Understanding Computer Network Security: Intro
Lately, it seems as if the media has been super hyped on declaring "hacks" and spewing a lot of inaccurate information on what got "hacked" and who was affected by the "hack". In this series I'm going to write a post on each of the different access points that a computer's sensitive information can be accessed from, and what the protection options are.
Before I start writing detailed posts on network security, I would like to go over the more common points at which a computer "hack" can occur. Keep in mind that I've never seen formal writing about different "access points" for sensitive data, so the nomanclature used in this post may not be widely acceptable, but it should still be applicable.
- Wireless network sniffing
- Wireless network poisoning
- Encryption tampering (Man in the Middle)
- Man in the Browser
- XSS (Cross Site Scripting)
- Directory Traversal
- Cookie forgery
- Session hijacking
- SQL Injection
Wireless network sniffing - Did you know that when you use wireless networks, you transmit data in all directions? Often times unencrypted.
Wireless network poisoning - Wireless networks can be tricked very easily, because wireless devices trust all other wireless devices.
Man in the Middle - People near you can tamper with encryption protocols.
Man in the Browser - If someone has access to your computer, they can put extra code inside your web browser.
XSS - Status updates, tweets, posts, videos, and any text on the internet is a potential harborer of hidden code.
Directory Traversal - An obscure attack on a web server.
Cookie Forgery - Another obscure attack on a web server
Session Hijacking - Similar to cookie forgery
SQL Injection - A way of fooling a database
Stay tuned, I'll be adding a new post detailing each attack every day or so.