Extended Definition Essay
Imagine a facility like a government building, or a prison. Most people assume that these facilities along with military bases, banks, nuclear power plants and the like are the toughest when it comes to security. That is true, because the risks are high if ever these facilities were just easily raided. However, this unbreakable security mostly applies only to the exterior. The interior, or the facilities’ networks, are easily broken into by certain individuals. These networks are broken into by hacking, which is defined as an unauthorized intrusion of a computer or network. The truth is, there have been cases when teenagers have successfully broke into these high-security facilities through hacking. Upon a successful hack, the hacker can immediately get access to classified records, personal data and almost all private data stored inside the network. Hacking has become the largest threat in the internet. It can happen anytime, anywhere and to anyone.
Hacking is a threat to online networks, capable of manipulating personal and private data. These attacks are very dangerous since it gives the hacker access to all the network’s stored information. The hacker can then choose to steal the data and use it for other means, including altering existing data or simply deleting the data. This can be very dangerous especially to data such as nuclear launch codes, or government passwords as these can cost the security of the country if they fall into the wrong hands. Hackers come from different age groups and skill levels, each with their own agendas. One of the common hacker groups are amateur hackers. They are mostly teenagers who hack websites out of boredom and for bragging. They are usually inexperienced and have no specific agenda aside from amusement. The most common and feared group are the black hat hackers. They are highly skilled and experienced hackers, capable of breaking into several networks. They attempt to exploit weaknesses in a network’s security for malicious reasons, such as personal gain or defacing a person or organization. They pull their cyber heists very quickly, making them hard to trace and dangerous. Hacking is also done in different methods. The most common attack are malwares and the trojan horse. They are triggered when a user downloads files from a particularly deceptive website. Another example are distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which block the network’s online services by flooding the flow of network traffic. Lastly, a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack involves stealing information by eavesdropping and intercepting communications between two parties.
A hacker, when successful in his attempts to hack through, has almost all the freedom to breeze through the hacked network. When a hacker’s agenda is to deface an organization or spread propaganda, he/she may alter and tamper records and sabotage the organization website’s front page with malicious content. If the hacker’s agenda is for personal gain, he/she can gain access to personal records, including the organization’s funds and the bank accounts of associates and transfer it to an offshore account, making it hard to trace. The most dangerous act that a hacker can do is to completely block the target’s network, making it accessible to the hacker only and preventing any access from others. In this case, the hacker can buy enough time to perform acts such as locking down a facility, releasing a prisoner from jail, disabling security cameras inside a facility, or even arming weapons of mass destruction. Dangers of hacking are very high, making it an urgent matter for organizations and facilities to create their lines of defense against these attacks.
The internet takes up most of the information in our modern society, offering us opportunities for business, education, entertainment, and other activities with just a few clicks. Network security, however, is still at a large risk with attacks continuously causing damage. For example, years after the Internet Worm of 1988 broke into 6 000 UNIX machines, a widespread break-in occurred into UNIX hosts, large enough that cyber security teams like the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and NASA Automated Systems Incident Response Capability (NASIRC) were called to investigate. As a result, hundreds of machines were disabled over two years (Vacca, 1996, p.53).
Hackers are very elusive, despite them being very prevalent on the internet. Most organizations only identify hackers by their codename and the nature of their work. This is because hackers make it almost impossible for agencies to track them down. In fact, these agencies attempt to fight hacking by hiring their own hackers. However, this decision takes risk for the agencies, so these hackers are closely supervised. In due time, agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have taken benefits to these hackers by hiring them permanently with incentives.
On most cases, organizations have made it a habit to install security measures for their networks. One of these are firewalls. Firewalls are built to protect a private network from any unauthorized access. Firewalls are useful for maintaining a closed network where any foreign access is immediately identified and sometimes terminated. In a counterargument, some suggest not connecting to the internet at all as to increase network security. Compared to installing a firewall, this is method is particularly harder to implement and maintain, especially with the high demand of internet in professions. Not connecting to the internet does not guarantee safety from hackers either. If the private network is loosely administered, it can simply be compromised by a high-speed, dial-up modem. The effects may be worse than an online attack and there is a chance that the hacked data may be inaccessible or deleted permanently.
Recent hacking incidents have caused big challenges to those of the Information Systems and Security (INFOSEC) business. INFOSEC aims to provide confidence for users to the integrity and privacy of data that they store and use across the internet. The National Security Agency formed the Multilevel Information Systems Security Initiative (MISSI) to accompany users. MISSI Products allow features such as data-integrity, confidentiality, support for email and database management. All these are developed in line with the website system-security objectives (Whitman & Mattord, 2006).
Agencies have also developed recommendations toward creating a secure network and combatting common forms of attacks. One common form is the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, where access to a network is flooded by data traffic, blocking access of the network. According to a study conducted by Chen, Longstaff and Carley (2006), DDoS saturate the connections of subscribers to their backbone or take down servers inside the network. It is recommended that network subscribers must implement defenses on the outbound traffic of an access network. A DDoS attack can also be mitigated by source filtering in order to reduce to probability of untrusted parties from entering the network and initiating such attacks.
Protection and caution must always be observed when managing networks or browsing the internet. A single intrusion by a hacker can bring serious damage to a person or organization, and to the network itself. These hackers attempt to find exploitable weaknesses in a target network. As a result, network security has become a top priority. Even in small networks at home or in mobile devices, it is equally important that they are properly secured. Furthermore, some key software like anti-viruses and firewalls must be present in one’s computer or desktop to maximize a device’s security against any attack. It may somewhat restrict access to certain sites but having these can immediately help in detecting malicious files and untrustworthy sites, reducing the risk of intrusions. Additionally, users must always be cautious when browsing the internet. Sketchy and pop-up websites are potentially dangerous and must be avoided if necessary. Attending to these websites and performing tasks such as downloading files or performing operations in the sites can cause unintentional malicious software or worms to work its way into the device. Apart from websites, malicious software can show as Trojan horses in the form of catchy advertisements. If the advertisement comes from untrustworthy websites or lead you to share personal information, they must be avoided.
Hacking is a never-ending threat, and organizations have been waging a cyber war against these hackers for a long time. Hackers have devised different methods in initiating their attacks, ranging from DDoS, malwares, trojan horses, worms and so much more. As a result, more and more defensive countermeasures are being developed until now to combat hacking. Although these hackers are particularly hard to track, these defensive software can immediately detect their attempts and at least stop them from further damaging the network. Most importantly, protection from hacking must start in small scales such as personal devices. This is to assure that private information stays as secure as possible.
Reference:
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