Cybersecurity Basics

• Privacy paradox involves the disconnect between the importance people place on online privacy and their actual online behavior.
• Breach of privacy involves the unauthorized access of personal information.
• Cyberattack involves an attempt to expose, alter, disable, destroy, steal information from a computer system, network, or smart device.
• Cybersecurity involves protecting information and systems used to process and store it from attack, damage, or unauthorized access.
• Cyber threat is a method used to commit a cyberattack, damage data, steal information, or disrupt digital life.
• Attack vector involves the path a computer criminal uses to gain access to deliver a malicious outcome.
• White hat hackers are computer security specialists who break into protected systems and networks to test and assess their security.
• Black hat hacker attempts to find computer security vulnerabilities usually for personal gain.
• Gray hat hacker violates ethical standards without the malicious intent ascribed to black hat hackers.
• Payload carries out the purpose of the malware.
• Cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser.
• Spamware enables attackers to search, sort, compile email addresses, generate random addresses, insert fake headers, and use multiple mail servers to broadcast unsolicited messages.
• Zero-day malware accounts for almost 50% of all malware attacks.
• Backdoor is difficult to detect malicious computer program to provide an attacker remote access to a compromised PC.
• Rootkit involves a set of software tools that enables an attacker to gain control of a computer system.
• Boot Record Infector attaches to the master boot record loaded into memory when the system starts.
• Keylogger logs every key pressed on a computer keyboard via software or hardware.
• Worm replicates itself across computers and networks.
• Trojan hides in a useful program to infect a system.

Remote Access Trojans (RATS)

• RATS create an unprotected backdoor into a system.
• Hackers can remotely control the system.
• Botnet involves several computers infected with malware.
• Ransomware blocks access to a computer system until a sum of money has been paid.
• Cryptojacking allows cybercriminals to make money by using other people's devices without their consent to secretly siphon off cryptocurrency.
• SQL injection is one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities of a network app, as attackers use it to bypass application security measures.

Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks

• Session hijacking involves the attacker hijacking a session between the victim and a trusted network server.
• IP Spoofing is where the attacker convinces the victim's system that it communicates with a trusted entity to gain access.
• Replay attack involves intercepting and saving messages to impersonate trusted participants later.

Denial-of-Service (DoS)

• Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) crashes a network by bombarding it with traffic, denying services to legitimate users.
• Telephony denial-of-service (TDoS) floods a network with phone calls to overwhelm circuits and prevent legitimate callers.
• Permanent denial-of-service (PDoS) or Phlashing prevents the target's system or device from working.
• Shadow/Stealth IT involves using IT-related hardware or software without the IT department's knowledge.
• Time-to-exploitation is the elapsed time between the discovery and exploitation of a vulnerability.
• Patch involves a software program to fix a vulnerability.
• Malware signatures involve a unique value that indicates malicious code.
• Intrusion detection systems (IDS) scans for unusual or suspicious traffic.
• Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) takes immediate action whenever a traffic-flow anomaly is detected.
• Hot site has all necessary equipment for immediate recovery from disaster.
• Warm site has a fully equipped data center, but no data.
• Cold site provides office space, but requires the customer to provide and install equipment.