Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Term Paper

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Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Information technology and related systems provide multiple benefits to business, government, and individual users. Databases, Internet transactions, and emails contain sensitive customers, employee and operations data that are extremely vulnerable. The following study focuses on various components of IT and related systems used for the storage of information like computers, servers, and website databases. Whilst identifying the ways the date can be compromised and exposed to abuse, the study identifies ways of protecting and enhancing their integrity.

Types of information systems that that hold data

Computers

Computers do their primary work in parts that are not visible when using them. To do this, a control center that converts data input to output must be present. All this functions are done by the central processing unit (CPU) a highly complicated set of electric circuits that intertwine to store and achieve program instructions. Most computers regardless of the size must contain a central processing unit. The CPU consists of two units that are the control unit and the arithmetic also known as a logical unit. Moreover, the computer's memory holds data for a short period when it executes a program. The control unit uses electric signals that run the entire systems. Furthermore, it does not perform the instructions but it guides the other parts of the systems to do so. Communication between the CPU must be with both the logical and memory units (Adikesavan, 2014).

The logical unit has electrical circuits to implement all the logical and arithmetic operations. Moreover, it performs four functions that include mathematical calculations such as multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division. This unit relates numerals, letters or other special characters justify why we can know the presence of empty seats in an airplane and credit card expiry and the number of votes in an opinion poll. Memory is the main attribute of a computer. A number of names such as internal storage, main memory, and RAM (Random Access Memory) associate it (Vacca, 2009).

Server

It is a computer program that provides facilitates another computer program within the computer and other computers of the same. It stores a lot of information more than the PC. It must be protected at all times from malicious attacks and other vulnerabilities.

Website databases

All websites have databases that stores various information about the users. Depending on the assigned bandwidth, the storage capacity is often high and keeps information as stipulated by W3C protocols. The use of cookies makes it ideal and flexible but predisposes it to attacks like DoS among others (Vacca, 2009).

Identify the threats, vulnerabilities, and ways hackers access these systems and your data

Hackers can access data through various ways. These are possible since there are many factors that make these possible. These threats include data opening from poor networking picks. Moreover, this is possible from the fact that many employees are fond of visiting sites that spread spyware. Examples of these sites are celebrity sites that give updates on their day-to-day lives. Casual gaming sites involving strangers from different places around the globe. In addition to that, there are porn sites and social media sites including MySpace and Facebook. Employees with interests in all this invite spyware. Advanced persistent threats are usually opportunistic because they seek any victim instead of a specific function (Schiller & Binkley, 2011).

Adware are softwares used to display advertisements and popups in computers when using certain applications. Such advertisements are useful, free and are common in Android phones. They are problematic when they randomly installed in the computer without one's knowledge. After this, they appear in other unrelated applications. Moreover, they take over the browser and continue to display mare ads. Adware gathers data from web browsing without the user's accord. Besides, it is difficult to uninstall. More effects include slow operating of the PC, slowing of the Internet connection while downloading the adverts. Lower the stability of the computer while programming. Adwares are unaffected by antivirus since they cannot be removed from the computer. Auto run worm is a malicious program that overwrites the windows auto run feature.

They operate automatically when the device stored in plugged to the computer. They are common with USB drivers and are effective immediately the device is plugged to it. Similar to autorun is the auto play feature. In order to counter this, Microsoft has come up with a new idea to set the autorun feature off by default thus minimizing the risk of the autorun worm in the near future.

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Backdoor Trojan is another threat to data fraud that allows someone to take control of the computer without the permission from the administrator. Trojan adds itself in the start-up routine monitoring the computer until connected to the Internet. When the user is online, the sender of the Trojan can perform whatever he/she wishes. Such may include running programs in the infected computer access private documents send out spam emails and upload files as pleased. There are commonly known Trojans such as Netbus, Subseven and recently created like the Zbot or ZeuS. To avoid infection of Trojans, latest patches of spyware update should be considered. Moreover, advice is to use firewalls that prevent Trojans from accessing the Internet and reaching the hacker. Boot sector malware modifies the start-up program (Adikesavan, 2014).

When turning off the computer, the hardware looks for the boot program usually found in the hard disc but also on CD/DVD or even flash drives. It then loads the OS into memory replacing the original boot with its own. When the computer is restarted later, the infected boot is used activating the malware. Botnet is a collection of infected computers remotely controlled by a hacker. This is conducted through the Internet making the computer a zombie of the hacker. However, the user is completely unaware of what is happening. The collective unit of these zombie computers is called a botnet. Hackers can sell or share access of the botnet. Moreover, it is advantageous to the hacker since they can pay for Internet access because the owner pays for the Internet. The flooding of the botnet computers may lead to in access of certain websites. Browser Hijackers changes the general homepage and search engine on the Internet browser. This is done by editing the window registry so that the settings are restored after restarting the computer. Furthermore, it is used to boost advertising as seen in the black hat search engine. Moreover, they do this by use of clickjacking where a blank page appears on the browser page tempting one to click on them (Zamboni, 2008).

On clicking on the layers, it opens a link that connects to the hackers. The threats do not exist in the PC but largely affect the browsing experience. Data leakage is whereby there is unauthorized exposure of information that may lead to theft and data loss. Many organizations are worried about this trend because it may cause exposure confidential information. When visiting a site, it can be filled with cookies that help keep track of the visits to that particular site. Although they are helpful, they are stored in small text files without the knowledge and consent of the user. Website gradually build a profile about your browser and can be behavior and interest shared to other sites. Data loss may result because of the misplacement of data. It occurs through the loss of a device containing the data it can be inside an organization or by criminals outside. Criminals use malware to enter the computers, and a common approach is the use of Trojan that logs in software, which tracks user's personal information (Bradley, 2006).

Hackers use the denial of service (DoS) attack as a technique to overpower the server or website's capacity to handle a given amount of traffic. In most cases, the genuine users of given website/service such as banks or credit cards cannot use it because they have been saturated by requests from the hackers. IP spoofing and ping flooding are some of the common methods used to initiate the malicious traffic to the particular server (Salomon, 2003).

Instances of data interception and theft have been rising in the recent past. There have been many reports on cases of theft. For example, in 2011 millions of names and customer addresses leaked from Epsilon. The same year, Sony Corp suffered a security breach that placed millions of accounts in great risk. Server breached Global payments processor exposing seven million cardholders. Email malware commonly distributed through the email is sent during double clicking on the attachments. From this, the code runs and enters the used machine. Internet worms replicate and add copies of the files and are capable of spreading and infecting other related equipments rapidly. Some open the computer behind the consent allowing hacker to take control making it a zombie.

Domain Name System is a phonebook of the Internet. It allows computers to translate names in a particular website. In this form of hijacking, the settings of the.....

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