Protecting Against Phishing, Trojan Horses, Worms, and Viruses
Classified in Computers
Written at on 
English with a size of 2.75 KB.
Phishing:
Hackers attempt to impersonate genuine organisations to fool the user into providing sensitive personal data. Emails are very official-looking, and they usually contain a link to a website which is an exact copy of the organisation's actual site, but it is operated by the criminals. When the user logs in with their details, the data is sent to the criminal.
Guarding against phishing:
No reputable organisation would request personal details in an email or unsolicited phone call, because it does not need your sensitive data to access your account information. Never follow links to a bank/organisation- manually type it.
Trojan Horses:
Malware program that comes in disguise. Rely on tricking the user into downloading and running them. Involves the insertion of false information into a program to profit from the outcome. Pretend to be a useful/reliable application, but might change data or delete files. Can contain any type of malware, often spyware or botnets.
Worms:
Spread without any user interaction. When a user opens a worm-infected email attachment, it will immediately start traveling independently inside a network, copying itself to other machines or forwarding itself to the user’s contacts, infecting RAM. Consume large amounts of bandwidth as they propagate.
2 security methods for worms: antivirus, firewall
passwords +12 characters, upper and lower case, avoid using real names or dates, use different passwords for each system
Encryption:
Based on cryptography. One of the strongest methods of security nowadays. Needed to protect data from unauthorised access when ti is sent over an untrusted network (Internet). Uses encryption keys to transform a message (plaintext) into a form not understandable to anyone who reads it (ciphertext).
Techniques that steal info using mail:
Viruses: Malicious programs designed to replicate themselves and damage computer systems. Usually attached to other programs or email attachments and are triggered/activated when the user runs it. worms
2 techniques to break a password:
Dictionary attack: Combines every word in the dictionary followed by a varying set of numbers. Brute force: Trying password manually.