Network Threats Classification

Network Threats

• The situation where an air conditioning unit fails, causing some routers and switches in a wiring closet to malfunction, describes an environmental threat.
• There are four classes of threats:
• Hardware threats: physical damage to servers, routers, switches, cabling plant, and workstations.
• Environmental threats: temperature extremes, humidity extremes, or other environmental factors.
• Electrical threats: voltage spikes, insufficient supply voltage, unconditioned power, or total power loss.
• Maintenance threats: poor handling of key electrical components, lack of critical spare parts, poor cabling, or poor labeling.

Network Attacks

• DoS (Denial of Service) attacks are intended to prevent legitimate users and devices from accessing network resources.
• Access attacks and trust exploitation involve unauthorized manipulation of data and access to systems or user privileges.
• Reconnaissance attacks involve the unauthorized discovery and mapping of the network and network systems.

Network Protocols

• VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) defines the protocols and technologies that implement the transmission of voice packets over an IP network.
• HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a secure form of HTTP used to access web content hosted by a web server.
• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) uses sequence numbers to reassemble received segments into the correct order.
• UDP (User Datagram Protocol) does not track transmitted data segments, and destination devices will not acknowledge received data.

Network Devices

• A router is used to enable a host to communicate with another host on a different network.
• Switches are used to forward data packets between devices on the same network.
• Hubs are used to connect devices on a network, but they are not as efficient as switches.

Network Addressing

• Subnet masks are used to determine the network address and host address portions of an IP address.
• The /22 prefix provides 22 bits for the network portion and leaves 10 bits for the host portion.
• IPv4 header fields include:
• Time-to-Live (TTL): used to prevent a packet from traversing a network endlessly.
• Sequence Number: used to track transmitted data segments.
• Acknowledgment Number: used to acknowledge received data.

Network Security

• Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): provides real-time detection and blocking of attacks.
• Antispyware: protects end devices from becoming infected with malicious software.
• Adware: software installed on a user device that collects information about the user.
• Identity theft: the use of stolen credentials to access private data.

Network Management

• VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Masking): used to subnet a network address space.
• Accounting: keeps track of the actions of the user.
• SSH (Secure Shell): a protocol used to securely access network devices.
• FTP (File Transfer Protocol): a protocol used to transfer files over a network.
• HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): a protocol used to access web content.
• Telnet: a protocol used to remotely access a network device.