Network Security

 

Introduction

            Whether it is considering an individual or an organization, information and system security are crucial to have in all computers. Having security protects personal documents and information from intruders and an organization’s confidentiality such as statistics, employee payrolls, and the personal identifiable information (PII) of its employees.

Ping Attacks

            Ping attacks can be used to breach the safety of computers in multiple forms, a couple of them being the Ping of Death and a Ping Flood. While these two are similar, they do differ in important ways. For example, a ping flood attack is when multiple compromised systems send a huge volume of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo packets to the target; in simpler terms, as implied by the name, it floods the target’s computer with a large number of requests and the system tries to respond to every ICMP request with a reply packet. This causes the target system to be overwhelmed and occupies all inbound bandwidth which prevents users from accessing the system.

On the other hand, the Ping of Death attack is a denial-of-service (DOS) attack, it is a variant of the ping flood as instead of sending many corrupted files, this attack consists of sending oversized packets that exceed the maximum IPv4 packet size (Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is a packet that is made of 65,535 bytes). As the computer struggles to process these oversized packets, it crashes.

 

Security Incidents

            Having a computer can lead to security incidents such as phishing and computer viruses. Phishing is essentially when scam emails or text messages are sent. Within these messages are links to malicious websites that either contain malware, gather sensitive information, or transferring money; they can target individuals or organizations. Computer viruses targets files and systems of a computer and then replicating itself. These are primarily spread through email and often require user action to activate. Viruses can damage data files, destroy files, and even spread to other computers and networks.

Computers are vulnerable to threats because threats are usually computer programs designed to infiltrate and target sensitive information. For example, viruses are programs that computers can easily run, phishing consists of links via your computer to trick you into exposing your own private information, and the way they all relate is that they are created by a computer to target another computer.  If a computer gets hit with a virus, a couple of symptoms it can experience are things like corrupted information, loss of files, and accessing your email to spread the virus to people close to you.

In order to protect from these security incidents, some very important steps to take are to avoid clicking on unknown links, even from people you know until you can confirm it with them in-case their system has been compromised too. Another action is to back up all files and data, especially the important personal information. And lastly, use a trusted anti-virus to protect your computer from intruders and dangerous programs; my current anti-virus software is Avast.

 

 

Conclusion

Understanding all the risks your computer is subject to is already a massive step in knowing how to protect yourself from these intruders that wish to steal information and do you harm. Not only does this minimize the risk of your computer being affected, it also reduces the risk of contacts being infected and continuing to spread.

 

References

Fortinet. (n.d.). What is a Ping of Death and ping of death attack? https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/ping-of-death

Imperva. (2023, December 20). What is a Ping Flood: ICMP Flood Ddos Attack: Imperva. Learning Center. https://www.imperva.com/learn/ddos/ping-icmp-flood/

Phishing attacks: Defending your organisation. NCSC. (2018, February 5). https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/phishing

CISA. (2024, February 14). Virus basics: CISA. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA. https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/virus-basics