What is computer security?

Computer security basically is the protection of computer systems and information from harm,
theft, and unauthorized use. It is the process of preventing and detecting unauthorized use of
your computer system.

There are various types of computer security which is widely used to protect the valuable
information of an organization.

What is Computer Security and its types?

One way to ascertain the similarities and differences among Computer Security is by asking
what is being secured. For example,

 Information security is securing information from unauthorized access, modification &

deletion
 Application Security is securing an application by building security features to prevent
from Cyber Threats such as SQL injection, DoS attacks, data breaches and etc.
 Computer Security means securing a standalone machine by keeping it updated and
patched
 Network Security is by securing both the software and hardware technologies
 Cybersecurity is defined as protecting computer systems, which communicate over the
computer networks

Components of computer system

The components of a computer system that needs to be protected are:

 Hardware, the physical part of the computer, like the system memory and disk drive
 Firmware, permanent software that is etched into a hardware device’s nonvolatile
memory and is mostly invisible to the user
 Software, the programming that offers services, like operating system, word processor,
internet browser to the user

The CIA Triad

Computer security is mainly concerned with three main areas:

 Confidentiality is ensuring that information is available only to the intended audience

 Integrity is protecting information from being modified by unauthorized parties
 Availability is protecting information from being modified by unauthorized parties

Sample Attacks/ Types of Cyber Attacks

A cyber-attack is an exploitation of computer systems and networks. It uses malicious code to

alter computer code, logic or data and lead to cybercrimes, such as information and identity
theft.
 We are living in a digital era. Now a day, most of the people use computer and internet. Due to
the dependency on digital things, the illegal computer activity is growing and changing like any
type of crime.

Cyber-attacks can be classified in two categories:

1. Web-based attacks
2. System-based attacks

Web-based attacks
These are the attacks which occur on a website or web applications. Some of the important web-based
attacks are as follows-

1. Injection attacks

It is the attack in which some data will be injected into a web application to manipulate the application
and fetch the required information.

Example- SQL Injection, code Injection, log Injection, XML Injection etc.

2. DNS Spoofing

DNS Spoofing is a type of computer security hacking. Whereby a data is introduced into a DNS
resolver's cache causing the name server to return an incorrect IP address, diverting traffic to the
attacker?s computer or any other computer. The DNS spoofing attacks can go on for a long period of
time without being detected and can cause serious security issues.

3. Session Hijacking

It is a security attack on a user session over a protected network. Web applications create cookies to
store the state and user sessions. By stealing the cookies, an attacker can have access to all of the
user data.

3. Phishing

Phishing is a type of attack which attempts to steal sensitive information like user login credentials and
credit card number. It occurs when an attacker is masquerading as a trustworthy entity in electronic
communication.

4. Brute force

It is a type of attack which uses a trial and error method. This attack generates a large number of
guesses and validates them to obtain actual data like user password and personal identification
number. This attack may be used by criminals to crack encrypted data, or by security, analysts to test
an organization's network security.

5. Denial of Service

It is an attack which meant to make a server or network resource unavailable to the users. It
accomplishes this by flooding the target with traffic or sending it information that triggers a crash. It
uses the single system and single internet connection to attack a server. It can be classified into the
following:

Volume-based attacks- Its goal is to saturate the bandwidth of the attacked site, and is
measured in bit per second.

Protocol attacks- It consumes actual server resources, and is measured in a packet.

Application layer attacks- Its goal is to crash the web server and is measured in request
per second.

7. Dictionary attacks

This type of attack stored the list of a commonly used password and validated them to get original
password.

8. URL Interpretation

It is a type of attack where we can change the certain parts of a URL, and one can make a web server
to deliver web pages for which he is not authorized to browse.

9. File Inclusion attacks

It is a type of attack that allows an attacker to access unauthorized or essential files which is available
on the web server or to execute malicious files on the web server by making use of the include
functionality.

