| Nowadays computer security is becoming of a | | | | iana |
| greater concern everyday. As computers | | | | |
| penetrate to all spheres of our business, | | | | irix |
| social, and informational life, the | | | | |
| dependence upon their stable and secure work | | | | solaris |
| increases from day to day. But even though | | | | |
| that much had been thought, introduced and | | | | |
| used to insure computer security, the armor | | | | |
| of every computer system has holes. System | | | | |
| administrators may constantly insure and | | | | |
| improve the security of the systems, but | | | | slashdot |
| there will always be some ways to pass and | | | | |
| avoid it. People in majority reason in the | | | | sourceThe contents of the creating |
| similar way and in the similar way they also | | | | messages is forming in the following way: |
| act. So what one man had invented will once | | | | |
| come to the mind of some one else, and things | | | | sender`s address: the name is chosen from |
| once hidden will be found.The problem of | | | | the list: jerry |
| computer security is number one problem in | | | | |
| nowadays networks and Internet engineering. | | | | bill |
| The computer attacks of viruses, Trojan | | | | |
| horses, worms and other software engineered | | | | smith |
| by computer crackers causes a lot of damage | | | | |
| to personally used computers, computer | | | | jim |
| networks, and banking systems. The damage | | | | |
| made by computer attacks appears to be 100 | | | | sam |
| billions dollars every year just in the | | | | |
| USA.As it`s well known Trojan horses and | | | | james |
| different kinds of viruses or worms cause the | | | | |
| biggest damage.As hackers use different means | | | | alex |
| to crack the security systems it often | | | | |
| happens to be impossible to resist and | | | | Domain of the sender can be one of |
| computer security system fail. The computer | | | | the following: |
| attacks made by hackers are not simple virus | | | | |
| attacks, but they usually combine all | | | | |
| existing meanings to destroy the security. | | | | |
| The case that happened with Axiom Corporation | | | | |
| is a good proof of it.Florida resident was | | | | |
| arrested, being accused in a big theft of | | | | |
| personal data. The case, against Scott | | | | |
| Levine, 45, represents "what may be the | | | | .eduThe topic of the messages may |
| largest cases of intrusion of personal data | | | | be of a diverse contents: from greetings that |
| to date," U.S. Assistant Attorney General | | | | are sent on a regular base by corresponding |
| Christopher A. Wray said Wednesday at a news | | | | persons, to something official that has to |
| conference in Washington.Scott Levine is | | | | deal with computer, internet or message |
| accused in 144 counts that include illegal | | | | delivery services, for example: Registration |
| money transactions, cheating, and escape from | | | | confirmation Confirmation |
| justice. The victim of the crime is Acxiom | | | | |
| Corporation, one of the world leading | | | | Confirmation Required |
| corporations in management of personal, | | | | |
| corporative, and financial data. After | | | | Returned Mail |
| getting into Acxiom`s internal network | | | | |
| through Internet, Levine, had thieved " a | | | | Registration confirmation |
| huge amount" of confidential data. By the | | | | |
| words of official sources the size of the | | | | Your order was registered |
| information that was thieved by Levine equals | | | | |
| to 8.2 gigabytes, and the damage caused by | | | | Your request was registered |
| the thief equals to 7 million dollars."We are | | | | |
| committed to safeguarding our systems and the | | | | Your order is being processed |
| data that we store and manage on behalf of | | | | |
| our clients," the company said. "Since | | | | Your request is being processedThe |
| evidence of this crime was uncovered and | | | | body of the message may contain any kind of |
| halted in the summer of 2003, Acxiom has made | | | | regular options that refer to the attachment |
| a strong security system even stronger."This | | | | file, for example: Check the |
| case arose from the one last year in which | | | | attached document. |
| Daniel Baas of Milford, Ohio, pleaded guilty | | | | |
| to hacking into Acxiom. During follow-up | | | | The document was sent in compressed |
| investigations, the company detected a second | | | | format. |
| set of intrusions, coming from a different | | | | |
| Internet protocol address, which was traced | | | | Please see the attached file for |
| to Levine, prosecutors said.The usage of | | | | detailsThe name of the attached file is in |
| password generators and Trojans open new | | | | the way that will refer only to some kind of |
| horizons to hackers, as they can get any | | | | official and trusting information, not a nude |
| hidden personal informational they want using | | | | or erotic pictures that are recently sent by |
| Trojan horses. Once "infected" by the Trojan | | | | hackers to infect the computer with virus. |
| horse, the computer won`t remain same secure | | | | |
| as it was pretended to be before, because | | | | The extension of the attached file is chosen |
| most of Trojan horse programs generate all | | | | from the list: .exe |
| the personal data (or data needed) in hidden | | | | |
| files and send them back to the sender if the | | | | .scr |
| computer is still connected to the | | | | |
| network.(that`s a question of a big concern | | | | .com |
| that most of beginner users ask: "If I don`t | | | | |
| surf online, why is it still data exchange | | | | .pif |
| between my computer and server?")Even more | | | | |
| dangerous than Trojans can be worm viruses."A | | | | .bat |
| worm is a small piece of software that uses | | | | |
| computer networks and security holes to | | | | .cmd |
| replicate itself. A copy of the worm scans | | | | |
| the network for another machine that has a | | | | or it can also have double |
| specific security hole. It copies itself to | | | | extension.Destructive functions of the worm: |
| the new machine using the security hole, and | | | | the worm is looking for files on all hard |
