The Pros And Cons Of Computer Vulnerability

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In computer security, a vulnerability is a weakness which allows an attacker to reduce a system 's information assurance. Vulnerability is the intersection of three elements: a system susceptibility or flaw, attacker access to the flaw, and attacker capability to exploit the flaw. To exploit vulnerability, an attacker must have at least one applicable tool or technique that can connect to a system weakness. In this frame, vulnerability is also known as the attack surface. (Wikipedia).
With this previous definition we can assume that a threat occurs when a weakness is Identified and attacked from an outside source for malicious purposes. By doing things like threat assessments we can tell the best course of action to take before the problem …show more content…

Used by hackers for espionage purposes, it infected other systems over a local network (LAN) or USB stick including over 1,000 machines from private individuals, educational institutions, and government organizations. It also recorded audio, including Skype conversation, keyboard activity, screenshots, and network traffic. It was discovered on May 28, 2012 by the MAHER Center of Iranian National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), the CrySys Lab and Kaspersky Lab. …show more content…

This involved a number of hijacked computers that caused servers to overload due to the flooding of traffic called DDoS attack. The numbers of hijacked computers varied depending on the sources and include 50,000 from the Symantec’s Security Technology Response Group, 20,000 from the National Intelligence Service of South Korea, and more than 166,000 from Vietnamese computer security researchers as they analyzed the two servers used by the invaders. The Canadian government has revealed in news sources that they became a victim of cyber-attacks in February 2011 from foreign hackers with IP addresses from China. These hackers were able to infiltrate three departments within the Canadian government and transmitted classified information back to them. Canada eventually cut off the internet access of the three departments in order to cut off the transmission towards China. PayPal became a victim of cyber-attack in December 2010 after it permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks to raise fund, citing their violation of the Acceptable Use of Policy as their reason. However, it did not only result in multiple boycotts from individual users but also caused hackers to move in. The biggest protest movement against the Church of Scientology was conducted by Anonymous,

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