523 Assignemnt

Week 1 Web Project 2 and 3

Strayer University

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Course

CIS 523: Security in Distributed Computing

January 8, 2012

Web Project 2

Kevin Mitnick is a well known “hacker” from the 1980s. He used social engineering as well as technical knowledge to break into many systems. Look up the history of Kevin Mitnick using a search tool like Google and first find out what he used more, technology or social engineering. Second, find out if he was caught, convicted, or served time. Third, look at his security company at http://www.mitnicksecurity.com/. After reading his history, would you hire him as a security consultant?

Upon reading Kevin Mitnick information and blogs I found a lot of it knowledgeable. He served five years, about 8 months of it in solitary confinement; he was released January 6, 2000, and is now a computer security consultant, author and speaker. Under the plea deal, Mitnick was also prohibited from profiting from films or books based on his criminal activity for seven years. Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting LLC, a computer security consultancy. I would hire him as a security consultant reason being is that he is an expert. While I believe his skills would be useful, I not sure if I would trust his new found morality. Letting him in to know the secrets of my company would require a level of confidence that might be too high. That being said, I believe he could break into my company anyway if he wanted to so that issue is moot. Hiring someone like Kevin Mitnick, who knows the backdoors, would be helpful to point the loopholes in the security system. Hopefully he will continue to use his skills to aid in the fight against hackers and support security systems to the betterment of society.

Web Project 3

Phreaking One type of specialty hacking involves breaking into telephone systems. This sub-specialty of hacking in the 1980s was referred to as phreaking. Find articles on...