| then starts replicating from there, as well." | | | | disks (from C: to Z: ) that have extension |
| One of the most well know worms "Mydoom or | | | | mdb, doc, xls, sav, jpg, avi, bmp and deletes |
| Norvarg" did a lot of harm during the period | | | | them in random order. As it can be obviously |
| of its activation to the computer network | | | | understood these types of files have the most |
| worldwide. "Message Labs, a company which | | | | valuable information for uses, because they |
| scans e-mail for viruses, said that 1 in | | | | are the storage for data used in business.DoS |
| every 12 messages contained the worm.""Mikko | | | | attack: worm is making a DoS attack on |
| Hypponen, manager of anti-virus research at | | | | web-sites or The attack is made only when |
| F-Secure in Finland, estimated that 200,000 | | | | the system date is between 17th or 22nd day |
| to 300,000 computers were hit worldwide. The | | | | of any month. During the attack a worm is |
| worm was also programmed to flood the website | | | | making random quantity of links, sends a |
| of the SCO Group Inc, beginning on February 1 | | | | request to the attacking |
| with requests in an attempt to crash | | | | site.Backdoor-moduleBackdoor-module opens |
| its."This mail worm is spreading by email | | | | 1080 TCP/IP port. Having connected to this |
| messages with attached files that are the | | | | port of "infected" computer malefactor may |
| primary body of the worm. The size of a file | | | | use it like proxy-server or to give commands |
| that contains a worm, is 34797 bytes, the | | | | for files downloading and execution.There are |
| executive file of the worm has the text | | | | following ways to reduce the risks while |
| document icon that confuse computer user and | | | | working in the network. First is not to |
| prompts him to click on the icon of the worm. | | | | install programs that will be of no use, |
| After the worm`s file was executed, it | | | | especially from suspicious sites. A lot of |
| appears an error message that has one of the | | | | users surf online just to download and |
| following lines: Unable to open | | | | install something "fancy and new". While |
| specified file | | | | surfing, it`s more secure to reject all the |
| | | | suggestions to install new plug-ins, editions |
| File cannot be opened | | | | and patches, if a user is not confident in |
| | | | the security of the information. Most of the |
| File is corruptedThen Mydoom.f | | | | computers allow to disable floppy-booting |
| copies itself to the Windows folder, giving a | | | | feature in BIOS, if the computer allows this |
| random name to the file with extension .exe. | | | | feature then it`ll be additional "plus" to |
| It also makes a record in the Windows | | | | make the computer more secure, because a lot |
| register that causes automatic execution of | | | | viruses come to the computer through infected |
| the worm with booting of the system: | | | | floppy disks and they activate during booting |
| HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCur | | | | from the floppy disk, at the same time |
| rentVersionRun | | | | infecting DOS extension of the hard drive. To |
| | | | prevent from macro viruses that often come in |
| < random name > = %SysDir%< random file name | | | | text or MS word documents it`s necessary to |
| >HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCur | | | | enable Macro Virus protection in all the |
| rentVersionRun | | | | Windows applications, especially in the MS |
| | | | Office applications.It`s important as well to |
| < random name > = %SysDir%< random file name | | | | update operation system and antiviral |
| > | | | | software regularly.The most secure measure |
| | | | that can be taken is installation of the |
| At the same time worm makes a dll-file | | | | special software as firewalls or other "spy" |
| (dynamic library file) in Windows System | | | | identifying programs. Those software |
| folder with a random name. This dll-library | | | | applications have a special mechanism that |
| has a worm`s Back-door module.Then | | | | allows determining risky sites on Internet |
| I-Worm.Mydoom.f sends itself by email. | | | | and they`ll always ask if it`s needed to |
| Addresses for distribution are combined from | | | | establish connection to the following web |
| files with the following extensions: WAB, | | | | site, or if to allow sending data or |
| MBX, NCH, MMF, ODS, RTF, UIN, OFT, MHT, VBS, | | | | receiving data. |
| MSG, PL, EML, ADB, TBB, DBX, ASP, PHP, SHT, | | | | |
| HTM, TXT. Worm omits email addresses that | | | | It`ll also make more secure the computer if |
| contain some of the following sub | | | | to put anti spam protection on email |
| lines: mozilla | | | | messengers.One of the main reasons why |
| | | | computer attacks happen so often is that most |
| utgers.ed | | | | of users leave their computers working all |
| | | | day long, for months. Because it`s open for |
| tanford.e | | | | attacks it has a big probability to be |
| | | | attacked by Trojans or to get infected by |
| fsf. | | | | virus, as well as be used as "proxy server" |
| | | | by hackers. The last one is also dangerous |
| gnu | | | | for the user of that computer, because the |
| | | | "proxy" can happen to the last in the chain |
| mit.e | | | | of computer attack spreading and can be |
| | | | accused in being a scammer.A powerful tool to |
| bsd | | | | prevent from virus attacks will be using of |
| | | | UNIX operation system or similar to it |
| math | | | | (Linux), these operation systems disable most |
| | | | of the virus features and keep them away from |
| unix | | | | the hard disks as well as unwanted |
| | | | visitors.The best weapon against computer |
| berkeley | | | | attacks is information, and reasonable |
| | | | exploitation of the computer and network. If |
| ripe. | | | | the PC user keeps in mind all the |
| | | | responsibilities and applies his even very |
| arin. | | | | little knowledge about computer security to |
| | | | insure his PC he`ll be in advantage, and will |
| sendmail | | | | be more likely to avoid attacks.John Nilson |
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