Preventing and handling phishing attacks

Phishing (also known as carding and spoofing) is the act of attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message (most often an email, or an instant message (IM)). It is a form of social engineering attack. Customers of banks throughout the world have been victims of phishing. This paper covers the technologies and security flaws phishers exploit to conduct their attacks, and provides advice on security measures that can be employed by financial service providers such as Banks in order to prevent and handle phishing attacks. The customers’ perspective is also considered.VI Workshop de Procesamiento Distribuido y Paralelo (WPDP)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Active Cyber Defense in the Healthcare Sector

The healthcare industry is a vulnerable sector when it comes to cybercrime. To date, it continues to suffer the highest losses for twelve consecutive years (IBM, 2022). As care- providing systems depend more and more on technology, information assets become an appealing target for cyber criminals. Health data often contains sensitive and identifiable information such as full names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, Social Security Numbers, etc. All these falls under the term Personal Identifiable Information (PII) which are protected by many laws and acts with the purpose of protecting one’s privacy from harms such as identity theft and other fraudulent offenses. In addition to the privacy concern, there is also financial and reputational concerns involved. The health sector suffers frequents attacks and the number continues to grow every year. The purpose of this research thesis paper is to analyze the cyber defense technique Active Cyber Defense (ACD) in relation to the healthcare sector. It seeks to investigate the ways in which the health sector can benefit from incorporating ACD in its security strategy as well as analyzing the various security challenges that the health sector faces and how it attempts to address them. This research will be supported by research papers, government documents, reports, and articles

Cybercrime and Online Safety: Addressing the Challenges and Solutions Related to Cybercrime, Online Fraud, and Ensuring a Safe Digital Environment for All Users— A Case of African States

The internet has made the world more linked than ever before. While taking advantage of this online transition, cybercriminals target flaws in online systems, networks, and infrastructure. Businesses, government organizations, people, and communities all across the world, particularly in African countries, are all severely impacted on an economic and social level. Many African countries focused more on developing secure electricity and internet networks; yet, cybersecurity usually receives less attention than it should. One of Africa's major issues is the lack of adequate digital security infrastructure, which has harmed businesses, governmental institutions, and individual communities more than it has helped. The majority of African countries operate without cybersecurity measures in place to combat cyberattacks. Only a few examples of today's cyber risks include digital extortion, business email intrusion, data breaches, online fraud, ransomware, and phishing, and new types of cybercrime are always developing. Due to the advent of new technology, cybercriminals have become more organized and quicker in their attacks and alliance creation. To maintain a secure digital environment for all internet users, this study focused on the challenges, solutions, and need for African countries to improve their online safety by tackling cybercrime, online fraud, and cybersecurity concerns. The objective of this study is to offer practical and long-term answers to the problems posed by cybercrime, with a continuing emphasis on enhancing online safety. It will assess the effectiveness of cutting-edge cybersecurity measures, legislative frameworks, and cross-border cooperative efforts, as well as potential areas for improvement. Additionally, the study will examine cutting-edge methods like blockchain technology, machine learning, and other cutting-edge methods that could improve our using digital defences to stop cybercrime

Preventing and handling phishing attacks

Phishing (also known as carding and spoofing) is the act of attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message (most often an email, or an instant message (IM)). It is a form of social engineering attack. Customers of banks throughout the world have been victims of phishing. This paper covers the technologies and security flaws phishers exploit to conduct their attacks, and provides advice on security measures that can be employed by financial service providers such as Banks in order to prevent and handle phishing attacks. The customers’ perspective is also considered.VI Workshop de Procesamiento Distribuido y Paralelo (WPDP)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Developing a Framwork for Evaluating Organizational Information Assurance Metrics Programs

The push to secure organizational information has brought about the need to develop better metrics for understanding the state of the organization’s security capability. This thesis utilizes case studies of information security metrics programs within Department of Defense organizations, the United States Air Force (USAF), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Jet Propulsion Lab to discover how these organizations make decisions about how the measurement program is designed, how information is collected and disseminated, and how the collected information supports decision making. This research finds that both the DOD and USAF have highly complex information security programs that are primarily focused on determining the return for security investments, meeting budget constraints, and achieving mission objectives while NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab seeks to improve security processes related to compliance. While the analytical techniques were similar in all of the cases, the DOD and USAF use communication processes still based mostly on manual data calls and communications. In contrast, NASA’s JPL information security metrics program employs a more automated approach for information collection and dissemination

A Global Panopticon - The Changing Role of International Organizations in the Information Age

The outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 and Swine Flu (H1N1) in 2009 captured a great deal of global attention. The swift spread of these diseases wreaked havoc, generated public hysteria, disrupted global trade and travel, and inflicted severe economic losses to countries, corporations, and individuals. Although affected states were required to report to the World Health Organization (WHO) events that may have constituted a public health emergency, many failed to do so. The WHO and the rest of the international community were therefore desperate for accurate, up-to-date information as to the nature of the pandemics, their spread in different countries, and treatment possibilities. The solution came from a somewhat surprising source-the internet. The first signs of both diseases were discovered by automated web crawlers that screened local media sources in multiple languages, looking for specific keywords. In the case of SARS, a web crawler reported to the WHO about the early signs of the disease more than three months before the international community became aware of it. In the case of Swine Flu, a web crawler was similarly responsible for unearthing early reports on the disease and triggering further inquiry by the WHO. Information that flew from the internet impelled the WHO to approach local health agencies and demand that they conduct thorough investigations into the outbreaks. The role played by the internet expanded even further after the initial discovery of the diseases. The worldwide spread of SARS and, in particular, Swine Flu was closely monitored online by global networks of scientists and volunteers who shared their experiences and tagged relevant data on interactive maps. As the Director-General of the WHO declared, [f]or the first time in history, the international community could watch a pandemic unfold, and chart its evolution, in real time. This Article argues that these technological developments are not just helpful for better disease detection and surveillance, but rather, they reflect a deeper, broader conceptual shift in state compliance with international law. Information technologies allow international organizations (IOs) to play an unprecedented, and so far overlooked, role in this respect. In particular, they transform one of the core functions of IOs in international relations: compliance monitoring

