Cyber Security

What is cyber security?

It seems that everything relies on computers and the internet now — communication (email, cellphones), entertainment (digital cable, mp3s), transportation (car engine systems, airplane navigation), shopping (online stores, credit cards), medicine (equipment, medical records), and the list goes on. How much of your daily life relies on computers? How much of your personal information is stored either on your own computer or on someone else's system?

Cyber security involves protecting that information by preventing, detecting, and responding to attacks.

What are the risks?

There are many risks, some more serious than others. Among these dangers are viruses erasing your entire system, someone breaking into your system and altering files, someone using your computer to attack others, or someone stealing your credit card information and making unauthorized purchases. Unfortunately, there's no 100% guarantee that even with the best precautions some of these things won't happen to you, but there are steps you can take to minimize the chances.

What can you do?

The first step in protecting yourself is to recognize the risks and become familiar with some of the terminology associated with them.

Hacker, attacker, or intruder 

These terms are applied to the people who seek to exploit weaknesses in software and computer systems for their own gain. Although their intentions are sometimes fairly benign and motivated solely by curiosity, their actions are typically in violation of the intended use of the systems they are exploiting. The results can range from mere mischief (creating a virus with no intentionally negative impact) to malicious activity (stealing or altering information).

Malicious code 

Malicious code, sometimes called malware, is a broad category that includes any code that could be used to attack your computer. Malicious code can have the following characteristics:

• It might require you to actually do something before it infects your computer. This action could be opening an email attachment or going to a particular web page.
• Some forms propagate without user intervention and typically start by exploiting a software vulnerability. Once the victim computer has been infected, the malicious code will attempt to find and infect other computers. This code can also propagate via email, websites, or network-based software.
• Some malicious code claims to be one thing while in fact doing something different behind the scenes. For example, a program that claims it will speed up your computer may actually be sending confidential information to a remote intruder.

Viruses and worms are examples of malicious code.

Vulnerability 

In most cases, vulnerabilities are caused by programming errors in software. Attackers might be able to take advantage of these errors to infect your computer, so it is important to apply updates or patches that address known vulnerabilities (see Understanding Patches for more information).

This series of cyber security tips will give you more information about how to recognize and protect yourself from attacks.

atari

ATARI

Atari is an american multinational company, and at one time was the biggest video game company in the world. It was famous for its arcade games, home consoles and its all time hit games Pong, Pac-Man E.T., Space Race and Breakout. interestingly, all the founders of apple once worked at Atari before moving on to apple Inc.

Founded in 1972, and after being the market leader for several years, it faced problems and losses during the video game collapse of 1983. Prior to this, Atari was a subsidiary of Warner communications and contributed to almost one - third of warner's annual income.

In 1997 only 500000 out of 800000 Atari 2600 console ware sold which brought Atari into rain.

By 1996, Atari had a substantial line of labeled products since 1991 and ran into financial problems. Hance, Atari's name and assets were sold to Hasbro interactive, Atari games was renamed midway games west by its new parent company but disbanded in 2003 after a slump in game sales....

Some Computer Security Related Definitions

Shoulder Surfing

Shoulder surfing is using direct observation techniques, such as looking over someone's shoulder, to get information. Shoulder surfing is an effective way to get information in crowded places because it's relatively easy to stand next to someone and watch as they fill out a form, enter a PIN number at an ATM machine, or use a calling card at a public pay phone. Shoulder surfing can also be done long distance with the aid of binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices. To prevent shoulder surfing, experts recommend that you shield paperwork or your keypad from view by using your body or cupping your hand.

Dumpster Diving

Dumpster diving is a technique used to retrieve information that could be used to carry out an attack on a computer network. Dumpster diving isn't limited to searching through the trash for obvious treasures like access codes or passwords written down on sticky notes. Seemingly innocent information like a phone list, calendar, or organizational chart can be used to assist an attacker using social engineering techniques to gain access to the network. To prevent dumpster divers from learning anything valuable from your trash, experts recommend that your company establish a disposal policy where all paper, including print-outs, is shredded in a cross-cut shredder before being recycled, all storage media is erased, and all staff is educated about the danger of untracked trash.

Sniffers

A sniffer is a program that monitors and analyzes network traffic, detecting bottlenecks and problems. Using this information, a network manager can keep traffic flowing efficiently.

A sniffer can also be used legitimately or illegitimately to capture data being transmitted on a network. A network router reads every packet of data passed to it, determining whether it is intended for a destination within the router's own network or whether it should be passed further along the Internet. A router with a sniffer, however, may be able to read the data in the packet as well as the source and destination addresses. Sniffers are often used on academic networks to prevent traffic bottlenecks caused by file-sharing applications.

The term "sniffer" is occasionally used for a program that analyzes data other than network traffic. For example, a database could be analyzed for certain kinds of duplication

Trojan

A trojan is malicious program that, when installed on a system, can be used for nefarious purposes by an attacker. Tools that allow remote administration or access to a vulnerable system (RATs) are called Trojans. With a Trojan an attacker can control rearly all hardware and software on the system by remote. Today trojans are very advanced and provide attackers with many different features for remote control. Once a trojan has been introduced into a system, not only does all the data become vulnerable to threat, but there is a good chance that the compromised system can be used to set up an attack on some third-party sytem.