Describe threats to network security
Networks are the backbone of the modern world, enabling us to communicate, shop, play, and work from anywhere. They allow access to a vast amount of information not only about ourselves, but also for businesses. That makes networks the prime target for cybercriminals who see information as the new currency. Weak network security risks exposing sensitive critical data and, damaging the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the data being stored.
Understanding threats is a key part of building a strong security network.
Common network attacks
The ways in which networks can be attacked are too numerous to cover here. Let's consider the more common ones:
- Man-in-the-middle or eavesdropping attack – this type of attack can occur when cybercriminals compromise or emulate routes in the network, allowing them to intercept the packets of information. Think of this as a form of wiretapping. This allows attackers to not just steal data but also compromise its integrity.
- Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack – the objective of a DDoS attack is to compromise the availability of the targeted network or service. Attackers do this by bombarding the targeted network or service with millions of simultaneous requests, from sources that are distributed across the network, overwhelming it and causing it to crash.
Video animation
In this short video, you'll see a simulation of how each of these attacks work. For the man-in-the-middle attack, to keep it simple, we've chosen to only use one route. With the DDoS attack, hundreds of thousands, or even tens of millions, of computers are used. Again for simplicity, we'll only show a handful.
Common DNS attack
A DNS attack looks to exploit weaknesses in the DNS server because they're designed for efficiency and usability, and not with security in mind. A common DNS attack is DNS poisoning. This is where the attacker changes the IP addresses in the DNS lookup tables to divert traffic from a legitimate site to a bad site that might contain malicious links or other malware.
Common wireless attacks
Wireless networks allow our devices to seamlessly connect to networks everywhere. In your home, the wireless network allows your smartphone, and always-on IoT devices to connect to the internet. The broad availability of these networks makes them the perfect target for cybercriminals. There are many different ways to attack a wireless network:
- Wardriving – the term Wardriving was popularized by a couple of 1980s movies. The attacker, typically operating from a vehicle, searches for unsecured wireless networks that have vulnerabilities. Most wardriving attacks seek to use your network for criminal activities, like hacking other computers and stealing personal information.
- Spoofing Wi-Fi hotspots – This is similar to a man-in-the-middle attack. The attacker uses their laptop, or a device connected to it, to offer a network access point that mimics a genuine access point. For example, if you're in a coffee shop looking to access the internet using their guest Wi-Fi, you might see a couple of access points that show the name of the business. One of those could be from a bad actor. If you connect to the bogus access point, anything you do over the network can be intercepted. It also allows the cybercriminal to direct you to bad websites or capture your private data.
Bluetooth attack
There has been a growth in Bluetooth devices, from smart watches and audio devices to device-to-device communication. Attacks on Bluetooth networks are less common than for wireless, mostly because the criminal needs to be within range of your device – but it's still a valid attack vector. A Bluejacking attack is where a criminal sends unsolicited messages to any Bluetooth-enabled device that's within range of their own. Bluejacking is similar to when someone rings your doorbell and then runs away before you can answer. It's mostly an annoyance.