Cmgt/441 Week 3
Week 3 Individual Assignment: Attack Prevention
Steve Morozov
CMGT/441 University of Phoenix
Cyber Attack Prevention for the Home User: How to Prevent a Cyber Attack
Introduction
In the article by Tony Damico the claim is mad that the home user is the most vulnerable of networks and is open to most of attacks out there. I tend to agree. The article states that these home users have the poorest security measures in place, thus making them a widely targeted group. In my personal experience, I have dealt with my own attack problems in the past and worked with others who have had their own myriad of problems and experiences with this.
Prevention
At the time of this article writing, 86% of all attacks were aimed at home users. This article is from 2006, most likely the percentage is higher now. The article states that the home user does not take control and utilize their home firewall or antivirus software. To this end, I agree because most of my users that I have helped never opened their firewall or even heard of anti-virus.
The author makes note what the difference between a detection and prevention system is. Prevention systems automatically detect and block malicious network and application traffic, while allowing legitimate traffic to continue through to its destination. A detection system just detects and would rely on the prevention system to act on it. The prevention system is said to block bad malevolent code and cannot block good code at the same time, while allowing for protection of newer and more advanced types of security threats. The users should get to know what they weak spots of their system are in order to familiarize themselves with the dangers. Author Posey states in his article 10 best practices for Windows security, “Reduce the attack surface, the code that’s running on a machine, the greater the chance that the code will be exploitable…Uninstall any necessary operating system components and applications”, (Posey, 2011). More
Steve Morozov
CMGT/441 University of Phoenix
Cyber Attack Prevention for the Home User: How to Prevent a Cyber Attack
Introduction
In the article by Tony Damico the claim is mad that the home user is the most vulnerable of networks and is open to most of attacks out there. I tend to agree. The article states that these home users have the poorest security measures in place, thus making them a widely targeted group. In my personal experience, I have dealt with my own attack problems in the past and worked with others who have had their own myriad of problems and experiences with this.
Prevention
At the time of this article writing, 86% of all attacks were aimed at home users. This article is from 2006, most likely the percentage is higher now. The article states that the home user does not take control and utilize their home firewall or antivirus software. To this end, I agree because most of my users that I have helped never opened their firewall or even heard of anti-virus.
The author makes note what the difference between a detection and prevention system is. Prevention systems automatically detect and block malicious network and application traffic, while allowing legitimate traffic to continue through to its destination. A detection system just detects and would rely on the prevention system to act on it. The prevention system is said to block bad malevolent code and cannot block good code at the same time, while allowing for protection of newer and more advanced types of security threats. The users should get to know what they weak spots of their system are in order to familiarize themselves with the dangers. Author Posey states in his article 10 best practices for Windows security, “Reduce the attack surface, the code that’s running on a machine, the greater the chance that the code will be exploitable…Uninstall any necessary operating system components and applications”, (Posey, 2011). More
References: Damico , T. (2008, December 8). Cyber attack prevention for the home user: how to prevent a cyber attack. Student Pulse , Retrieved from http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/47/cyber-attack-prevention-for-the-home-user-how-to-prevent-a-cyber-attack# Posey, B. (2011, March 11). 10 best practices for windows security. Tech republic, Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-best-practices-for-windows-security/2383 Symantec, Initials. (n.d.). Cyber attacks increasingly target home users for financial gain . Retrieved from http://complianceandprivacy.com/News-Symantec-report-home-users.asp