Cyberterrorism or Cyber Mischief?
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With the rapid advancement of technology, companies have the ability to provide various kinds of services which make these organizations grow faster. However, as technology develops, the complexity and number of threats and cyberterrorism increase as wekk (Abomhara & Koien, 2015). Furthermore, the tools accessible to attackers become more effective, sophisticated, and efficient, which requires the knowledge of methods and motives of criminals, hackers, hacktivists, spies, the way they are recruited, and their most commonly known types of attacks against their targets.
Criminal
A criminal is an individual who uses various forms of cyber-attacks to manipulate susceptible systems and vulnerable people. Their attacks against computer systems can potentially disable and damage the system’s operation (Burton, 2018). A criminal also endangers the general population and might cause severe economic losses to users and business owners. The motive behind a criminal’s act of destruction may be financial gain. The methods of attack include ransomware and identity theft. The former involves infecting computers in an organization with encrypted data for financial gain. Users might fail to access their files unless they agree to pay ransom (Burton, 2018). Such an attack leads to major distractions that cost valuable money and time. Another method is identity theft, or the process of stealing other people’s identity and pretending to be them. By using someone else’s identity, criminals can access their bank accounts or use their credit cards.
Hacker
Hackers are mostly programmers who have the advanced knowledge of computers and who usually exploit this understanding for deceitful reasons. The most common motive can be described by greed or the desire to become famous and powerful (Digit, 2018). Hackers attack their targets, which can be anyone, from private users to the government organizations, by employing such tactics as cross-site scripting and phishing. Cross-site scripting is the easiest method of evading a security system. The technique is a hard-to-locate gap in the website, which makes it susceptible to an attack. In a cross-site scripting, the hacker corrupts a specific web page by using a malicious program or client-side script (Digit, 2018). When users visit this website, it is downloaded automatically to their browser and executed. This method is used by hackers to deceive users and gather their private information. The technique of phishing involves extracting private information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers by impersonating as an authentic enterprise. The usual tool for this technique is email spoofing for stealing private information and impersonation.
Hacktivist
Hacktivists execute cyber-attacks to gain entry and giveaway data, which helps them push social and political agenda, or, more generally, destroy that of others. A hacktivist regularly searches for data that damages their target’s campaign and reputation (Burton, 2018). They may target the government, public businesses, and famous politicians. Hacktivists’ forms of cyber-attacks are Denial of Service attacks (DoS) and email bombing that normally target political bodies and governments. DoS includes flooding computer systems, thus overwhelming their existing bandwidth, which causes server overload. Such a method is hackers’ attempt to make a network resource or machine inaccessible to its users (Abomhara & Koien, 2015). DoS also results in the resource, such as a web server, slowing down or crashing with the aim of allowing no one to access it. Email bombing is the technique of sending massive amounts of email to the targeted address, thus causing the victim’s mail servers or email account to crash. The message sent is excessively long and meaningless, which allows to exhaust network resources (Digit, 2018). A mail server might have a DoS impact when numerous accounts of a mail server are affected.
Spies
According to Abomhara and Koien (2015), spies are cyber-attackers who use malicious software and other cracking techniques to obtain secret information or spy on someone. Usually, the target is the government, various organizations, and individuals. Some of the techniques that spies may use include virus dissemination and password attacks. The former implies attaching viruses to computer programs that infect files or a system of the target. These viruses also circulate to other network or computers, thus affecting stored data and disrupting computer operation either by deleting or modifying it (Digit, 2018). An example is the Trojan horse virus that poses as a valid file, for example, an email attachment from a friend. Such emails are sent under a realistic name. At the same time, password attacks alternately involve the spy entering a program in the system that attempts to identify analytically a user’s password. The attempts are can involve a ‘dictionary’ attack, whereby the spy tries all probable combinations of numbers and letters to guess the user’s password (Abomhara & Koien, 2015). The brute force attacks imply that spies use cracking techniques to attempt every possible code of passwords to reveal valid passwords.
Recruitment
Recruitment implies that a political or religious group employs the use of computer infrastructure, such as websites, to persuade users to join their affiliations by promising money and fame. The motive behind recruitment is to harm users on the basis of faith and their religious beliefs, thus infringing the rights of others, or for financial gain. The method used to execute this act includes web jacking. This technique allows a criminal to control a website illegally. The criminal changes the original site’s content or redirects its users to another false similar-looking web page that this person manipulates (Digit, 2018). The website owner loses control of the site, and the attacker can exploit it to post obscene or harmful content.
Conclusion
Susceptibilities in advanced technology and software have shown that safety is not normally at the forefront of urgency for many companies. Thus, it is important to understand where cyber terrorists can hit their targets in order to develop an active response to potential threats. Such a response is possible with techniques for tracing and identifying terrorists in every jurisdiction.
