Critical Evaluation Of Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities, Exploits, And Countermeasures

Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities at Personal and Organizational Levels

 The foremost determination of the paper is to focus on the cybersecurity vulnerabilities which are legitimate for every internet user. The levels of cyber security attacks are increasing due to the extensive developments in the field of ethical hacking techniques. Every internet user should have adequate security cover so that the attacks have minimum effect on the computer systems and the users. Penetration testers who are main leads for ethical hacking also play a significant role both in hacking as well as to counter the cyber-attacks. Digital forensic tools such as Autopsy which can be used in any of the operating systems can be very much useful to deal with the cybersecurity attacks.

The paper will be critically evaluating three different categories of cyber vulnerabilities from the point of view of a social engineer. The three cyber vulnerabilities will be presented in the form of organizational level as well as personal level. The difference between the cyber threats in the organizational level and the personal level will be also presented in this paper.

Critical evaluation of the three categories of cyber exploits will be presented in the paper such as the threat of the Dyn attack, St. Jude Medical and the TRENDnet webcam attack. The paper will be also helpful to identify the IDPS components such as the console programs and the manage servers which can be hugely beneficial to counter the cyber vulnerabilities and exploits which will be discussed in the paper. The strengths, weakness and suitability of the digital tools associated with each of the topic will be also presented in this paper.

The paper will also provide the recent cybersecurity issue along with their level of impact on the organizations in tabular form.

Figure 1: Emergence of cybersecurity threats

(Source: Created by the author)

This unit of the paper will be critically evaluating the three cyber vulnerabilities at different levels from the perspective of a social engineer.

As stated by (Knowles et al. 2015), most of the business organizations all around the world have multiple data sources which are mostly targeted by the cybercriminals all around the world to get the confidential data which are being circulated with in the business environment of the organization. The data which are stored in the cloud platforms are also not fully safe from the cybersecurity attacks as mentioned by the researcher.

However, as mentioned by (Nazareth and Choi 2015), the hacking of the confidential data from the business organizations is not as easy it is supposed to be due to the advanced security covers which are maintained by the business organizations in the form of those organizations in terms of the security dynamic models. The researchers of this paper stated the importance of the countermeasures which are required for managing the security risks.

Cyber Exploits and Damages

Table 1: Impact of cybersecurity in organization level

(Source: Created by the author)

 Thus, based on the above two discussion, the issue of hacking confidential information from a business organization can be understood. Both researchers have different perspectives regarding the issue. From a social engineer perspective, it can be said that the hacking procedures have to be more advanced so that it can compete with the countermeasures adopted by the business organizations.

According to Skopik, Settanni and Fiedler (2016), the computer systems which are used for personal reasons are also susceptible to cyber vulnerabilities. The researchers focused on the huge application of the IoT based devices which are again connected in a network are very much prone to the cyber vulnerabilities. The data from the smart home appliances and the smartphones can be encrypted by the cybercriminals with the help of various security platforms. The researchers stated about the complexities of the smartphone devices for the users in terms of connectivity, this aspect is capitalized by the ethical hackers as well as the criminals.

As stated by (Fennelly 2016), the cyber vulnerabilities in personal levels can be countered by the physical security measures such as updating the anti-spyware software and firewall of the computer systems. The researcher of the paper highlight that most of the users of the smart applications generally monitors the networking activities which are done on those system to check any kinds of vulnerability, so there is a greater sense of awareness among the users.

Thus, based on the above two discussions it can be said that the cyber vulnerabilities in personal level can be minimized and managed in a better way as compared with the cyber vulnerabilities in the organizational level (Sung et al. 2016). From the point of view of a social engineer it can be said that more advanced techniques and methodologies should be applied by the ethical hackers and social engineers so that they can breach the security covers which are generally maintained in the personal level.

As stated by Nandi, Meda and Vadlamani (2016), there are different categories of vulnerabilities in organizational level such as the threat coming from the hacking activities and alteration of data by the cybercriminals which are the reasons behind huge business loss for those organizations. The researcher of this paper stated that the portal accounts of the employees of the business organization are mostly affected by the cybersecurity threats, one of such threats happened in the year 2013 when there was a massive collapse in the IT infrastructure of Adobe Corporation. The login details of more than 2.9 million stakeholders of Adobe was stolen by the hackers which had essential information such as the credit card numbers along with their expiry dates according to the researchers. All the data of those users were encrypted instead of stolen by cybercriminals. A security loophole was there in their IT infrastructure which are well capitalized by the social engineers. The organizations are facing an increased threat coming from the high-quality encryption techniques which are constantly used by the social engineers (Adam. and Makramalla 2015). The security practices of this organization were not very much reliable according to the researchers and the social engineers made good use of this aspect as they stated in the paper. The researchers stated that all the essential data of this business organization could have been the prime targets for the social engineers but the business strategy applied by the cyber criminals in the adobe attack is highly appreciable form the perspective of a social engineer as the same process can be re-applied with the same data.

