Internet Security Threats

Interconnectivity, distributed computing, and immediate rate of transmission are among the most powerful features of the Internet. Ironically, these attributes are also jeopardizing its long-term security. Hackers are using these specific characteristics to abuse the networks of hosts that exhibit little to no security.

Common internet attacks methods are broken down into categories. Some attacks gain system knowledge or personal information, such as phishing. Attacks can also interfere with the system’s intended function, such as viruses, worms and Trojan horse. The other form of attack is when the system’s resources are consumes uselessly, these can be caused by denial of service (DoS) attack.

Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses,

To engage in IP spoofing, a hacker must first use a variety of techniques to find a trusted IP address and then modify the packet headers so that it appears that the packets are coming from that host. (Vangie Beal, 2014) IP spoofing’s perpetrators trick their victims into interacting with the fake Web site. (Gary Shelly, ‎Misty Vermaat, 2011) For example, the victim may provide private information such as credit card numbers and online banking credentials; or download files containing viruses, worms, or other malware. Unfortunately, IP spoofing cannot be eliminated completely, as the identity of the intruder is unknown, hence, making detection and prevention difficult. (Depak Gahlot,

The e-mail process functions through a client server architecture. The primary protocols that handles e-mail are Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) and Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). An e-mail server runs two separate programs on its machine. The first is called the SMTP Server; the other program is called the POP3 Server. SMTP handles all outgoing mail, while POP3 handles all incoming mail. E-mails are often sent to the SMTP server, then to other servers, and finally to its destination. However, SMTP can only transmit pure text.

POP3 retrieve emails from an email server. If your email program uses POP3, all your emails are downloaded to your email program, each time it connects to your email server. POP3 stores information in a text file only. A program called uuencode can solve this problem. Uuencode converts any file format into a file format that contains only text characters. At the destination, a reverse program called uudecode converts the encoded message back into its original form. This way, many different types of attachments can be transferred via