With the rapid advancement of technology, companies have the ability to provide various kinds of services which make these organizations grow faster. However, as technology develops, the complexity and number of threats and cyberterrorism increase as wekk (Abomhara & Koien, 2015). Furthermore, the tools accessible to attackers become more effective, sophisticated, and efficient, which requires the knowledge of methods and motives of criminals, hackers, hacktivists, spies, the way they are recruited, and their most commonly known types of attacks against their targets.
Criminal
A criminal is an individual who uses various forms of cyber-attacks to manipulate susceptible systems and vulnerable people. Their attacks against computer systems can potentially disable and damage the system’s operation (Burton, 2018). A criminal also endangers the general population and might cause severe economic losses to users and business owners. The motive behind a criminal’s act of destruction may be financial gain. The methods of attack include ransomware and identity theft. The former involves infecting computers in an organization with encrypted data for financial gain. Users might fail to access their files unless they agree to pay ransom (Burton, 2018). Such an attack leads to major distractions that cost valuable money and time. Another method is identity theft, or the process of stealing other people’s identity and pretending to be them. By using someone else’s identity, criminals can access their bank accounts or use their credit cards.
Hacker
Hackers are mostly programmers who have the advanced knowledge of computers and who usually exploit this understanding for deceitful reasons. The most common motive can be described by greed or the desire to become famous and powerful (Digit, 2018). Hackers attack their targets, which can be anyone, from private users to the government organizations, by employing such tactics as cross-site scripting and phishing. Cross-site scripting is the easiest method of evading a security system. The technique is a hard-to-locate gap in the website, which makes it susceptible to an attack. In a cross-site scripting, the hacker corrupts a specific web page by using a malicious program or client-side script (Digit, 2018). When users visit this website, it is downloaded automatically to their browser and executed. This method is used by hackers to deceive users and gather their private information. The technique of phishing involves extracting private information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers by impersonating as an authentic enterprise. The usual tool for this technique is email spoofing for stealing private information and impersonation.
Hacktivist
Hacktivists execute cyber-attacks to gain entry and giveaway data, which helps them push social and political agenda, or, more generally, destroy that of others. A hacktivist regularly searches for data that damages their target’s campaign and reputation (Burton, 2018). They may target the government, public businesses, and famous politicians. Hacktivists’ forms of cyber-attacks are Denial of Service attacks (DoS) and email bombing that normally target political bodies and governments. DoS includes flooding computer systems, thus overwhelming their existing bandwidth, which causes server overload. Such a method is hackers’ attempt to make a network resource or machine inaccessible to its users (Abomhara & Koien, 2015). DoS also results in the resource, such as a web server, slowing down or crashing with the aim of allowing no one to access it. Email bombing is the technique of sending massive amounts of email to the targeted address, thus causing the victim’s mail servers or email account to crash. The message sent is excessively long and meaningless, which allows to exhaust network resources (Digit, 2018). A mail server might have a DoS impact when numerous accounts of a mail server are affected.
Spies
According to Abomhara and Koien (2015), spies are cyber-attackers who use malicious software and other cracking techniques to obtain secret information or spy on someone. Usually, the target is the government, various organizations, and individuals. Some of the techniques that spies may use include virus dissemination and password attacks. The former implies attaching viruses to computer programs that infect files or a system of the target. These viruses also circulate to other network or computers, thus affecting stored data and disrupting computer operation either by deleting or modifying it (Digit, 2018). An example is the Trojan horse virus that poses as a valid file, for example, an email attachment from a friend. Such emails are sent under a realistic name. At the same time, password attacks alternately involve the spy entering a program in the system that attempts to identify analytically a user’s password. The attempts are can involve a ‘dictionary’ attack, whereby the spy tries all probable combinations of numbers and letters to guess the user’s password (Abomhara & Koien, 2015). The brute force attacks imply that spies use cracking techniques to attempt every possible code of passwords to reveal valid passwords.
Recruitment
Recruitment implies that a political or religious group employs the use of computer infrastructure, such as websites, to persuade users to join their affiliations by promising money and fame. The motive behind recruitment is to harm users on the basis of faith and their religious beliefs, thus infringing the rights of others, or for financial gain. The method used to execute this act includes web jacking. This technique allows a criminal to control a website illegally. The criminal changes the original site’s content or redirects its users to another false similar-looking web page that this person manipulates (Digit, 2018). The website owner loses control of the site, and the attacker can exploit it to post obscene or harmful content.
Conclusion
Susceptibilities in advanced technology and software have shown that safety is not normally at the forefront of urgency for many companies. Thus, it is important to understand where cyber terrorists can hit their targets in order to develop an active response to potential threats. Such a response is possible with techniques for tracing and identifying terrorists in every jurisdiction.