Appropriate IDPS Components

Figure 2: Cybersecurity threats in different levels

(Source: Created by the author)

This unit of the paper will be evaluating the three different cyber exploits with the damages that were done.

As stated by the Goodwin et al. (2015), the cyber exploits are very much harmful from the point of view of the users of the internet-based devices and are hugely beneficial from the point of view of the social engineers. The researchers of the paper focused on the importance of the distributed denial of service which are generally carried out using the botnets. New techniques and procedures are being implemented by the social engineers so that they can extract more money in the form of bitcoins from the concerned users of the internet-based systems.

However, according to Shameli-Sendi, Aghababaei-Barzegar and Cheriet (2016), the extensive development in the field of social engineering has led to numerous cyber exploits such as the cyber exploits which occurred in the year 2016 when an IoT botnet was used in a DDoS attack. Numerous reputed platforms such as CNN, Reddit, Netflix and Twitter had a direct negative impact due to this social engineering attack. The malware which was used in this DDoS attack was termed as Mirai by the social engineers. Default user’s ID’s and default passwords are steadily created by this malware and user accounts were accesses without any difficulty which is the principle damage of the attackers

 Thus, based on the above two discussions it can be said that cyber exploit could have been prevented by the users if they maintained complex alphanumeric passwords with special characters in their accounts on the above-discussed platforms such as Netflix and Twitter, at the same time frequent updating the firmware could have mitigated the vulnerability associated with DDoS attacks (Almeshekah and Spafford 2016). The damage done due to the Dyn attack from the perspective of a social engineer is the extraction of money in the form of the bitcoins.

Figure 3: Area of impact for the security threats

(Source: Created by the author)

As discussed by Williams and Woodward (2015), there is an increasing cyber threat to most of the business organization. The researchers of this paper stated about the threat which shocked the entire world when there was a security vulnerability in the cardiac vehicles of St. Jude medical. The safety and security of the patients was compromised after a security attack in the working environment of this healthcare organization. The researcher stated his views from the perspective of a social engineer in this paper. The internal security measures maintained by this organization was a considerable threat for the cybercriminals but they prepared exclusive inductive models before their attack which put them in an advantageous position comparing with the hospital authority (Almorsy, Grundy and Müller 2016). Ethical hacking procedures was the chosen method for the cybercriminals as stated by the researchers of this paper. The implantable devices of this hospital organization are the most impacted devices of the cyber-attack and new security policies was needed to be created as the lives of the patients was at stake due to this attack. The battery consumption of the devices is altered by the cybercriminals and new complexities were added to those cardiac devices.

Recent Cybersecurity Issues and Impact on Organizations

According to Williams and Woodward (2015), the information systems which are connected in the private environments of this hospital was severely compromised as there was unauthorized access in the portal which was done with the help of the exceptional capabilities of social engineers specially in their skills in terms of the SQL injection attacks. The data of this organization which was stored in the databases was exploited and altered which had a direct reputation of this organization. The remote monitoring systems of this organization was the primary target of the cyber criminals. The security flaws were very well studied by the social engineers before the attack and strategy was created and implemented accordingly (Zhao, Mrossklag and Liu 2015). The researcher of this paper stated that the protocol followed by the cybercriminals in this attack can be used for any other attacks in other business organizations such as the finance and accounting organizations. Only the cardiac devices were the subject for the social engineers in this attack but the researcher of the paper stated that the other departments of this organization are also vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. The process of ethical hacking and extraction which can be adopted by the social engineer for the future attacks are described in the figure below. The prime damage done by the social engineers is decreasing the reputation of the organization as well as business loss for the organization.

