The largest and most destructive of security problems is VIRUSES and HACKERS. Viruses are becoming the number one issue for most small companies and are one of the most destructive as well. viruses exploited multiple security holes they became more and more destructive affecting many companies physically as well as financially. These viruses infected many critical files on file servers and web servers. This generated a large amount of traffic on the Internet slowing down many company's networks. Virus protection just was not enough because it exploited ISS security holes, which if left unpatched, would infect those systems and then spread throughout the network thru drive mappings. Just one system with the vulnerability open caused the network to be affected. Another example of this is the Code Red virus. Many small businesses use DSL (digital subscriber line) connections and leave their DSL routers with the default setup causing port 80 to be listening and causing them to be very vulnerable to a virus that targets port 80 like the Code Red virus. Many companies could not keep their Internet connections up and running because of this virus and lost the vital Internet connections they require to do business. The next large security issue is introduced when a business uses a web server either for ecommerce or for something such as hosting the company web page. Often they are installed for small businesses by consultants or staff who just install the servers and get everything working. Many times security is put on the back burner in this situation. Everything looks good from a functionality point of view, but many times are left wide open from a security prospective. Security updates come out all the time for IIS, which is one of the most commonly used web server software on the market, and many companies do not even know about the patches and secondly do not know how to apply them. This leaves their company open to attack. Hackers and virus writers are on top of the most recent patches and know that a lot of companies do not patch their servers right away and they take advantage of that and use those holes to launch attacks on those companies not patched. Many then use those compromised systems to attack bigger companies, or even the whole Internet as we have seen recently. There are many companies that do not have any firewalls and they pay the price many times by getting their web pages defaced or get their servers used to launch attacks on other companies. But as firewalls are becoming commonplace with most small businesses they are still the devices that are a big mystery for most companies. It is the box that sits in the rack and runs, which gives them a false sense of security because they feel it is all they need to do to keep protected from security intrusions. There are many companies who have their firewalls configured incorrectly by leaving large numbers of ports open to servers or are allowing servers which do not need to be accessed from the internet to be open to it. If configured correctly these devices are very effective against attacks, but if done wrong they can leave vital devices open to attack without knowing it. Instead of fixing buggy software, the focus should be on locking down computer systems to prevent activity that could be compromising Incorrect network designs a lot of times can lead to problems as well. If a new server is brought online or a new office is opened up, then there needs to be a review to address the security that is needed. To many times a company will open up access to a server in another location to the internet thru the corporate location and leave the hole open in the firewall into the internal network of the company not realizing that the server is not patched. This leads to major problems.
A hacker is a person who breaks into computers and computer networks for profit, as protest, or sometimes by the motivation of the challenge and who "violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain. Targeting is when the hacker determines what network to break into. The target may be of particular interest to the hacker, or the hacker may "Port Scan" a network to determine if it is vulnerable to attacks. A port is defined as "an opening through which the computer receives data via the network"(Moore,2005). Open ports will allow a hacker to access the system. It is in this stage that the hacker will visit or contact the target in some way in hopes of finding out vital information that will help them access the system. The main way that hackers get desired results from this stage is from Social Engineering, which will be explained below. Aside from Social Engineering hackers can also use a technique called Dumpster Diving. Dumpster Diving is when a hacker will literally dive into a dumpster in hopes to find documents that users have thrown away, which will help them gain access to a network.
Even if we have a high technology machine to detect the security problem, still we can’t assure Security of our computer due to the viruses and Hackers.
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