Cyber Crime & Cyber Security

Cyber Crime

• Crimes are committed using computers, phones, or the internet
• Types include illegal interception of data, system interferences, copyrights infringements, and sale of illegal items

Cyber Security

• Technologies, processes, and practices protect individuals and organizations from cybercrimes
• Designed to safeguard the integrity of networks, computers, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access

Cyber Security Principles

• There are five key principles in cyber security:
  • Confidentiality: A set of rules that limits access or places restrictions on certain types of information
  • Integrity: Assurance that information is trustworthy and accurate
  • Availability: A guarantee of reliable access to information by authorized people
  • Accountability: An assurance that an individual or organization is evaluated on performance or behavior related to responsibility
  • Auditability: Security audit is a systematic evaluation of a company's information system via measuring conformance to established criteria

Cyber Threats

• Any malicious act that attempts to gain unauthorized access to a computer network
• Encompasses a wide range of malicious activities that can damage or disrupt computer systems, networks, or the information they contain
• Common examples include social engineered Trojans, unpatched software, phishing, and network worms
• Cyber Threats: Their Sources
  • Cyber threats can originate from various sources, including national governments, terrorists, industrial secret agents, rogue employees, hackers, business competitors, and organization insiders
  • Anyone with a motive and the necessary technology can pose a cyber threat
  • Cyber Threat Classifications
    • Threats classified by attacker's resources, organization, and funding
    • 3 types: unstructured, structured, and highly structured

Unstructured Cyber Threats

• Resources: Individual or small group
• Organization: Little to no organization
• Funding: Negligible
• Attack: Easy to detect with freely available cyberattack tools
• Exploitation: Based on documented vulnerabilities

Structured Cyber Threats

• Resources: Well-trained individuals or groups
• Organization: Well-planned
• Funding: Available
• Attack: Targeted against specific individuals or organizations
• Exploitation: Based on information gathering

Highly Structured Cyber Threats

• Organization: Extensive organization with planning over time
• Attack: Long-term attacks on particular machines or data
• Exploitation: Utilizes multiple methods, including technical, social, and insider help

Cyber Security Threat Index Level

• Cyber threats are evaluated daily by the Counter Threat Unit (CTU) and assigned a threat index level
• The threat index levels are:
  • Level 1: Guarded
  • Level 2: Elevated
  • Level 3: High
  • Level 4: Critical

Types of Cyber Attacks

• Advanced Persistent Threat (APT): Unauthorized access to a network that remains undetected for a long period
• Backdoor: Bypassing normal authentication methods to gain access in an OS or application
• Buffer Overflow: Exploiting a program waiting for user input
• Man-in-the-Middle Attack: Interception and relay of messages between communicating parties
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Code injection attack to execute malicious JavaScript in another user's browser
• Denial of Service Attack: Preventing authorized users from accessing a service
• SQL injection: Exploiting web application vulnerabilities to steal or alter data in a website's database
• Zero-day Exploit: Exploiting an undisclosed and unpatched vulnerability in a system or device

Impacts of Cyber Attacks

• Cause major damage to organizations or systems as well as to business reputation and consumer trust
• Results can include financial loss, reputational damage, and legal consequences

Types of Malicious Code

• Virus: Replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code
• Network Worm: Standalone malware that replicates to spread to other computers
• Trojan Horse: Claims to free your computer from viruses but introduces them instead
• Botnet: Used for DDoS attacks, data theft, spamming, and gaining attacker access to a device
• Keylogger: Surveillance technology to monitor and record keystrokes on a computer's keyboard
• Rootkit: Collection of tools to enable administrator-level access to a computer or network
• Spyware: Hidden software to gather information about internet interaction, keystrokes, passwords, and valuable data
• Adware: Displays advertisements and redirects search requests to advertising websites to collect marketing data
• Ransomware: Malware that prevents or limits access to a system by locking the screen or files, demanding a ransom

Cyber Security Vulnerabilities

• Cyber-security term for a flaw in a system that can be exploited
• Vulnerability: Is the composition of 3 elements:
  • Flaw in system
  • Access of attacker to that flaw
  • Capability of attacker to exploit the flaw
• Vulnerabilities are Classified According to the Asset:
  • Hardware.
  • Software.
  • Network.
  • Personal.
  • Physical site.
  • Organizational.

Causes of Vulnerabilities

• Missing patches
• Cleartext credentials
• Using unencrypted channels
• RF Emanation

Cryptography

• Kathleen Richards describes Cryptography to be a method of protecting information and communications, only allowing those for whom the information intended to be able to read and process
• The prefix "crypt-" means "hidden" or "vault," and the suffix "-graphy" stands for "writing."
• Algorithm: Instructions to accomplish a task that terminates in a defined end state
• Cipher: Core algorithm used to encrypt data, transforming plaintext into ciphertext that requires a key for reversal
• Ciphertext: Text in encrypted form
• Codes: Equivalence table (codebook) allowing substitution of meaningful text for innocuous messages
• Decrypt/Decipher: Process of retrieving plaintext from ciphertext
• Encrypt/Encipher: Altering plaintext with a secret code to be unintelligible to unauthorized parties
• Key: Word or system for solving a cipher or code
• Plaintext: Original message before encoding or enciphering
• Encryption: Transforms data intended for authorized persons
  • Crucial for file encryption, message scrambling, authentication and internet transactions
• Encrypting/Deciphering: Uses a key to scramble the contents of a file
• Key space: Total keys for an encryption algorithm affected by the key's length
• History of cryptology goes back many millennia in ancient Egyptian India etc.

Caesar Cipher

• Basic encryption where letters shift fixed places down the alphabet

Enigma Machine

• Device to encrypt messages used during World War II.

Applying Cryptography to Computer Security

• Data gets exposed unlike files residing in the office

• Confidentiality: Encryption which defines encryption

• Integrity: Data is often as important as protection

• Authentication: Ability to confirm the identity of the user

• Not a defense against distraction of data

• Security: Valuable asset for computer data

• Symmetric Encryption

  • A single key is used for both encryption and decryption
  • Common Algorithms: AES, DES, 3DES, Blowfish
  • How it Works:
    • Sender encrypts plaintext with a key
    • Use Cases: Secure file storage, VPNs, database encryption
    • Pros: Fast, efficient. Cons: Key distribution problem.

• Asymmetric Encryption Uses public key for encryption and private key decryption

  • Common Algorithms: RSA, ECC, Diffie-Hellman.
  • How it Works:
    • Public key encrypts the data
    • Private key decrypts the data
    • Use Digital signatures, secure communications (SSL/TLS), cryptocurrency transactions.
  • Pros Secure key exchange, digital authentication

• Cons Slower than symmetric encryption

Hashing, Digital Signatures, and Certificates

• Mathematical function that converts data into a fixed-length string ("fingerprint") to verify integrity
• Digital signature: Uses a private key to "sign" a document, helping authenticity plus tampering
• Certificate: Issued by a trusted 3rd party verifying the identity of an entity
• Digital SignaturesEncrypting to verify document's authenticity/Integrity
• Digital Signatures
  • Secures communication
  • Provides non repudiation
  • Prevents the sender to deny the document
  • Verifies to trusted CA (certificate authority)
  • Secures communication via HTTPS
• Hashing - Creates unique string to verify integrity, password storage,
• "One way Function"- process to get original data from a hash that is one way.

Overview of cybercrimes committed using digital devices like computers and phones. Focus on the technologies, processes, and practices designed to protect data and networks from cyberattacks, emphasizing key principles like confidentiality, integrity and availability.