It386-01 Week 4 Project

Running Head: WEEK 4 PROJECT

Week 4 Project

IT386-01

Julia Dixon

October 17, 2010

Week 4 Project

While there is several security threats to mention some of the most commonly mentioned are viruses, worms, Denial of Service attacks, and many more. Many companies have some sort of implementation of security measures in place but nothing is bullet proof. Some of the most infamous attacks on networks were on companies who thought they were safe. Truly when talking about security threats we cannot just mention the attacks on a network but should also highlight the attacks that may not always be from outside the company/organization. There are times when employee misuse and/or retaliation are also considered a threat to a company.

Some things that may be seen would be insider misuse of network access such as Internet use at work, abuse of instant messaging, and even something as simple as someone having information accidentally get deleted or destroyed. Many companies focus on outside threats but are a little more relaxed when it comes to their employees and access to the network. As I will show later on, just how much damage can be caused by someone on the inside rather than from the outside.

Some major threats as I already mentioned were viruses, worms, and Denial of Service attacks. This however, is not an all inclusive list of threats. Just to mention a few more prominent threats I’ve made a list of what these threats are and what they mean.

1. Phishing- This is often an attack that comes via e-mail and is an attempt on the attacker’s part to gather personal information by pretending to be a trustworthy Website.

2. Bots- also known as robots or zombie machines. Commonly this threat is not seen by the user as they run in the background. These so called zombie machines can be used to forward viruses, worms and even spam over the Internet. According a few of the major anti-virus corporations out there today, this poses a larger threat than...