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Protecting your On-Line
Privacy and PC
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Viruses, Worms, Trojan
Horses, Spam, and Hoaxes
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Of the billions of e-mail messages per
year, an increasing proportion of which
is unpleasant.
An e-mail security firm scanned 413
million e-mails in August 2003. Three
percent contained a virus, 52 percent
were spam, and in many cases
contained some kind of pornographic
image.
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Viruses

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Designed to replicate themselves and
potentially cause harmful actions.
Often hidden inside innocuous programs.
Viruses in e-mails often masquerade as
games or pictures and use beguiling
subject lines (e.g., "My girlfriend nude") to
encourage users to open and run them.
Try to replicate themselves by infecting
other programs on your computer.
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Worms

Like viruses, worms attempt to
replicate themselves, but they are
programmed to use one’s mail list
and send out e-mails rather than
simply infecting programs on a single
computer.
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Trojan Horses

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Malicious programs that pose as
benign applications (do not replicate
like viruses and worms).
Trojan horses are used to smuggle
viruses and worms inside your
computer.
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Spam

Spam, or unsolicited commercial email, wastes bandwidth and time.
The sheer volume of it can be
overwhelming, and it can be a vehicle
for viruses. Much of it is of an explicit
sexual nature, which can create an
oppressive working environment
and, potentially, legal liabilities if
companies do not take steps to stop
it.
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Hoax e-mails

Hoax e-mails, such as fake virus
warnings, chain letters, or
implausible free offers, waste
readers' time. Hoax e-mails often
contain viruses or Trojan horses.
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Common Security Threats
Against Networks

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Attackers have different motivations—
profit, mischievousness, glory—but
they all work in similar ways.
The Basic Threats (infinite variation):
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Spoofing
Tampering
Repudiation
Information disclosure
Denial of Service
Elevation of privilege
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Spoofing


IP spoofing means creating packets
that look as though they have come
from a different IP address.
E-mail spoofing means forging an email so that the From address does
not indicate the true address of the
sender.
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Tampering

Altering the contents of packets as
they travel over the Internet or
altering data on computer disks after
a network has been penetrated.
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Repudiation

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The ability of a user to falsely deny
having performed an action that other
parties cannot prove otherwise.
For example, a user that deleted a file
can successfully deny doing so if no
mechanism (such as audit records) can
prove otherwise.
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Information Disclosure

Information disclosure consists of the
exposure of information to individuals
who normally would not have access
to it.
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Denial of Service (DoS)


DoS attacks are computerized assaults
launched by an attacker in an attempt
to overload or halt a network service,
such as a Web server or a file server.
For example, clogging a server with
superfluous requests and thus making
it impossible for legitimate inquiries to
get through.
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Elevation of Privilege

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A process by which a user misleads a
system to grant unauthorized rights,
usually for the purpose of
compromising or destroying the
system.
For example, attacker exploits a
weakness in the software that lets
her/him change the guest privileges
to administrative privileges.
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Spyware

Spyware is the latest threat to
computers and its users. It
joins a host of parasites, such
as, viruses, worms, spam, plus
e-mail, and network attacks.
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Spyware

Spyware is a self installing
software that presents varying
degrees of maliciousness that
range from a program running
on your computer in the
background (without your
knowledge) to a simple
tracking cookie.
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Spyware Activities
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Monitors Web-browsing patterns
Triggers related pop-up ads
Resets Home Page or Search
Engines
Adds links to Bookmarks
Attempts to capture personal
information
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Adware

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Adware is another form of spyware
that monitors users’ Web-browsing
patterns and displays related popup and pop-under ad windows
based on this information.
Adware may also send the
gathered information back to its
creator.
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Spyware Scanning Tools
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Computer Associates’ eTrust PestPatrol
FBM Software ZeroSpyware and
ZeroAds
LavaSoft Ad-Aware
McAfee Anti-Spyware
Trend Micro’s InterScan Web Security
Suite
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Eliminating Adware & Spyware
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Find
Remove and,
Keep out
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Finding Spyware
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Step 1: Scanning for spyware
Requires antispyware tools
 Consider several categories of
spyware scanning tools (do not
run the tools concurrently)
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Step 2: Eliminating Spyware
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Since Spyware programs are
constantly modified (DLL and registry
settings) use a variety of tools and in
hard cases manual removal may
also be necessary.
Reformatting the HD and reinstalling
the OS may be less work than
manually looking for Spyware.
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Step 3: Install Spywareblocking Software
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Install at least two Spywareblocking applications and
run them one at a time.
Enlist users in the fight against
Spyware
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References
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CDW-G Higher Education March 2005
An Introduction to Criminal Hacking,
Viruses, and Malicious Activities. Retrieved
March 28th, 2005.
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/gtm/securitygui
dance/articles/an_introduction_to_criminal_hacking_viru
ses_and_malicious_activities.mspx
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