Thursday 5 December 2013

MIS CASE STUDY (CHAPTER 7) SECURING INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Chapter 7 Securing Information Systems
11)      What is a botnet?

A botnet is a network of autonomous malicious software agents that are under the control of a bost commander. The network is created by installing malware that exploits the vulnerabilities of the web servers, operating systems, or applications to take control of the infected computers.

22)      Describe some of the main points of the Digital Agenda for Europe?

Digital Agenda Europe used to define the key role that information and communication technologies will play in 2020. It is to open the digital market in European. Hence, broadband speeds of 30Mbps will be available to all European citizens by 2020, and implementation of measures to protect privacy and the establishment of a well-functioning network of CERT to prevent cybercrime and respond effectively to cyber attacks.

33)      Explain how the cyber attack can be carried out.

The cyber attack was performed using a variety of technique ranging from simple individual ping commands and message flooding to more sophisticated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Hackers coordinated the attack by using a large number of compromised servers organized in the botnet distributed around the world. Botnet is created by installing malware that exploits the vulnerabilities of the software and systems of computer and take control of it. Once it infected, it becomes part of a network of thousands of ‘zombies’, machines that are commanded to carry out the attack.
44)      Describe some of the weakness exploited by malware.

There are some weakness exploited by malware, one of it is the security defects in software. Malware exploits defects in the sign of the operating system, in applications or in browser pluggin such as Java and Adobe Flash Player. Most systems contain bugs, or loopholes which may exploited by malware.
Not only that, insecure design or user error also one of the weakness exploited by malware. Originally, PC had to be booted from floopy disks. Until recently, it was common for a computer to boot from an external boot device by default. This meant that computer would, by default, boot from a floopy disk, USB flash drive, or CD and malicious boot code could be used to install malware or boot into a modified operating system. Autorun or autoplay features may allow code to be automatically executed from external disk drive without permissions.
Besides, over-privilleged users and over-privilleged code cause malware allowed to modify internal structures of the system and subvert the system.





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