Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Attack methods Part I

 

 

ATTACK METHODS ( Hacking Terminology)

 

Information security is as important as the information itself. In the complex world of web and interconnected networks, security is a major concern and only the proactive approach to secure our information can reduce/mitigate the risk posed by the advanced threats and attacks.

As the technology is growing so are the ways to attack the system/networks.. some popular attack methods to the systems/information are as below :

 

Virus :

Virus a piece of code or program which is pushed in our system by attacker without our knowledge and gets executed . Virus has the capability to replicate itself.The virus  can spread in the system in no time and can spread even across the network bypassing the security. Virus can be less or more harmful depends on the code. Its kind of malware which is attached to the files or programs and as the user runs the programs the virus infects the system.

 

Worms:

Worm is also a kind of virus but the only difference between virus and worms is that virus needs human action to run as they are attached to the files and programs but worms can run on its own and spread. They can travel independently from machine to machine, across the networks and cause severe damage to the applications/systems.

 

Trojan Horse :

Trojan horse could be a software or executable file which apparently looks useful and once we execute, it will install some malicious code in the system and send out the information across the network. It can open some ports in the system without the knowledge and wishes of the victim and open a backdoor for the attacker to gain unauthorised access compromising the information.

 

E-mail Spam:

Email spam is the situation where the target mailbox is filled by usually unsolicited mails resulting exceeding the mail quota and preventing the user to use the email services. it can be un intentional if any of the users sends a mail copying groups that contains hundreds of recipients. the situation aggravates when unaware recipients start replying to the mail creating flood or chain of mails consuming the bandwidth and introducing Denial of Service.

 Botnets:

A set of compromised computers which are called zombie computers although their owners are unaware of this, running software usually installed through worms, Trojan horse or backdoors. The 'Bot' has been taken from Robot and 'Net' has been derived from network. According to a report from Russian-based Kaspersky Labs, botnets -- not spam, viruses, or worms -- currently pose the biggest threat to the Internet.

 

Phishing:

The act of sending the fraud mails to users  falsely claiming from a legitimate source and then direct them to some fake website persuading the users to enter their confidential information like password, credit card details and bank account details. The purpose of phishing is to steal the valuable information of the users by befooling them. Phishers use a number of different social engineering and e-mail spoofing ploys to try to trick their victims.

 

War Dialing :

War Dialing is a situation where the attacker penetrates the system through dialing to the modem connected to the network. War dialer usually a freeware program, automatically dials a defined range of numbers to target the victim.

 

Brute Force Attack:

Brute force is also called exhaustive search, is a method where the attacker tries multiple combinations to crack the password or Data Encryption Standard keys using brute force) in an attempt to gain unauthorized access.  The approach is less intelligent but has good success though it is very time consuming.

 

Data Alternation attack:

Alternation attacks occur when someone makes unsolicited or unauthorized modifications to code or data, attacking its integrity. These attacks can occur in different forms and have a variety of consequences. An organization might have a Software Development Life Cycle, but the binary code can be altered. A person with access can recompile an existing program to add another library or DLL. The primary defense against an alteration attack is a cryptographic hash. If we can record the state of a program or data before it is altered and securely store the hash, you can periodically recheck the program or data and compare it with the stored hash. SHA 2 is recommended for the hash algorithm.

 

 Denial of Service attack:

Denial of Service attack happens when the attacker prevents the legitimate user accessing information or services. This is done either by targeting your computer or the computer or network/website you are accessing. The attacker can prevent the users to use email or website or banking accounts. The attacker can use several methods to do this, for example, ping flood to exhaust the bandwidth or spam flood exceeding your mail quota resulting in DoS or phlashing where the damage is done to the extent of replacement of hardware.

Brute force attack, Banana attack, Pulsing zombie and bandwidth saturating attacking are example of application level DoS attack.

 

 Distributed Denial of Service attack:

Distributed Denial of Services attack happens when attacker used multiple computers to flood the victim network or computer in order to prevent him accessing information or services.

to be continued....  

 

 

 

Friday, July 19, 2013

How to Configure Wireless Broadband Router Securely?




How to Configure Wireless Broadband Router Securely?




















User name and Password
Change the default user name and password because they are often easily guessed. Some manufacturers might not allow you to change the username, but at least the password should be changed.

