Information is what keeps this seemingly chaotic world functioning systematically. Not so long ago, information was physically present, printed or written on papers. To convey important information or messages, we used letters that took some time to reach its destination. Once our civilization invented and learned how to use electricity to store and send information, we never stopped since. Most of our important information is now being created, stored and sent through vast network of information superhighways. Information security threats were present even before we went digital and information security threats pose much greater risk now than ever before. We all like our digital device and can’t go by doing our daily work without them. We pay bills, bank, communicate, socialize and much more online. Our information is out and about in the vast digital sea of information. Our personal information is under attack all the time on many social networking sites. Our financial information is also under attack on online shopping and banking websites. People who like to steal that information through their knowledge and experience in information technology field are known as hackers.
Many hackers don’t have to know everything about the field they want to pose a threat to because there are many readily available tools for them to utilize that were created by other more expert hackers. We are going to pick the banking institutions to discuss common security threats that they are always under. Hacked Account Password Mostly, all banks now have online account access available for their customers. People now have the ability to access their bank account form the comfort of their home. All banks have a strict process that each customer wanting an online access to their individual account has to follow. Each customer has to go through a registration process which includes setting up a user id and password. Customer can the use that user id and password information to log into their account from not just the home or work but virtually from anywhere in the world. This gives hackers the possibility to steal online banking passwords to make unauthorized transactions.
The Essay on Accounts Receivable Customer Information Invoice
E-Commerce Accounts Receivable The purpose of the accounts receivable program is to keep track and report on money owed to your company by your customers as a result of providing them with goods or services. The information needed to operate the program is: 1. Customer Information-Any customer information that could be useful. 2. Invoice Information- Invoice dates, invoice amounts, credits, order ...
Banks cannot rely on governments, ISPs or indeed their own customers to make the internet a safer place. In light of this endemic threat, banking regulators across Europe, USA and the Middle East are looking with increasing concern at the questionable security offered by static simple user name and password systems, and are urging banks to upgrade to a stronger, two factor authentication solutions (Reavley, 2005).
A financial want of desperate individuals is the driving force behind this threat. They pray on banking institutions with poor information security infrastructure. Poor password policies of many banking institutions have led to very big and shameful attacks in the past. Banks know have many different safety measures in place to protect themselves and their customers from these threats. These measures include difficult passwords, account pictures, and computer recognition. These measure are not costly and therefore are very attractive solutions for banking industry.
Phishing
The most worrying development for the financial sector has been the emergence of phishing as the foremost weapon in the criminals’ arsenal. In very basic terms, phishing involves a fraudster masquerading as a financial institution in order to steal a customer’s account information. More recently, criminals have been using increasingly sophisticated spy ware including Trojan horse, key logging and screen scrapper programs – which capture screen shots to obtain end user credentials (Reavley, 2005).
The Essay on Common Information Security Threats 2
The internet is approximately 40 years old and is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. This rapid growth and use of the internet for practically everything you can do in life has also cause a major increase in threats. Cyber-criminals are often breaking into security on many major websites and making the news. Information Security is turning into an important part in protect a business’s ...
No banking institution is immune to phishing. A financial want of desperate individuals is the driving force behind this threat also. They pray on almost all of the banking institutions regardless of their information security infrastructure. Banks now days take many anti-phishing measures to protect their customers. It is not so much of banking institution information security vulnerability but an internet browser security issue. Many browser now have an anti-phishing extension plug-in available for users to safely enter their important information securely. Denial of Service
A denial of service (DoS) attack is specifically designed to interrupt normal system functions and affect legitimate users’ access to the system. Hostile users send a flood of fake requests to a server, overwhelming it and making a connection between the server and legitimate clients difficult or impossible to establish. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) allows the hacker to launch a massive, coordinated attack from thousands of hijacked (zombie) computers remotely controlled by the hacker. A massive DDoS attack can paralyze a network system and bring down giant websites. For example, the 2000 DDoS attacks brought down websites such as Yahoo! and eBay for hours. Unfortunately, any computer system can be a hacker’s target as long as it is connected to the Internet. DoS attacks can result in significant server downtime and financial loss for many companies, but the controls to mitigate the risk are very technical. Companies should evaluate their potential exposure to DoS attacks and determine the extent of control or protection they can afford Lin, P. (2006, July).
Banking industry and our current economy can’t afford any down time or delays in the financial sector. There are many defense responses to a DoS attack. There are firewalls, switches, routers, and traffic monitoring techniques to counter DoS attacks. These may be costly measure but nonetheless critical tools of defense. Some of the required hardware is already part of the system which only requires technical assistant form a technology firm or vendors. Conclusion These three threats mention in this paper are only small section of the vast security threats out there. Demand for online banking services continues to grow at such a fast rate. There is vast amount of monies at stake and threat of fraud is simply inevitable. The need for secure online banking is now a real priority for banking industry. Banks are beginning to fight back and are taking steps to introduce the technologies required to protect this new and vibrant banking channel. The real cost of information security is not in the implementation of security measure technologies but is in the aftermath of a massive cyber breach of financial institutions.
The Essay on All-in-One Computer Security Systems
All-in-one Computer Security Systems CIS/105 Some of the different programs that I choose to use as all-in-one security that has total protection are Norton Internet Security and McAfee has an exclusive active protection technology that analyzes and blocks threats in milliseconds. McAfee can immediately detect and remove viruses, even root kits, adware, spyware, and blocks. McAfee has a two-way ...
References
Reavley, N. (2005, October).
Securing online banking. Card Technology Today, 17(10), 12-13. Lin, P. (2006, July).
System Security Threats and
Controls. The CPA Journal, ().