A Global Panopticon - The Changing Role of International Organizations in the Information Age

The outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 and Swine Flu (H1N1) in 2009 captured a great deal of global attention. The swift spread of these diseases wreaked havoc, generated public hysteria, disrupted global trade and travel, and inflicted severe economic losses to countries, corporations, and individuals. Although affected states were required to report to the World Health Organization (WHO) events that may have constituted a public health emergency, many failed to do so. The WHO and the rest of the international community were therefore desperate for accurate, up-to-date information as to the nature of the pandemics, their spread in different countries, and treatment possibilities. The solution came from a somewhat surprising source-the internet. The first signs of both diseases were discovered by automated web crawlers that screened local media sources in multiple languages, looking for specific keywords. In the case of SARS, a web crawler reported to the WHO about the early signs of the disease more than three months before the international community became aware of it. In the case of Swine Flu, a web crawler was similarly responsible for unearthing early reports on the disease and triggering further inquiry by the WHO. Information that flew from the internet impelled the WHO to approach local health agencies and demand that they conduct thorough investigations into the outbreaks. The role played by the internet expanded even further after the initial discovery of the diseases. The worldwide spread of SARS and, in particular, Swine Flu was closely monitored online by global networks of scientists and volunteers who shared their experiences and tagged relevant data on interactive maps. As the Director-General of the WHO declared, [f]or the first time in history, the international community could watch a pandemic unfold, and chart its evolution, in real time. This Article argues that these technological developments are not just helpful for better disease detection and surveillance, but rather, they reflect a deeper, broader conceptual shift in state compliance with international law. Information technologies allow international organizations (IOs) to play an unprecedented, and so far overlooked, role in this respect. In particular, they transform one of the core functions of IOs in international relations: compliance monitoring

A structured approach to malware detection and analysis in digital forensics investigation

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of PhDWithin the World Wide Web (WWW), malware is considered one of the most serious threats to system security with complex system issues caused by malware and spam. Networks and systems can be accessed and compromised by various types of malware, such as viruses, worms, Trojans, botnet and rootkits, which compromise systems through coordinated attacks. Malware often uses anti-forensic techniques to avoid detection and investigation. Moreover, the results of investigating such attacks are often ineffective and can create barriers for obtaining clear evidence due to the lack of sufficient tools and the immaturity of forensics methodology. This research addressed various complexities faced by investigators in the detection and analysis of malware. In this thesis, the author identified the need for a new approach towards malware detection that focuses on a robust framework, and proposed a solution based on an extensive literature review and market research analysis. The literature review focussed on the different trials and techniques in malware detection to identify the parameters for developing a solution design, while market research was carried out to understand the precise nature of the current problem. The author termed the new approaches and development of the new framework the triple-tier centralised online real-time environment (tri-CORE) malware analysis (TCMA). The tiers come from three distinctive phases of detection and analysis where the entire research pattern is divided into three different domains. The tiers are the malware acquisition function, detection and analysis, and the database operational function. This framework design will contribute to the field of computer forensics by making the investigative process more effective and efficient. By integrating a hybrid method for malware detection, associated limitations with both static and dynamic methods are eliminated. This aids forensics experts with carrying out quick, investigatory processes to detect the behaviour of the malware and its related elements. The proposed framework will help to ensure system confidentiality, integrity, availability and accountability. The current research also focussed on a prototype (artefact) that was developed in favour of a different approach in digital forensics and malware detection methods. As such, a new Toolkit was designed and implemented, which is based on a simple architectural structure and built from open source software that can help investigators develop the skills to critically respond to current cyber incidents and analyses

Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems in Educational Systems : A case of Yaba College of Technology

Nwogu, Emeka Joshua. 2012. Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems in Educational Systems - A case of Yaba College of Technology. Bachelor’s Thesis. Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences. Business and Culture. Pages 66. Appendix 1. The objective of this thesis work is to put forward a solution for improving the security network of Yaba College of Technology (YCT). This work focuses on implementation of a network intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS), due to constant intrusions on the YCT’s network. Various networks attacks and their mitigation techniques are also discussed, to give a clear picture of intrusions. The work will help the College’s administrators to become increasingly cautions of attacks and perform regular risk analyses. The research methodologies used in this work are descriptive and exploratory research. In addition, a questionnaire survey and interviews were used to collect data necessary for in-depth knowledge of the intrusions in the College. The choice of the research methods was found relevant for the current work. Furthermore, the researcher intended to gain an increased understanding of and provide a detailed picture of IDPS and the issues to consider when implementing the system. Network intrusion has been a security issue since the inception of the computer systems and the Internet. When breaking into a computer or network system, confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) are the three most aspect of security that are targets for intruders. The CIA, important aspects of security, and other network resources, need to be well protected using robust security devices. Based on the research tests and results, this thesis proposes implementation of IDPS on the College’s network, which is an essential aspect of securing information and network resources