SecurityCSCI 101

References

• Slides are heavily based on, and contain content

from:

Technology in Action Eleventh Edition by Evans, Martin,

and Poatsy

Cybercrime & Identity Theft

Cybercrime

• Any crime that is conducted through the

computer.

• In 2012 the internet crime complaint center

received 289,000 cybercrime complaints.

Common Cybercrimes

• FBI-Related Scams: People pretending to work

for official organizations to defraud

• Non-Delivery of Merchandise: Here people

receive your payment, and then never deliver the

goods.

• Advance Fee Fraud: Here people ask you for

money in good faith, with later receipt of interest

on the money, which is never paid.

Identity Theft

• Occurs when someone steals your personal

information, e.g. your social security number,

bank account number, credit card info…

• Basically someone tries to be you, steals form

you, and pollutes your reputation.

• People can use, and destroy your credit rating.

• It can take a long time to fix.

AN ENTRYWAY INTO YOUR COMPUTER

Computer Viruses

Computer Viruses

• Malicious Computer programs that are attached

to other programs.

• When they are downloaded they copy

themselves into other programs, and files.

• When files are exchanged with other computers,

the viruses will infect another computer.

What’s the harm of viruses?

• Viruses can simply be annoying, e.g. cause

popup windows to appear

• Or they can destroy files on your computer

• Even worse they can gather and report your

sensitive information to the viruses' creator.

How to get a virus

• You download malware, e.g. a contaminated

movie

• You open up an attachment on an email that is

infected

• You open a file on a usb drive that is infected.

Types of Viruses

Logic Bomb

Logic Bomb: When a set of conditions are true the

virus will begin, e.g. opening a file a certain

number of times.

Logic Bomb Example

• Whac-A-Mole Sabatage

• A man programmer planted a logic bomb in

Whac-A-Mole games, causing them to stop

working after they had been turned on and off a

number of times.

• He did this to achieve job security, as he was

responsible for fixing these machines.

Logic Bomb Example

• http://www.cbsnews.com/news/logic-bomb-

dropped-on-brokerage/

• Created a logic bomb which caused > $3 million

in damages by deleting / damaging files• He purchased put options (sell for fixed price) on the companies stock in anticipation,

assuming the stock value would plummet and he would benefit

Time Bomb

Time Bomb: A virus that will execute at a certain

time, or after a set of time passes. Hence, a large

number of computers could all go down at the

same time.

Time Bomb Example

• Michelangelo Virus

• In 1991 this virus was create that would fire on

March 6th, the famous artist Michelangelo’s

birthday.

• “the virus overwrites the first one hundred

sectors of the hard disk with nulls.”

Time Bomb Example

• http://www.wired.com/2013/03/logic-bomb-

south-korea-attack/

• The time bomb waited till March 20th 2013 and

then started erasing data from bank machines

• Wiped the machines of 3 banks and 2 media

companies

• Also, took down some ATMs

Worms

Worms: Spread through email or network connections.

The user doesn’t need to take any action to spread these,

they just travel through vulnerabilities in the operating

systems.

Worm Example

• ILove you Worm

• In May of 2000 a worm that effected Windows Personal computers got sent over emails.

• Users would get an email with the subject “ILoveyou” with a script attached.

• When users opened the attachment it ran a script that did damage to your computer and overwrote your images.

• Then the script sent out the same email to everyone on your Outlook contact list.

How do you know you have a

virus?

• Your homepage on your browser changes

• Popups start appearing

• Files start being corrupted

• …

How to protect my computer

• Install an antivirus. They can only stop viruses

they know about. Keep installing updates to

your antivirus to protect against new viruses.

• Keep your computer’s OS and other programs

up to date. Often OS’s are updated to protect

against viruses, so make sure you have these

updates.

Windows Defender

• This anti-virus is in newer versions of windows:

• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-

us/windows/security-essentials-download

• You can download Windows Security Essentials

on earlier versions of Windows too (Windows 7

and Vista)

WHAT DO THEY DO, AND HOW DO WE PROTECT OURSELVES

Hackers

Hackers

Someone who unlawfully breaks into a computer or a network.

Black-hat Hackers: Someone who hacks into computers with malicious intent.

