Ethical Hacking And Network Protection Information Technology Essay

Hacking always does not means the crimes related to computers. When the computers are at the starting stage the hackers are the people who are good at programming they enjoy the computer challenges. They are enthusiastic to explore and invent things. They write quick programs and they are self trained programmers. Actually the term hackers came to light in 1960 this term is given the group of pioneering computer aficionados. But now a day’s hackers are causing harm to computer world. Hackers are people who try to get access to ones for which they have no authorization. There are different types of hackers some hack passwords where as some hack networks. From past few years hacking is considered as serious computer crime. Hackers are costing organization millions of dollars every year because of this people they have to spend lot of money in increasing security and they have to keep on updating with the latest security available.

Some major types hacking attacks:

Trojan horse.

Virus.

Bombs.

Phishing.

Trojan horse:

This Trojan horse is malicious code which is usually used to steal the password. The login program of the system is replaced with a program that copies the login details and sends it back to the hacker.

Virus:

The most common type of attack is virus attack. The hacker sends the virus which is malicious code which attacks the booting sector of the disk. Whenever the boot sector is executed the virus gets activated and some of this destroy the entire system whereas comes of this reformates the system. And some prints messages and plays different types of music.

Bombs:

There are different types of bombs time bombs, letter bombs, and logical bombs. Letter bombs are sent through e-mails. When the e-mail is read or loaded it just explodes. Time bombs are also types of virus this get activated at particular time and just explodes. The logical bombs are used to explode as a response to some events.

Phishing:

It is a technique intruder’s extract the user’s personal information using some techniques. Phishing is done through e-mails. The hackers send e-mails with some links they look like a normal website asking you to enter the login detail but they have different web address once you enter the data and press send the login details are send to the hacker.

The common and simple ways to protect from hacking are:

Encryption.

Firewalls.

Passwords and pins to protect your computers.

E-mail security.

Encryption:

Firewall: A firewall helps us by blocking malware from entering into our network. Firewall acts as a traffic gate which checks each and every thing entering the network it denies are also access accordingly. There are different types of firewalls software firewall and hardware firewall. Software fire is simple a software is installed in computer and the software protects our computer from different types of attacks. Where as hardware firewall is a device which is installed and it acts like a shield to our network. Software firewall is most commonly used for PC’s and hardware firewall is used in bigger organizations.

E-mail security: E-mail security is very important since now a day’s phishing has is one of the most common treat so to protect different security issues the e-mail security is very important. Some of the technologies used in e-mail security are digital signature, encryption.

Cracker:

Crackers are people who access computer or network without proper authorization with intention of destroying data, stealing data, damaging network, or other malicious activities.

About ethical hacker:

Ethical hacking is the fastest growing area in the field of security. An Ethical Hacker is also called as Penetration Tester. Ethical hacker is sometimes known as white hat. An ethical hacker is usually employed by an organization that trusts him to attempt to penetrate networks and/or computer systems, using the same procedures applied by hacker, for the purpose of finding weakness in network and fixing computer security vulnerabilities. Ethical hacker is highly trained professional. Hacking of computer is illegal and hacking with legal permission of organization is not illegal. Ethical hacker most be first certified from the EC-council which is called as certified network defense architecture (CNDA). This certification is planned by United States government agencies and is available to only some of the selected agencies.

Penetration Test:

What is penetration test?

Penetration testing is legal attempt to break into an organizations network to find its weakest links. A penetration test is the process of completely evaluating your information security measures. Note the emphasis on ‘active’ assessment; the entire information systems will be tested to find any security issues, as opposed to a solely theoretical or paper-based audit.

Why should organization conduct penetration testing?

To avoid financial losses caused due to fraud.

Secure brand name by avoiding loss of customer confidence.

To find vulnerabilities and fix them.

What can be tested?

The complete network of the organization should be tested (computers, storage devices, and information processing and transmission channels).

Operation system.

Applications.

Data base.

Network equipment.

Access controls.

Wireless networks.

Security test:

The six basic security concepts that need to be covered by security testing are: confidentiality, integrity, authentication, authorization, availability and non-repudiation. Tester offers solutions to secure or protect the network. The main reason for security test is find the vulnerabilities and fix them. The vulnerabilities are growing day by day hence these types of test must be conducted more regularly to protect our organization from being attacked. The small flaws in our network may be the reason for the entire network being attacked so we must be very careful and have the complete control of the network.

