Overview

Module Overview

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

Describe a denial of service attack
Explain social engineering attacks
Explain spoofing
Prescribe the appropriate preventative measures to counter computer attacks
Research and document new computer threats

Background

Computer security is an area of growing concern for individuals and the business community. As computers become more connected, productivity and access to information increase. At the same time, however, there are also increased risks that data may be accessed, modified, or destroyed either inadvertently or maliciously. Although tools to safeguard data continue to evolve, increasingly sophisticated methods are being developed to gain access to this data.

Definitions

Denial-of-service (DoS) attack: an attack in which an attacker attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing an Internet service.

Social Engineering: a class of attack methods that rely on human interaction involving trickery, fraud or deceit.

Spoofing: a class of attack methods that utilize the technique of substituting an invalid IP or web address for the original one.

SYN flood: a DoS attack that overloads a machine with TCP connections faster than they can be processed.

Relevance to Academia and Industry

Computer security is a growing field for the IT industry. New types of computer attacks continue to arise that must be countered by knowledgeable, trained individuals.