White-hat Hackers (Ethical Hackers): Someone who hacks into a system to expose it’s weaknesses to the company or the general public.

Regardless of the type of hacking, it’s considered a crime, and can result in serious penalties.

Famous Hackers

Jonathan James

• At age 15 he was convicted of breaking into BellSouth, the United States Department of Defense, and NASA

• He intercepted over 3 thousand messages going to the USDD using a packet sniffer

• He cost NASA $41,000 to check and fix systems

Famous Hackers

Albert Gonzalez

• Collected over 170 million

credit and ATM card numbers in

2 years (2005 – 2007). - sql• He would sell these for profit

• He also hacked into databases

to get credit card numbers.

• In 2010 went to prison for 20

years

Famous Hackers

Kevin Poulsen

• Took over all of the phone lines for LA’s KISS-FM radio station making himself be the 102 caller and win a Porsche

• Hacked into federal systems and stole wiretap information. (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-of-the-worlds-most-famous-hackers-what-happened-to-them/)

• When to prison for 5 years and banned from his computer for 3 years after

• He now works for WIRED, and he helped take down 744 sex offenders on MySpace.

Types of Hacking

Packet Sniffing

• Hackers use programs to listen in on the packets

you are sending over the internet.

• Here they can put together the data you are

sending, and gather your sensitive information.

• Be careful when you are using free public wifi like

at coffee shops as they are particularly

vulnerable.

• Firewalls will help you prevent these attacks.

Packet SniffingCidney is buying items online with her credit card, and a hacker is listening in,

getting her credit card number.

Cidney

234283252290234

32522

90234

23428

Packet Sniffing …

• More information about packet sniffing can be

found here:

• http://www.veracode.com/security/wireless-

sniffer

• You should use secure protocols (http) for all

important communication so that your data is all

encrypted when sent over the line and can’t be

sniffed.

Trojan Horses

Trojan Horse Naming

• In Greek mythology at the end of the War of Troy they had a plan where they created a giant hollow horse and filled it with soldiers, pretending it to be a piece offering.

• At night the soldiers came out.

• Trojan Horse Malware programs are named after this historical horse because they disguise themselves as good programs so people install them, but they turn out to be malware.

Trojan Horses

• Trojan horses are when hackers get into your

computer through a back door and can take

control.

• They can access/delete files/send emails…

• They can also use your computers processing for

larger attacks. Particularly, if hackers take over

lots of computers they can launch Denial of

Service Attacks.

Example

Beast Trojan Horse (2002)

• Infected Windows 95 and XP

• The hacker could control the infected computer

• Could use password tools to get at your

passwords

• Could get screenshots and use your webcam

Denial-of-Service Attacks (DoS)

• In DoS attacks, hackers keep sending out so much

requests on a server, that the server doesn’t have enough

capacity to address the legitimate requests.

• To achieve this, hackers often take over many other

computers, and program them all to continuously make

requests.

• The computers they take over are called Zombies

Denial of Service Attacks

Denial of Service Example

Project Rivolta

• In 2000 MafiaBoy (Michael Demon Calce) a

Canadia High School student launched a Denial

of Service attack

• He took down Yahoo for an hour, which was the

most popular search engine at the time

• He also continued to bring down Ebay, CNN,

Amazon and Dell

Live Denial of Service Attacks

• This map shows a live view of the current denial

of service attacks that are being executed across

the globe

• http://www.digitalattackmap.com/#anim=1&col

or=0&country=ALL&time=16341&view=map

Key Loggers

• Key Loggers are a form of spyware.

• These program track each of your keystrokes

• They can put this information together to gather

your secure information

Key Logger Example

2 million Facebook, Twitter, AND Gmail passwords

stolen (Dec 4th, 2013) - cyberAttacks vid • Keylogging software was maliciously installed on

users computers

• This malware recorded users passwords

HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF?

Protecting Yourself

Firewalls

• Can block access to your ports, & filter the packets that

are trying to enter. They will deny malicious packets

entry into your computer.

• They use a process called network address translation to

hide your IP address from intruders, so they can’t find

your computer.

Weak Passwords

• Many people use very week passwords for

internet sites, such as 12345 or password!