Encryption (WEP/WPA/WPA2)
Whenever possible, WEP should be avoided. Instead, use WPA2/AES or WPA/AES if it is supported on the device.

Authentication Type (Open Authentication or Shared Key Authentication)
The shared key mechanism should never be used. Instead, a stronger mutual authentication as defined in the 802.11i standard should be considered.

Wireless Network Name / SSID
The default SSID should be changed. The new SSID should not be named to refer the network products being used, reflect your name or other personal information, otherwise the information could aid an attacker in collecting reconnaissance information about you and your wireless network.

Broadcast Network Name / SSID
Users may consider disabling SSID broadcasting or increasing the “Beacon Interval” to the maximum. Suppress SSID broadcasting could not prevent sophisticated attackers to steal SSID by sniffing the management frames between the communication of access points and clients, however it could able to stop casual wireless clients from discovering the wireless network or attempting to access.

MAC Address Filtering
Enabling MAC address filtering is recommended as another layer of protection.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
Disabling the DHCP feature, if possible, is recommended, as DHCP makes it easier for malicious attackers to access a wireless network

When you want to use public wireless services

                          

    TIPS ON INTERNET SURFING VIA PUBLIC  WIRELESS SERVICES


            





Once you have a wireless device such as a notebook computer or a hand-held device connected to public wireless hotspots, you are exposing yourself to potential attacks from remote attackers. Nonetheless, the following security tips may prevent you from falling into the traps laid by attackers:


1. Don’t leave your wireless device unattended
2. Protect Your Device With Passwords: Enable your device’s power-on login, system login authentication, and password-protected screen saver.
3. Disable Wireless Connection When It Is Not In Use: Wi-Fi, infrared, and Bluetooth devices are constantly announcing their presence if they are enabled.

That means they are waving hands to attackers, even though you may be unaware of it.
4. Keep Your Wireless Network Interface Card Drivers Up-to-date: A network interface card driver is just a piece of software. It is not immune to software bugs. Keeping the drivers up-to-date assures that wireless devices have the latest protection and support from product vendors.
5. Protect your device with anti-virus software using the latest virus definitions: This can minimise the risk of infection by computer viruses or spyware.
6. Encrypt Sensitive / Personal Data on the Device: Even when an unauthorised user gains access to your device, encryption will keep your data away from an opportunistic thief.

7. Turn off Resource Sharing Protocols for Your Wireless Interface Card: When you share files and folders, your shared resources may attract attackers attempting to manipulate them.
8. Remove Your Preferred Network List When Using Public Wireless Service: Some operating systems offer a feature for you to build your own list of preferred wireless networks. Once you have this list defined, your system will keep searching for a preferred network and try to connect to the preferred network automatically. By capturing this information sent out from your system, an attacker could set up a fake wireless access point, which meets the settings of a wireless network on your Preferred Network List. In doing so, your device would automatically connect to the attacker’s fake wireless network.
9. Turn off Ad-Hoc Mode Networking: “Ad-hoc” mode networking enables your wireless device to communicate with other computers or devices through a wireless connection directly with minimal security against unauthorised incoming connections. This should be disabled to prevent attackers from easily gaining access to information and resources on your device.

10. Do Not Enable Both Wireless and Wired Network Interface Cards at the Same Time: When a device is connected to a wired LAN with the wireless network interface card still enabled, there is a possibility that attackers can sneak into the wired LAN through an open wireless network if network bridging is enabled.
11. Check the Authenticity of a Captive Portal: Captive portal web pages are commonly used in public hotspots as a means of user authentication and for deterrent protection. When connecting to a public hotspot, the user will be redirected to a captive portal page. However, attackers could also set up fake captive portals to harvest personal information. Therefore, when using public hotspots, it is important to check the authenticity of a captive portal by verifying the server certificate from the website.
12. Don’t Send Sensitive / Personal Information When Using Public Wireless Networks: Public wireless networks are generally considered to be insecure. You should not transmit sensitive or personal information over a public hotspot without proper security controls.
13. Encrypt Your Wireless Traffic Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN): If transmission of sensitive or personal information over a public wireless network is unavoidable, a VPN solution can help ensure the confidentiality of communications using cryptographic technologies.
14. Disable Split Tunnelling When Using VPN: It is possible to connect to the Internet or other insecure networks while at the same time holding a VPN connection to a private network using split tunnelling, but this may pose a risk to the connecting private network.