Cyberattacks

Computer Security

Computer security is a primary defense against cyberattacks that seeks to protect hardware and information. Computer security can encompass a variety of approaches, including security-focused operating systems, security architecture, secure coding, and security by design. Security-focused operating systems are those that strive to protect data from corruption, natural disaster, or theft. Although any operating system can be breached, those that are security-focused tend to address generic security flaws in a consistent and systematic manner.

Security architecture refers to a system's capacity to protect both the confidentiality and integrity of data. This is achieved through the interrelationship of structuring components, so they can be produced to quality standards and maintained over the system's useful life. Secure-coding software has been analyzed to minimize the bugs, defects, and flaws that are the chief causes of commonly exploited software vulnerabilities. Organizations that use secure coding often take proactive steps to eliminate as many of these vulnerabilities as possible before the software is deployed. The term security by design references software that has been securely designed from the start. Cyberattacks are anticipated, and care is taken to minimize potential risks and vulnerabilities in the coding process. Although an emphasis on security cannot completely prevent cyberattacks, it can minimize their occurrence and limit their severity. Engaging in the best security practices is costly, but the expense pales in comparison to the financial damage caused by security breaches.

Common Cyberattacks

Threats to the security of a computer system are exploited during cyberattacks. These attacks can take place when a system exhibits a vulnerability, which represents the intersection of three elements: a system flaw or susceptibility, an attacker's access to the flaw, and the attacker's capacity to exploit the flaw. Vulnerabilities result from a variety of causes, including software bugs, a computer virus, weak passwords, a script code injection [Page 95](caused by processing invalid data), or a structured query language (SQL) misconfiguration. Vulnerabilities can lead to threats, the more common of which include exploits, eavesdropping, social engineering and human error, denial of service, indirect attacks, backdoors, and direct-access attacks.

Exploits are bits of software or a sequence of commands that use a software bug to cause unanticipated behavior of computer software or hardware. Exploit code is frequently reused in Trojan horses—malware that appears to perform a beneficial service for the user, but actually allows unauthorized access to a system—or computer viruses. Eavesdropping refers to monitoring electronic communications from a computer, such as e-mail or observing Webpages visited by a user. Eavesdropping can be authorized by a system's owner, but also can occur surreptitiously during cyberattacks. Social engineering and human error occur when cyberattackers send messages to computer users, in which the cyberattacker purports to be the system administrator or some other trusted source and requests and receives the user's password. Since computer systems depend on humans to maintain their security, such deception or carelessness is damaging.

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