtain information. In some cases shoulder surfing is done for no reason other than to get an answer, but in other instances it may constitute a security breach as the the person behind may be private information such as your PIN at a bank machine, or Credit card information as you enter it into a Web based shopping cart check-out. While shoulder surfing is most common in busy and crowed areas where the perpetrator is not as likely to be caught, shoulder surfing can also be done with the aid of binoculars or cameras from a more remote location.

Snagging A thief can try snagging information by listening in on a telephone line while the victim gives credit card or other personal information to a legitimate agent.

Dumpster Diving Thieves can go through garbage cans, dumpsters or trash bins to obtain cancelled checks, credit card statements or bank account information that someone has carelessly through out.

Social Engineering Social engineering is successful because its victims naturally want to trust other people and are helpful. The victims of social engineering are tricked into releasing information that they do not realize will be used to attack a computer network. For example, an employee in an enterprise may be tricked into revealing an employee identification number to someone who is pretending to be someone he trusts or representing someone he trusts. While that employee number may not seem valuable to the employee, which makes it easier for him to reveal the information in the first place, the social engineer can use that employee number in conjunction with other information that has been gathered to get closer to finding a way into the enterprise’s network.

Online Spying Tools

Cookies A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web pages for them. When you enter a Web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your Web browser which stores it for later use. The next time you go to the same Web site, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

Web Bugs  A web bug is a small GIF format image file that can be embedded in a web page. Behind the image, lies code that functions in much the same way as a cookies, allowing the bug’s creator to track many of your online tracks.

Spyware Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes.  The spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers. Spyware is similar to a Trojan horse in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else. Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy, spyware steals from the user by using the computer's memory resources and also by eating bandwidth as it sends information back to the spyware's home base via the user's Internet connection. Because spyware is using memory and system resources, the applications running in the background can lead to system crashes or general system instability

Trojan horses A destructive program. Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. The term comes from the a Greek story of the Trojan War, in which the Greeks give a giant wooden horse to their foes, the Trojans, ostensibly as a peace offering. But after the Trojans drag the horse inside their city walls, Greek soldiers sneak out of the horse's hollow belly and open the city gates, allowing their compatriots to pour in and capture Troy.

Spam Electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings. Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. Real spam is generally e-mail advertising for some product sent to a mailing list or newsgroup. In addition to wasting people's time with unwanted e-mail, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth.

Treats to Hardware

Power Related Threats  Power Fluctuations Power Failure

Theft and Vandalism

Natural Disasters

Treats to Data

Malware Short for malicious software, software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus or a Trojan horse.

Cybercrime Cyber crime encompasses any criminal act dealing with computers and networks .Additionally, cyber crime also includes traditional crimes conducted through the Internet. For example; telemarketing and Internet fraud, identity theft, and credit card account thefts are considered to be cyber crimes when the illegal activities are committed through the use of a computer and the Internet.

Hacking  To modify a program, often in an unauthorized manner, by changing the code itself. Code that is written to provide extra functionality to an existing program

Sniffing  A program and/or device that monitors data traveling over a network. Sniffers can be used both for legitimate network management functions and for stealing information off a network. Unauthorized sniffers can be extremely dangerous to a network's security because they are virtually impossible to detect and can be inserted almost anywhere. This makes them a favorite weapon in the hacker's arsenal.

Spoofing  E-mail Spoofing:e-mail header to make it appear as if it came from somewhere or someone other than the actual source. IP spoofing: A technique used to gain unauthorized access to computers, whereby the intruder sends messages to a computer with an IP address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted host. To engage in IP spoofing, a hacker must first use a variety of techniques to find an IP address of a trusted host and then modify the packet headers so that it appears that the packets are coming from that host.

Cyber terrorism  Cyber terrorism is a form of warfare in which terrorists attempt to harm or gain control of important computer systems.