Download Vuong Dang - Special Lab Assignment

Which is a scene, segment, or dialogue in the movie that clearly depicts the use of a Trojan
horse? Explain.
There are three Trojan horses that are mentioned in two scenes of the movie. The first
one is the scene when Jennifer talked to Griffin about the “tunethief.com” website. The website
offers free downloads of music; which seems to be nice and unharmed. However, when the users
accept the offer, it will steal users’ financial data and passwords through network. The second is
when Jennifer threw back a backdoor Trojan in her data to see what the “tunethief” hacker would
do with the stolen data. The third one is when Owen took remote control over Jennifer’s network
by using backdoor Trojan, which masqueraded itself as a game that Annie downloaded from her
friend.
Which is a scene, segment, or dialogue in the movie that clearly depicts the use and/or
exploitation of a backdoor? Explain.
The use and/or exploitation of a backdoor depicted in two scenes. First scene is when
Jennifer accepted the offer from tunethief.com, she threw in a backdoor Trojan to see what the
hacker would do with the stolen data. She remotely accessed to the hacker’s computer and saw
all his transactions. The second is when Owen took remote control over Jennifer’s network by
using backdoor Trojan, which masqueraded itself as a game that Annie downloaded and installed
earlier from her friend.
Why could the Feds (FBI) not simply shut down the “Kill with Me” website? (Use the
appropriate “techie lingo” to explain)
The Feds could not shut down the “Kill with Me” website because the site's IP changes
constantly. Each new address is an exploited server that's running a mirror of the site. As the
name server uses a low TTL (time to live – TTL value tells local resolving name servers how
long a record should be stored locally before a new copy of the record must be retrieved from
DNS), the disruptions of the website are minimized. When the IP is changed, the name server
updates a new one “immediately”. Moreover, by using botnet, the hacker can access thousands
of exploited servers on the Internet. As a result, every time the Feds shut one down, a new mirror
pops up.
Write a short report (type written, Times New Roman, font Size 12, double-spaced, no shorter
than half a page and no longer than 1 page) explaining all items in the movie that relate to
concepts covered in our class. Be sure to point out specific use of terminology, technologies,
and concepts that we have seen and discussed in class. Include anything else that relates to
our class in particular and to the IT industry in general that was obvious in the movie
In the “Untraceable” movie, there are some concepts that are related closely to
information security. First of all, it is easy to see how virtual machines help in cyber security
field. At the beginning, it was so amazed to see all the pop-ups on Jennifer’s computer. However,
it turned out that she was using a virtual machine (VM) to track down the hacker to make sure
that her host (physical computer) remains safe. The second concept is the identity theft and
Trojan used by “tunethief.com” to steal financial data and passwords. When Jennifer accepted to
install and download free music, she also installed Trojan to her VM. The next concept is the use
of botnet: a net of hundreds or thousands of zombie computers (bot). In the movie, Owen used
this technique together with the manipulation of the name server to make sure his website is
untraceable and unstoppable. Another one is the concept of back door created by Trojans. Both
Jennifer and Owen used this approach to take remote control over victims’ computers. Last but
not least, the use of social engineering is the main reason causing the death of the two men.
Owen used phising – sending email with false yet attractive information as a “bait” to make the
victims “bite” – to get the attention of Herbert Miller, the helicopter pilot, and David Williams,
the reporter. There are also some other concepts that were used but not really obvious such as the
OSI model: the way the Feds traced back physical address from IP address; the middle man
attack: the email regarding the “Winter Hawks game” was an “email from a friend of a friend”;
tailgating: at the beginning of the movie, when Griffin scanned his ID card to open the door and
Jennifer came along without scanning hers; impersonation: when Owen played as Melanie to talk
to Griffin. Overall, the movie was well prepared and edited to give the audiences a basic
overview of information threats and how they can be used to cause harm in real life.