The Risk: In the first four months of 2014, the Center for Internet SecurityUS entity (CIS) observed increased defacement activity targeting printers used by state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments. While current open source reporting identifies seemingly benign defacements of open systems, there is a chance that actors will target printers, copiers, and other embedded devices for more malicious purposes. The Threat: In the first half of 2014 (H1 2014), CIS identified malicious actors defacing an increasing number of printer webservers, belonging primarily to educational institutions. Figure 1 highlights the increased number of SLTT printer defacement notifications compared to general web server defacement notifications in …show more content…
Malicious actors conducting reconnaissance against vulnerable printers are likely to use “dorking” techniques on common search engines, as well as tools like SHODANUS entity, which identify and index a searchable record of such systems. Dorking allows users to create customized search queries to identify potentially vulnerable devices because manufacturers use well-documented practices to identify …show more content…
Advanced persistent threat (APT) actors conducting espionage are known to gain access to secure systems by compromising less secure systems, elevating privileges, and traversing the network. • Disruption: Malicious actors may seek to exploit SLTT networked printers for other malicious purposes, such as disruption of other systems. Open source reporting suggests malicious actors previously developed a botnet of printers and other embedded devices to conduct distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks over common network protocols. The Action: CIS recommends that SLTT entities implement the following measures to secure multifunction printers, copiers, and other embedded devices: • Implement the same security policies as would be implemented on any networked system, where possible. In particular, printers should be denied access to the Internet through a firewall, intrusion prevention system, intrusion detection system or other inline filtering device. Accounts should also be secured and default passwords replaced with a strong, complex password containing letters, numbers, and special characters. • Implement IP whitelisting so that only authorized systems communicate with
and their use. In Committee on Deterring Cyber attacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options (Ed.), Proceedings of a Workshop on Deterring Cyber attacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options for U.S. Policy. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
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This cyber crime is a security threat that not only affects businesses, but also everyone that has access to the World Wide Web whether it is via computer, laptop, smart phone or notepad. In order to achieve a successful breach, criminal masterminds often attempt to illegally gain access to the business through multiple targets while combining them with vulnerability tools via web access, e-mail, and even social engineering. In the recent breach to the retail store Target Inc. it was discovered that over 110 million consumers’ credit cards and personal information were exposed to attackers. Several months earlier, programs with malware-laced email phishing codes were sent to Target employees via an HVAC firm which could have been the culprit that infected Target’s point-of-sale systems. According to Fox Business, the attackers used the information gathered and gained access to additional network resources which led to the $200M breach and left the cyber door wide open to future infiltration.
Not a long ago, technological innovation was making its baby steps into our lifestyle. There was never a major talk on cybersecurity, even though the idea was present. Progress in technology have brought new ideas and innovations that have attracted, in turn, malicious and criminal practices; with this fast paced world we live in, we cannot afford to put our plans and goals on hold in order to deal with the problem. Today, it’s fair to say that we are all trying to catch up with the pace of technological advancement, and that is a difficult thing to accomplish, due to how fast and how complex the field has grown to be. It’s the same story in the case of cybersecurity, where we seem to be forced to react, rather act. At some point, it seemed like the cyberwar was left to the IT industries organizations to handle, until many more companies have been attracted to the technology world, due to various reasons, including competition and their respective market growth, an observation confirmed by Judith H. Germano (2014): “With time and experience (and even more alarming news report), more companies are becoming aware of, and realizing they need to address, cybersecurity concerns on a proactive basis” (p. 7). Nowadays, the society is more connected than ever, making it a target for criminals more than ever, and it requires a collective effort to achieve Information Security
The World Wide Web has become a catalyst for hackers, organize criminals, insider threats, political, social action groups, and anonymous groups to excite fear on individuals, private and the public sector. These threat actors can launch malware, rootkits, spam, botnets and a host of other threat vectors at any occasion.
For the past ten years, without the knowledge of foreign adversaries, United States has embedded ‘beacons’ in their computer systems. Not only it contains surveillance software but these map networks contain destructive malware capabilities. The United States’ ability to execute such ways played an important part in collecting useful evidence on the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment (Sony
Hackers can install bots on multiple computers to set up "Malnets" or "Botnets" that they can use for massive DDoS attacks. Network security experts identify and shut down Malnets with 10 to 100 compromised hosts several times a day. Large malnets with 10,000 compromised hosts are rare but they still happen weekly, besides security investigators have found one malnet of ...
Paisley. "The Impact of a Cyber War." Defense Tech RSS. N.p., 16 Jan. 2008. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. (Source H)
Privacy threats are currently the biggest threat to National Security today. The threats are not only concerning to the government, however. An alarming 92% of Americans are concerned that the power grid may be vulnerable to a cyber-attack (Denholm). Although this is a more recent development to the cyber threats we have experienced, this is not the first time that privacy threats have stepped into the limelight as people are forced to watch their every online move.
External attacks “can pose greater risks to Information Technology (IT) operations than hurricanes, floods, power outages, and the like.”1 The distributed nature of today’s computing environment allows many opportunities for potential wrongdoers to cause havoc.
Hacking has become such a problem in today’s computer dependent society that stronger measures must be implemented to stop hackers, and if hackers are still successful, they should be severely punished. Hackers are a problem because with the amount of businesses and corporations we depend on ...
Thomas, Teka. "Cyber defense: Who 's in charge?" National Defense July 2015: 21+. War and Terrorism Collection. Web. 28 Oct.
Taylor, R.W., Caeti, T.J., Loper, D.K., Fritsch, E.J. & Liederbach, J., 2006, Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism, 1st Edition, New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
In today’s world, with so many ways to gain unauthorized access to someone’s computer system, network security is very important. Almost every company has been a victim of a virus attack, hackers, or some other form of unauthorized access to their network. In this paper, I will discuss various methods that those who want this access use and ways they can be prevented.