10. Man in the middle attacks

It is a type of attack that allows an attacker to intercepts the connection between client and server and
acts as a bridge between them. Due to this, an attacker will be able to read, insert and modify the data
in the intercepted connection. It is also known as fabrication attack

System-based attacks
These are the attacks which are intended to compromise a computer or a computer network. Some of
the important system-based attacks are as follows-

1. Virus

It is a type of malicious software program that spread throughout the computer files without the
knowledge of a user. It is a self-replicating malicious computer program that replicates by inserting
copies of itself into other computer programs when executed. It can also execute instructions that
cause harm to the system.

2. Worm

It is a type of malware whose primary function is to replicate itself to spread to uninfected

computers. It works same as the computer virus. Worms often originate from email
attachments that appear to be from trusted senders.

3. Trojan horse
It is a malicious program that occurs unexpected changes to computer setting and unusual
activity, even when the computer should be idle. It misleads the user of its true intent. It
appears to be a normal application but when opened/executed some malicious code will run in
the background.

4. Backdoors

It is a method that bypasses the normal authentication process. A developer may create a
backdoor so that an application or operating system can be accessed for troubleshooting or
other purposes.

5. Bots

A bot (short for "robot") is an automated process that interacts with other network services.
Some bots program run automatically, while others only execute commands when they receive
specific input. Common examples of bots program are the crawler, chatroom bots, and
malicious bots.

Active Attack Passive Attack

In an active attack, Modification in While in passive attack, Modification

information takes place. in the information does not take
place.

Active Attack is a danger to Integrity as Passive Attack is a danger

well as availability. to Confidentiality.

In an active attack, attention is on While in passive attack attention is

prevention. on detection.

Due to active attacks, the execution While due to passive attack, there is
system is always damaged. no harm to the system.

In an active attack, Victim gets informed While in a passive attack, Victim

about the attack. does not get informed about the
attack.

In an active attack, System resources While in passive attack, System

can be changed. resources are not changing.

Active attack influences the services of While in passive attack, information

the system. and messages in the system or
network are acquired.

In an active attack, information collected While passive attacks are performed

through passive attacks are used during by collecting information such as
executing. passwords, and messages by
themselves.
 Active attack is tough to restrict from Passive Attack is easy to prohibited
entering systems or networks. in comparison to active attack.

Can be easily detected. Very difficult to detect.

The Marketplace for vulnerabilities

Vulnerability is a cyber-security term that refers to a flaw in a system that can leave it open to
attack, or allow an attacker to manipulate the system in some way. Vulnerable consumers fail
to understand their preferences and/or lack the knowledge, skills, or freedom to act on them.
The aim is to significantly replace trial and error with a robust understanding of markets. This is
why Google(with the help of certified and Google Awarded cyber security experts) have a
marketplace for everyone to choose cyber security solutions to ease their life.

Vulnerability Types

Computer security vulnerabilities can be divided into:

Network Vulnerabilities: These are issues with a network’s hardware or software that expose
it to possible intrusion by an outside party. Examples include insecure Wi-Fi access points and
poorly-configured firewalls.

Operating System Vulnerabilities: These are vulnerabilities within a particular operating

system. Examples include default super user accounts that may exist in some OS installs and
hidden backdoor programs.

Error 404 Hacking Digital India Part 1 Chase

1. In error 404 hacking digital India part 1 chase, the cyber crime and cyber attacks hack the
information of users like bank detail and personal information.

2. It is real time incident. In this, attacker or hacker creates an attractive video so that victim
gets attracted and plays that video into system.

3. When we clicked on video to play then at the time of buffering, hacker can know our current
location and GPS history but also have complete access to our contacts, text messages,
Facebook, Whatsapp and most importantly our bank details, including our CVV number.

4. Hackers are creating a kind Trojan file, and android apk files. The apk files are distributed all
over the internet. Those who download this file will be hacked easily.
5. Potential cyber attacks that is most common in error 404 hacking :

A ).Web Application attacks :

i.) A web application is a client - server computer program which uses web browsers and web
technology to allow its visitors to store and retrieve data to / from the database over the internet

ii ). If there is flaw in the web application , it allows the attacker to manipulate data using SQL
injection attack .

