only potty Pavarotti
Running head: CYBER ATTACKS 1
CYBER ATTACKS 2
Cyber attacking
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Cyber attacks
According to software engineering, cyber attacking is whereby attackers attempt and succeed to damage or destroy the network or system of computer system used by either an individual or an institution. To succeed in their plan, attackers use a variety of tools such as malware, ransomware and exploit kits. One of the most dangerous computer attacks is the socially engineered malware attack that tricks users to download and install malicious software that is capable of compromising the security of their system (Rohde 2010). Before we start a research about malware computer attack, we just knew that some downloads can mess the working of a computer system. We never knew what exactly happens when a socially engineered malware affects the computer.
Social engineering is very dangerous as it works with human beings rather those other kinds if computer attacks that affects the technical parts of a computer. In social engineering, human error is the one that causes damages to a computer system (Sinopoli, 2012). Malwares are sent through emails and once you download them, the whole computer system is damaged. The users of computer systems are sometimes tricked so as to subvert their network security. Email is the most used platform by attackers while doing their operations. The possibility to attack using the social engineered malware depends on whether the targeted person clicks the given link, downloads a document or visits a web. Most of the most successful cyber attacks in the United States have been done through use of social engineered malware.
When a computer is attacked, the whole computer system is affected. The attackers simply remove the owner’s disk from the computer and install their disk with which they control and command what the computer does (Zhu, 2012). It can sometimes affect the monitor and motherboards of a computer. A good example of major social engineered is the Iran cyber-attack that affected many countries in the world with United States being the most affected country. The cyber-attack was aimed at warning the United States of America against messing with the elections. Every screen that was affected had changed its screen to the United States flag. The cyber-attack affected approximately 200 000 router services across the world, with 3 500 router services in United States only. (Sastry, 2011). This was a according to the communication and information technology ministry in the United States. The attack was believed to have mainly affected Europe, United States and India. The number of devices that were affected by the attack was 55 000 devices in united states, 14 000 devices in India and two per cent of all devices in Iran (Lazarevic, 2006).
When cyber-attack occur in a country, it can cause losses in profit making institutions and government parastatals as service delivery is likely to be hindered when the online system in the institution fails to work. In today’s world, most of the institutions use computers to run their systems and operations faster and effective (Kundur, 2016). When this kind of an attack occurs, these systems cannot work effectively thus service delivery and productions go down. Also, some cyber-attack criminals use these opportunity to steal from those companies that save their money in online platforms. Other people keep on hold the operations of certain institutions and ask for some Lampson of money so that they can allow the institutions to resume to their normal operations. Due to lack of an option, companies which have found themselves in this track have paid a lot of money to criminals (Liang, 2017).
Our view
After going through the cases of cyber-attack that has occurred in the past, we have discovered that we should be more careful when we click on links using our devices as some of those links may end up messing everything on the devices. We also stop following instructions from unknown instructors immediately so as to avoid becoming victims of the malware. We consider Installation on malware protection soft wares in our devices to make our devices more secure. Group members who never knew about such occurrences now have a copy of what happens thus they are very careful when dealing with online websites. The member s has a feeling that they should start creating awareness about how people should avoid social engineered malware.
We believe lack of awareness about the daggers, causes and how to avoid the attacks was the main reason why the attack has been affecting many people. If people could learn how to protect their devices against such happenings, they would become those activities such as clicking untrusted links, visiting untrusted websites and also downloading documents that may sometimes contain such malwares. We also think that cyber-attacks can be reduced if the government can invest much on building IT experts to help in maintaining security to all devices in the country. All countries should join hands in fighting cyber-attacks so as to avoid loss of data and money through hackers. People who have that knowledge should be encouraged to work for the government instead of conducting unnecessary cyber-attacks. This technology can be used to terrorism if employed in the right manner instead of using it in a negative way.
Malware incident table
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Cyber-attack involves acquiring and damaging data stored in another person’s device. |
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Tools used by attackers include malware, ransomware and exploit kits. |
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When a device is hacked, none of its data can be restored unless the hackers decide to do so. |
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The most dangerous cyber-attack is the social engineered malware because it uses the power of human beings to temper with a device rather than using technical methods. |
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The possibility of a cyber-attack using social engineered malware succeeding is if the owner of the device clicks a link or visits the damaged site. |
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When a successful attack is done in a computer, the original disk of the computer is replaced with the attackers’ disk, making it possible to operate the computer from their site. This blocks the user of the computer from operating it. |
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Parastatals and institutions have been forced to make losses by those malwares. Others have been forced to pay certain amounts of money so that their systems can be released by hackers. |
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Every company can be a victim of cyber-attack and so all company owners should join hands to look for ways in which these attacks can be reduced. |
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They are sometimes security threats to countries because if enemies try and succeed to get the information stored in country’s security databases, they can use them to get their weaknesses hence conquer them easily. |
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The attackers mostly attack the European countries, united states and Iran. |
References
Rohde, K. (2010). An integrated security system of protecting smart grid against cyber attacks. In Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT), 2010 (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
Sinopoli, B. (2012). Cyber–physical security of a smart grid infrastructure. Proceedings of the IEEE, 100(1), 195-209.
Sastry, S. (2011) A taxonomy of cyber attacks on SCADA systems. In 2011 IEEE International Conferences on Internet of Things, and Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (pp. 380-388). IEEE.
Lazarevic, A. (Eds.). (2006). Managing cyber threats: issues, approaches, and challenges(Vol. 5). Springer Science & Business Media.
Zhu, H. (2012). Securing smart grid: cyber attacks, countermeasures, and challenges. IEEE Communications Magazine, 50(8).
Shankar, M. (2005). Distributed intrusion detection and attack containment for organizational cyber security. 2006]. http://www. ioc. ornl. gov/projects/documents/containment. Pdf
Kundur, D. (2016). A game-theoretic analysis of cyber switching attacks and mitigation in smart grid systems. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 7(4), 1846-1855.
Liang, H. (2017). CCPA: Coordinated cyber-physical attacks and countermeasures in smart grid. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 8(5), 2420-2430.