• With week passwords, hackers can get into these

sites and steal your information

• Even with common words hackers can easily

determine your passwords, as they run scripts

which can check tons of passwords in matters of

seconds.

Reusing your Passwords

• People often use the same passwords from many

different sites.

• Hackers sometimes get access into less secure

sites, find your passwords, and then try the same

passwords on your bank’s site.

• Hence, make sure you have a unique password

for more secure sites.

Creating Strong Passwords

• Your book has a good set of rules on P.362

• Here’s a helpful article:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/create-

secure-passwords-keep-your-identity-safe

Backup Your Data

• Always have backups of your data.

• If you get attacked you could lose all of your

information.

Spam

• When you login to forms on the internet, and signup for

things your email will inevitably end up in lists of emails

to be spammed.

• Often people have two emails, one for signing up for

things on the internet, and the other for common use.

• You can also, use spam filters. Make sure to check the

items that have been filtered every so often to make sure

you haven’t missed important messages.

Cookies

• Cookies are little files kept on your computer which

inform websites of your preferences. E.g. what do you

want to see when you enter a page, what data did you

enter in a form, or what type of adds should we show

someone.

• Sites can use this information to provide you with target

advertising, but they do not pose you harm.

• The only risk is they likely contain password and credit

card info that could cause issues if a hacker got a hold of.

DON’T GIVE PEOPLE YOUR PERSONAL DATA!

Scams

Phishing

• Here scammers lure you into providing them with personal information.

• For example, – you get an email form your Bank asking you to verify your

account information.

– you click on the link to your bank site, this isn’t actually your bank’s site, it’s a site the scammer made to look just like your bank

– When you enter your personal information in, the scammer now has it.

• You can avoid this by not clicking on the links, and going directly to your banks site

Phishing Example

Phishing Scams

• This article discusses what an individual learnt

from talking with scammers.

• http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/w

hat-i-learned-from-nigerian-scammers

Pharming

• Here, you have a malicious virus or code that

when you try to go to certain websites, you are

redirected to fake versions.

• e.g. you try to go to bankofamerica.com and you

get something like bnkfamerica.com

Pharming Example

50 Banks in Pharming Attack

• The attackers made fake sites that looked like the

banks

• Users were lured to install a Trojan virus, which

would redirect them to the fake bank site when

they typed in the url of their bank

• After the uses entered in their credentials it

would successfully redirect them to their banks

site, and log them in.

Scareware

• Here, you download malicious programs that pretend to be viruses.

• Tons of adds, and such keep popping up.

• Then you will get a message saying you need to download antivirus.

• Then they get you to pay for and download a fake antivirus because you’re scared.

• A 2010 study by Google found 11,000 domains hosting fake anti-virus software (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scareware)

Scareware Example

• LizaMoon (2010)

• Thousands of infected sites

• Users had to actively install this virus

• The rogue Anti Virus was called Windows

Stability Center and removed non-existent

viruses

MAKE SURE PEOPLE CAN’T UNDERSTAND YOUR MESSAGES

WHEN YOU GET THEM

Encryption

Packet SniffingCidney is buying items online with her credit card, and a hacker is listening in,

getting her credit card number. We need to encrypt this info so we can’t figure

out what it is!

Cidney

234283252290234

32522

90234

23428

Simple Encryption

By creating a mapping, we can encrypt our message.

original message:

I like you

encrypted message:

J mjlf zpv

Someone needs the mapping table to decrypt your message.

Mapping

A = B

B = C

C = D

E = F

…

Private Key Encryption

• Here both the sender and the receiver have the key… e.g.

the mapping table in the example above.

• The problem is, how do you send over the key? What if

the hacker gets it?

I like you

J mj

zpv

lf

I like you

J mjlf zpv

Using the decryptionkey it becomes

Public Key Encryption

In public key encryption there are two keys which are

generated through mathematical formulas.

Public Key: The encryption key is public. Meaning anyone

can send you a message with it.

Private Key: The decryption key is private. Meaning only

you can decode the message.

Public Key Encryption

I like you

Encrypts using public key

klaejrkljlkjlew

Generates public and private key, Then Broadcasts public key to everyone

Sends encrypted message in packets

klaejrkljlkjlew

klaejrkljlkjlew

Decrypts using private key.

I like you

Next Week