Threats and Vulnerabilities of a Networking System: Threats

Have you ever been hacked? Did you have to install an antivirus software because some virus got into your system? And did you have to change even disk drives and operating systems just to get rid of them?

And did you know? Anything that's online can be hacked.

Well, that is because a networking system are prone to threats, threats which can disrupt the operation, functioning integrity or availability of a network or system.

Here are some examples of threats which can damage both the computer system and the networking architecture:

1. Virus.
2. Trojans.
3. Worms.
4. Spyware.
5. Key loggers.
6. Ad-ware.
7. Denial of Service Attacks.
8. Distributed Denial of Service Attacks.

Prevention from these threats demands consistent effort. You as a user of the system should be aware. You should consider small things like using external USBs to slightly tedious and routine stuff like updating your antivirus (which adds the list of prevailing viruses in your system so that they can be identified and neutralized) or changing passwords and pins on a regular basis.

To fight a dragon, you should know what a dragon is before hand. Likewise, to prevent your system from threats, you need to know what threats are and in how many different ways can they harm your system.

And this brings us back to our topic. We shall discuss four broad themes of Network security threats.

Unstructured Threats

These originate mostly from inexperienced individuals using easily available hacking tools from the Internet. Many tools available to anyone on the Internet can be used to discover weaknesses in a company's network.

These include port-scanning tools, address-sweeping tools, and many others. Most of these kinds of probes are done more out of curiosity than with a malicious intent in mind.

For example, if a company’s external web site is hacked; the company’s integrity is damaged. Even if the external web site is separate from the internal information that sits behind a protective firewall, the public does not know that. All they know is that if the company’s web site is hacked, then it is an unsafe place to conduct business.

Structured Threats

These originate from individuals who are highly motivated and technically competent and usually understand network systems design and the vulnerabilities of those systems. They can understand as well as create hacking scripts to penetrate those network systems.

An individual who presents a structured threat typically targets a specific destination or group. Usually, these hackers are hired by industry competitors, or state-sponsored intelligence organizations.

External Threats

These originate from individuals or organizations working outside an organization, which does not have authorized access to organization’s computer systems or network. They usually work their way into a network from the Internet or dial-up access servers.

Internal Threats

Typically, these threats originate from individuals who have authorized access to the network. These users either have an account on a server or physical access to the network. An internal threat may come from a discontented former or current employee or contractor. It has been seen that majority of security incidents originate from internal threats.

Threats can be avoided. However, there are some other limitations which are inherent in nature and just as fatal to the system. These limitations are called vulnerabilities of a networking system and that's what we shall be discussing in the next article.

You can ask me any questions, give valuable suggestions or advices regarding this article. To do so, Just click on 'Ask a question', it's undoubtedly on the left panel of your screen.

Thank You.