Figure 4: Sequence of activity which can be adopted in cybersecurity attacks

(Source: Created by the author)

According to Kostopoulos (2017), there is a significant security threat coming from internet-based surveillance cameras due to the different categories of ethical activities. The researcher of the paper stated the security threats associated with the web cam attacks. There are different types of webcam attacks which are increasingly common in most of the European countries. The malware programs are used to hack the webcams by social engineers. The remote administration tool is also used by cybercriminals to breach the internal networking security of the business organizations. Dangerous viruses are also used in the attack on the webcams. The researcher of this paper stated about the hacking process of the webcams in a detailed manner such as the click hacking procedures. Case studies are also provided in this paper stating the cyber vulnerabilities on the home security systems. The researcher of this paper stated all the facts about the webcam attacks from the perspective of a social engineer (Ganesan et al. 2016). The contingency plans are also however stated in paper such as the use of the webcam protection software and the importance of unplugging while the cameras are not in use. The captured images can be used for personal purposes by the social engineers as stated the researcher of this paper. The papers are also very much helpful to understand the importance of firmware which can save these kinds of security attacks.

Conclusion

As stated by Kostopoulos (2017), all the webcam users of TRENDnet were vulnerable to the attacks and the privacy of the users were compromised in the attack. The researcher also stated that all the products of this organization such as the television are also vulnerable to the disease. The researcher highly focused on the security issue of the web-based configuration tools which are generally capitalized by the social engineers. The capabilities of the social engineers in the webcam-based attacks were discussed in the paper as well. The researcher of this paper also stated about the security measures of the webcams whenever they are connected in a private network. The main damage done by the cybercriminals in this attack is that it ensured that consumers of this organization chooses products from other similar organization regarding for better service and security of the products (Conteh and Schmick 2016). Thus, the paper helps us concluding the vulnerabilities associated with electronic devices such as the surveillance cameras.

This unit of the paper will be examining the different categories of IDPS components which will help to help with the above-discussed exploits and vulnerabilities.

The threat coming from the organization level where confidential data can be compromised by the social engineers can be resolved with the help of proper database management skills needed for the database servers. Sensors and the agent monitoring facility of the IDPS system can be also useful to deal with this threat. The database management skills and the sensors are the prime advantage of the IDPS in the organizational level (Shinde and Ardhapurkar 2016). Digital forensic tools such as the SIFT which are used in ubuntu based operating system can be suitable regarding saving data from the social engineering attacks.

The threat coming from the personal level where sensitive information can be tracked from the IoT based devices or the smart home appliances can be resolved with the help of the console of the IDPS which is the prime feature of the IDPS. The console program can be effectively used in personal level as it can guide the users to update the security patches of the systems, the program also monitors all the networking activities and is considered as the strength of IDPS. Console applications such as Crowd Response and Crowd Strike are the most suitable forensic tools which can be used as countermeasure regarding the cyber vulnerabilities in personal level (Zahadat et al. 2015). The most significant disadvantage of these applications is their ability to counter the advanced cyber vulnerabilities such as the wanna cry ransomware.

The threat coming from the hacking and the unethical activities which are common in business organization such as Adobe reader can be minimised with the help of the agent monitor of the IDPS. The network-based threats are effectively identified with the help of the agent monitors. Every business organization have a secure databased where different categories of data are stored and edited and retrieved and management of the database are very much important in order to be secured from the cyber securities. All the network-based activities can be checked with the help of the management servers of the Intrusion Detection Protection System. Deployment of the IDPS makes the organization much more secure as compared with the latest techniques of attacks which are introduced by the cybercriminals.

The private servers are very much vulnerable to the cybersecurity attacks such as the cybersecurity attack on the IT infrastructure of the Adobe Corporation. The application of the monitor agents and the management servers could have saved this organization against the attack that was conducted on them (Bello Garba, Armarego and Murray 2015). The database server which are generally provided by the IDPS could have been very much useful to mitigate the networking threats. The application of the console program of the IDPS could have been also very much useful for Adobe to deal with their cybersecurity threat of 2013. Forensic tools such as the ExifTool can be used by the management team of Adobe Corporation to deal with the security issue accounts of their stakeholders. The main strength of ExifTool is its compatibility with different categories of computers systems, different other industries such as the finance and the accounting forms can also use this tool for security purposes however the principal limitation of this tools is that it can be only installed in a computer having windows based operating systems.

