Network Security

Identify most recent different types of software-based and hardware attacks (recent means - 2000 afterwards). Explain the attacks and explain how those attacks could have been prevented.

Information security is one of the most leading and important global issues in the world. Information security can be defined as ‘which protects the integrity, confidentiality and availability of information on the devices that store, manipulate and transmit the information through products, people and procedures’ (Ciampa, 2000). In today’s world, information is the driving force behind almost everything. Almost all the organizations are heavily reliant on information management. An information rich business organization can perform in a much greater extent than an organization which lacks important and timely information. As information has become so valuable, the threat for illegal acquisition of information has magnified exponentially. This upsurge in information theft can be attributed to its multifarious usage and ever rising value in attaining personal benefit. Even competing organizations sometime get involved in attacking other organizations to attain valuable and secret information about its competitors to gain unfair advantage.

In order to gain unauthorized access to confidential information the target device needs to be compromised. This can be done through different mechanisms. Mostly it can be divided into two categories:

* Software based attack

* Hardware based attack

Mostly the software based attacks are much more prevalent. The software attacks also infect the hardware in some cases. Sometimes hardware such as removable drives is used as a medium in carrying out an attack on a target. Most of the times these attacks are conducted for profit purpose. Also there are some instances where these attacks are carried out for destructive purposes. Either way the attacks are harmful for the operation of those companies.

There are different types of methods...