B). Network security attacks:

i ).Network security attacks are unauthorized actions against private , corporate or

governmental IT assets in order to destroy them modify them or steal sensitive data .

ii ). As more enterprises invite employees to access data from mobile devices , networks
become vulnerable to data theft or total destruction of the data or network .

C). Mobile security attacks:

I). Mobile security, or mobile device security, has become increasingly important in mobile
computing.

ii)The security of personal and business information now stored on smartphones.

iii) More and more users and businesses use smartphones to communicate, but also to plan
and organize their users work and also private life.

iv). Within companies, these technologies are causing profound changes in the organization of
information systems and therefore they have become the source of new risks .

Hijacking and Defense:

Control Hijacking:
1. Hijacking is a type of network security attack in which the attacker takes control of a
communication.

2. In hijacking (also known as a man in the middle attack), the attacker takes control of an
established connection while it is in progress.

3. The attacker intercepts messages in a public key exchange and then retransmits them ,
substituting their own public key for the requested one , so that the two original parties still
appear to be communicating with each other directly .
4. The attacker uses a program that appears to be the server to the client and appears to be
the client to the server.

5. This attack may be used simply to gain access to the messages, or to enable the attacker to
modify them before retransmitting them.

6. There are three types of control hijacking in computer security:

1. Buffer overflow attacks, 2. Integer overflow attacks, 3. Format string vulnerabilities

Buffer overflow
A buffer overflow (or buffer overrun) occurs when the volume of data exceeds the storage
capacity of the memory buffer. As a result, the program attempting to write the data to the
buffer overwrites adjacent memory locations. Buffer overflows can affect all types of software.
They typically result from malformed inputs or failure to allocate enough space for the buffer. If
the transaction overwrites executable code, it can cause the program to behave unpredictably
and generate incorrect results, memory access errors, or crashes. Types of Buffer Overflow
Attacks.

Stack-based buffer overflows are more common, and leverage stack memory that only exists
during the execution time of a function.

Heap-based attacks are harder to carry out and involve flooding the memory space allocated
for a program beyond memory used for current runtime operations.

Integer overflow
It is also known as wraparound, occurs when an arithmetic operation outputs a numeric value
that falls outside allocated memory space or overflows the range of the given value of the
integer. Mostly in all programming languages, integers values are allocated limited bits of
storage.

Format String Vulnerabilities

Format strings are used in many programming languages to insert values into a text string.
In some cases, this mechanism can be abused to perform buffer overflow attacks, extract
information or execute arbitrary code. Let’s take a closer look at format string vulnerabilities
and see why they exist.
Defense against Control Hijacking:
Run-time Defenses
In order to prevent data loss, prevent data theft,minimize employee downtime, and
maximize IT productivity, businesses need an additional line of preventative defense that
can block attacks that antivirus doesn’t – before any harm is done. Runtime defense is the
set of features that provide predictive protection for containers and threat based active
protection for running containers, hosts and serverless functions. Threat based protection
includes capabilities like detecting when malware is added to a workload or when a
workload connects to a botnet. An emerging category of software known as Runtime
Malware Defense offers a promising solution that works by detecting and blocking malware
and exploits at runtime.

Advanced Control Hijacking attacks

A control hijack attack is carried out by overwriting part of the data structures of a victim
program, causing it to lose control of its control flow and, as a result, the program's and
perhaps the underlying system's control. These types of attacks eventually lead to the
corruption or overwriting of the data they were holding. A control hijacking attack subverts a
program's intended control flow by exploiting a program fault, typically a memory corruption
vulnerability, at runtime. A variety of defensive mechanisms have been proposed to mitigate
control-flow hijacking attacks. As previously mentioned, complete memory safety, code
pointer integrity, and control flow integrity are promising defenses.