Describe threats to network security
Networks are the backbone of the modern world, enabling us to communicate, shop, play, and work from anywhere. They allow access to a vast amount of information not only about ourselves, but also for businesses. That makes networks the prime target for cybercriminals who see information as the new currency. Weak network security risks exposing sensitive critical data and, damaging the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the data being stored.
Understanding threats is a key part of building a strong security network.
Common network attacks
The ways in which networks can be attacked are too numerous to cover here. Let’s consider the more common ones:
- Man-in-the-middle or eavesdropping attack – this type of attack can occur when cybercriminals compromise or emulate routes in the network, allowing them to intercept the packets of information. Think of this as a form of wiretapping. This allows attackers to not just steal data but also compromise its integrity.
- Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack – the objective of a DDoS attack is to compromise the availability of the targeted network or service. Attackers do this by bombarding the targeted network or service with millions of simultaneous requests, from sources that are distributed across the network, overwhelming it and causing it to crash.