Personal Computer Security Threats

Personal Computer Security Threats

Johnathon Aaron

DeVry

Personal Computer Security Threats

Like the textbook states, our computers are now in a state of “always on” due to the advent of affordable high speed internet. Although this is undoubtedly beneficial to progress it also poses a significant threat to the everyday user. For instance similarly to staying in a casino for too long, the longer you keep your computer connected to the internet the more you are increasing your odds of loss, only in this case it can be much worse than just financial loss.

Potential Security threats

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Software attacks & Protocol exploits

If proper protection measures are not put in place then Trojans, viruses, and malware can infiltrate a user’s system and lead to scores of issues to include, Man-in-the-Middle attacks that place the hacker in-between the sender and the receiver sniffing and attaining secret information. Another big security threat is with the Individual ports more specifically services like port 80 and ICMP.

Wireless LAN attacks

Threats to wireless LAN include brute force password cracking, spoofing, and denial of Service threats. These threats mostly arise from a broadcasting SSID however the network name could be attained by other means and still be targeted.

Hacking Techniques

Now more than ever the simplicity and availability of hacking tools has enabled a new wave of able hackers. These individuals use many different methods to carry out attacks by targeting specific layers of the OSI model. However, the most prominent avenues of attack presently are both the Application and session layer.

Email

One method of most frequent attack on the application layer targets email clients. This can be through social engineering attempts, Phishing schemes, or by scripting malicious code into innocuous attachments. For a successful attack of this type it is best for the perpetrator to gain some sort of credibility or trust with the victim....