The threat coming from the DDoS attacks such as the Dyn attack can be mitigated with the help of the sensor agents of the IDPS, management server which is a centralized device used to detect IP address and management of the data. Console could have been also useful regarding these kinds of attacks. Management of the database server by the discussed platforms such as Twitter and Netflix by their backend management team might have prevented these kinds of attacks. Digital forensic tools such as the volatility which are developed in Python can be used as a penetration tool by the social engineers during their cyber-attacks (Abomhara and Køien 2015). The compatibility issue of these tools is its significant disadvantage. The fraudulent activities of the cyber securities can be also solved to a significant extent with the help of forensic tools such as volatility tool. The most significant weakness of this forensic tool is its way of implementation. This tool is suitable for other industries as well such as the banking industry.

The security threat on the cardiac devices of St. Jude Medical could have been very much useful if they used the console program of the Intrusion Detection Prevention System. The administration of all the network-based devices which are used in the hospital environment can be done in a better way with the help of the console program (Mann 2017). The console program could have also enhanced the monitoring capabilities of the IT security team of this organization. The most appropriate component of IDPS to fight against the vulnerabilities of St. Jude Medical is the database server and the management server as it could have easily used for the management of the security threats (Parsons et al. 2015). The cybersecurity threats in the healthcare industries can be also stooped with the help of the sensors which are helpful in the detection of the vulnerabilities associated with the hospital network. There are different subcategories of the sensors of the IDPS such as the inline sensors which help in the blocking of a security attack which is already underway. Passive sensors are the other essential components of the IDPS which are used in the detection of the threats in a network. The inline sensor is inserted into a network segment so that the networking traffics can be managed effectively. NIDS sensor logic are very much applied in most of the business organization so that these kinds of security issues are avoided as these issues not only have a negative effect economically as well as it has an effect on the business reputation of the organization as well.

The security issue of Adobe could have avoided with the help of the Network Intrusion Detection Systems and Host-based Intrusion Detection System. The forensic tools which could have helped St. Jude Medical to deal with their security threats are the CAINE tool, FTK Imager, SANS investigative forensic tool kit (SIFT). The application of the forensic tools could have been very much useful in the Adobe Corporation to deal with their issue of stolen user accounts and data alteration (Burns et al. 2017). The most significant capability of the inline sensors is its stability in every network and the forensic tools are its analysing power (Huang et al. 2016). Availability is the main weakness associated with these forensic tools and this tool can be used in other sectors as well such as the Police and security councils.

The exploits and vulnerabilities of webcam security attacks could have been avoided with the help of the different forensic tools such as the Sleuth Kit tool as well as with the help of the different types of intrusion detection systems. Each component of the IDPS are have specific functions and the components which are most appropriate for fighting against the cyber vulnerabilities of the TRENDnet are the console programs and the manage servers. The console programs could have been very much useful to find out the different logs for the security attacks. The agent monitor would have helped the users of the TRENDnet to protect them from the security flaws of the software’s. Monitoring of the networks could have been easier with the help of the agent monitors. The host based ISPS technologies can be effectively used by the management team of TRENDnet to protect their product from being hacked by the social engineers. Multiple management servers of the IDPS could have been also useful for the products of this organization to deal with the management of the security flaws (Raza et al. 2015). Computer forensic tools such as Pro Discover Forensic tool could have played a huge role in the identification of the network vulnerability among the products of this organization. Tools such as the Xplico and X-Ways forensics could have been also useful to deal with the issue of privacy and security of the consumers of this organization.

The most significant benefit of using digital forensic tools for the identification of the network vulnerabilities is that it has the capability to secure the device or the product entirely from a security threat. Scientific evidences of the existing threats can be also identified with the help of these forensic tools. The ethical hacking methodologies can be also managed or restricted with the help of these forensic tools. However, there is weakness associated with Xplico and X-rays is its high initial cost and availability in the market. This forensic tool can be also used in the healthcare industries as well to deal with networking threats such as the ransomware.

Conclusion

The paper is very much useful to concluded the importance of maintaining a secure environment both in personal or organisational organizations. The above report helps in concluding the different types of cyber vulnerabilities such as malware threats, unpatched security vulnerabilities, phishing attacks and internal threats. The cyber vulnerabilities were discussed and critically analysed in both personal and organizations levels. Three categories of cyber exploits were discussed along with the damage done by the attackers in those attacks such as the Dyn attack, attack on St. Jude Medical and the TRENDnet. The paper is also very much useful to understand the importance of the identification of the components of IDPS such as console and sensors to fight against the discussed cyber exploits and cyber vulnerabilities which are discussed in the paper in organizational level and personal level. The strength, suitability and weaknesses of the forensic tools such as volatility, SANS investigative forensic tool kit (SIFT), Xplico and X-Ways can be also concluded from this paper.

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