Social Engineering, Brute-Force & DoS Attacks | 4.1 | OCR GCSE Computer Science | J277
16 flashcards
- Social Engineering
- A method of tricking victims into giving personal data by pretending to be someone they know or an organisation.
- What is the most common type of Social Engineering?
- Phishing, which is used to collect data or tricks users into installing malware.
- Why are humans often the 'weak point' of network security? (4)
- - Weak or reused passwords - Clicking on malicious links - Writing passwords down - Not covering passwords when entering them.
- How can user education prevent Social Engineering?
- So that staff know the signs of a phishing scams and block them.
- How can spam filters prevent Social Engineering?
- Spam filter detects phishing emails and blocks them from being opened.
- How can a firewall prevent Social Engineering?
- Firewalls block malicious URLs from being opened.
- Brute-force
- A trial-and-error method of attempting multiple combinations of passwords until the correct password is eventually found.
- What does the brute-force method use to try all combinations of passwords?
- Automated software is used to try all combinations, starting with the common passwords
- How can using strong passwords prevent Brute-force attacks?
- Strong passwords can't be guessed by automated software.
- How can account lock-outs prevent Brute-force attacks?
- Because then attackers can't guess passwords indefinitely.
- How can two-factor authentication (2FA) prevent Brute-force attacks?
- By using separate codes that are valid for a few seconds before expiring.
- Denial of Service (DoS)
- An attack that floods a web server with large volumes of traffic simultaneously.
- What affect to DoS attacks have on web servers?
- It causes web servers to overload and fail.
- What does a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack do?
- It uses multiple systems (a botnet) to transmit data.
- How can a firewall prevent DoS / DDos attacks?
- Firewalls filter malicious traffic to prevent servers from being overloaded.
- How can a proxy server DoS / DDos attacks?
- They can filter malicious traffic and hide the server's IP address.