Confidentiality: To ensure the data is properly transmitted to the intended user only i.e. protecting against disclosure.

Integrity: The process of providing the correct data to the receiver.

Authentication: Providing identification to the user.

Authorization: The process of allocating the resources to the designated users.

Availability: Ensure that the data and network access is available whenever necessary.

Languages used by the penetration testers?

The language used by the professional penetration testers are

PERL

C

White box testing:

White box testing is also known as glass box testing. In white box testing model the ethical hacker hired is given complete details of the infrastructure to be tested. Then the ethical hacker completely analyses the infrastructure.

He first collects the details such as:

Which type of operating system is used in all the computers?

The type of network used and number of network?

The details of the current security techniques applied?

Collects the details of previous reports of security head (or) report of the previous ethical hacker if conducted in past.

Gets the address of all the application servers and database servers.

Why to apply white box testing?

White box testing saves the time of the hired ethical hacker in collecting all the details of the infrastructure and mapping of network because it takes lot of time. So that he can concentrate on what are other security issues that are not concentrated in previous test performed.

Why not to perform white box testing?

The criminal hacker does not use white box testing strategies. If we are trying to read a criminal hacker mind we should perform similar strategies used by the criminal hacker the better choice would be black box testing. That is not giving any details of the infrastructure or network.

Black box testing:

In black box testing the hired ethical hacker hired is not given details of the operating system used, type of network used, or any details of the server. The hacker has to start from the scratch like a criminal hacker does, such as gather information about the organization the type of security strategies used i.e. the ethical hacker has zero knowledge of the organization. It may be time taking but is very helpful to the organization. This is done by highly skilled professional. Before this testing is performed the ethical hacker must get the legal permission in written by the organization and must get the permission from the internet service provider (ISP) and from the local cops if necessary this may vary from place to place. Ethical hacker must sign a contact with the organization with list of all the activities he can perform and activates should not. This is very complicated and must be carried very carefully.

Gray box model:

Gray box testing is the combination of both black box model and white box model. It is a hybrid model the tester is given certain amount of information. In white box testing the internal structure is know where as in black box testing internal structure is unknown. In gray box testing the tester is allowed to setup his testing environment in the organization which involves having access to the internal data structure and algorithm for the purpose of designing the test case. The tester will not have access to the source code. This testing is also known as semi transparent testing. This model is bit time saving.

Tiger team:

Tiger Teams are groups of security professionals that combine various skills into analyze security risks of the target machines, networks and other assets. Tiger Box is a computer system containing all the required tools designed for the security auditing purposes. Whose work is to penetrate into network to fined and analyze the inner level of security of the organization after successfully entering the network they provide the details for the level of security where should they fix the network and help them in doing.

Certified ethical hackers (CEH):

A certified ethical hacker is highly trained profession in the field of security related to network/computers. He has the knowledge related to the auditors, security officers, site administrator, and about the infrastructure related to the network. He analyzes and identifies the security issues and the weakness in network. The Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) is a professional certification provided by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council.). It is based on 21 domains. The certification is in Version 6 as of August 2008.The EC-Council offers another certification, known as Certified Network Defense Architect (C|NDA). This certification is designed for United States Government Agencies, and is available only to members of selected agencies. Other than the name, the content of the course is exactly the same. To get this certifications they clear exam CEH 312-50.

Certified information system security professional (CISPP):

It is issued by the international information system security certifications consortium. Usually more concerned with policies and procedures. It consists of 10 domains.

Federal law:

Law is getting more specific with cyber crimes. The ethical hackers must be careful with contract they have to know the laws and restriction because they differ from place to place.

What is illegal?

Accessing computer without permission is illegal.

Installing viruses or worms.

Denial of service attacks.

Rejection of users to access network resources.

Your action should not stop others from accessing their jobs.

Ethical hacker should get contract from the company in written so that he is not be considered as illegal. So that contract may be useful in court.

Summary:

Companies hire ethical hackers to get their network and computers protected.

Penetration test discover the vulnerability in our network.

These tests are performed by group of experts. They use various tools to test. Such as white box, black box, gray box.