CPSC 420 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Mobile Computing, Malware
Document Summary
When complete, identify the current threats to network systems and network traffic, such as attacks on mobile computing devices and vulnerabilities in social networking and other integrated web technologies. Nonphysical network vulnerabilities usually involve software or data. Network vulnerabilities come in many forms but the most common types are: malware such as trojans, viruses, and worms that are installed on a user"s machine or a host server. Social engineering attacks that fool users into giving up personal information such as a username or password. Outdated or unpatched software that exposes the systems running the application and potentially the entire network. Misconfigured firewalls/operating systems that allow or have default policies enabled. When left unchecked, these vulnerabilities can lead to more advanced attacks such as a distributed denial of service attack, which can bring a network down to a crawl or prevent users from accessing it altogether. Attacks are only going to get more frequent and harder to fight against.