Network Security v1.0 - Module 2

Module 2: Network Threats
Instructor Materials
Networking Security v1.0

(NETSEC)
What to Expect in this Module
 To facilitate learning, the following features within the GUI may be included in this module:
Feature Description
Animations Expose learners to new skills and concepts.

Expose learners to new skills and concepts.
Videos
Check Your Per topic online quiz to help learners gauge content understanding.
Understanding(CYU)
Interactive Activities A variety of formats to help learners gauge content understanding.

Small simulations that expose learners to Cisco command line to practice
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Simulation and modeling activities designed to explore, acquire, reinforce, and
PT Activity expand skills.
© 2021 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 3
What to Expect in this Module (Cont.)
 To facilitate learning, the following features may be included in this module:
Feature Description
Hands-On Labs Labs designed for working with physical equipment.
Class Activities These are found on the Instructor Resources page. Class Activities are
designed to facilitate learning, class discussion, and collaboration.
Self-assessments that integrate concepts and skills learned throughout the
Module Quizzes series of topics presented in the module.
Module Summary Briefly recaps module content.
Module 2: Network
Threats
Networking Security v1.0

(NETSEC)
Module Objectives
Module Title: Network Threats
Module Objective: Explain the various types of threats and attacks.
Topic Title Topic Objective

Who is Attacking Our Network? Explain how network threats have evoloved.
Describe the various types of attack tools used by Threat

Threat Actor Tools
Actors.
Malware Describe types of malware.
Common Network Attacks - Reconnaissance, Access, and Social Explain reconnaissance, access, and social engineering
Engineering network attacks.
Network Attacks - Denial of Service, Buffer Overflows, and Evasion
Explain Denial of Service, buffer overflow, and evasion attacks.
Configurations
2.1 Who is Attacking Our
Network?
Who is Attacking Our Network?
Threat, Vulnerability, and Risk
To understand network security, it is important to understand the terms threat,
vulnerability, attack surface, exploit, and risk. Four common ways to manage risk are
listed below.
Risk Management Strategy Explanation
Risk acceptance This is when the cost of risk management options outweighs the cost of the
risk itself. The risk is accepted, and no action is taken.
Risk avoidance This means avoiding any exposure to the risk by eliminating the activity or
device that presents the risk. By eliminating an activity to avoid risk, any
benefits that are possible from the activity are also lost.
Risk reduction This reduces exposure to risk or reduces the impact of risk by taking action
to decrease the risk. It is the most commonly used risk mitigation strategy.
This strategy requires careful evaluation of the costs of loss, the mitigation
strategy, and the benefits gained from the operation or activity that is at
risk.
Risk transfer Some (or all) of the risk is transferred to a willing third party such as an
insurance company.
Hacker vs. Threat Actor
As we know, “hacker” is a common term used to describe a threat actor. The term “hacker”
has a variety of meanings, as follows:
• A clever programmer capable of developing new programs and coding changes to existing
programs to make them more efficient.
• A network professional that uses sophisticated programming skills to ensure that networks
are not vulnerable to attack.
• A person who tries to gain unauthorized access to devices on the internet.
• An individual who runs programs to prevent or slow network access to many users, or to
corrupt or destroy data on servers.
You may see references to white hat, gray hat, and black hat hackers.
Evolution of Threat Actors
Since hacking started in the 1960s with phone freaking, or phreaking, it has evolved to
include many types of threat actors.
Threat Actor Explanation
Script Kiddies Script kiddies emerged in the 1990s. They are teenagers or
inexperienced threat actors running existing scripts, tools, and
exploits, to cause harm, but typically not for profit.
Vulnerability Brokers Vulnerability brokers are grey hat hackers who attempt to discover
exploits and report them to vendors, sometimes for prizes or rewards.
Hacktivists Hacktivists are grey hat hackers who rally and protest against different
political and social ideas.
Cybercriminals Cybercriminal is a term for black hat hackers who are either self-
employed or working for large cybercrime organizations.
State- Sponsored State-Sponsored hackers are threat actors who steal government
secrets, gather intelligence, and sabotage networks of foreign
governments, terrorist groups, and corporations.
Cybercriminals
Cybercriminals are threat actors

who are motivated to make money
using any means necessary.
• While some cybercriminals

work independently, they are
more often financed and
sponsored by criminal
organizations.
• It is estimated that globally,
cybercriminals steal billions of
dollars from consumers and
businesses every year.
Cybersecurity Tasks
Organizations must act to protect their assets, users, and customers. They must
develop and practice cybersecurity tasks, including the following:
• Use a trustworthy IT vendor

• Keep security software up-to-date
• Perform regular penetration tests
• Back up to cloud and hard disk
• Periodically change WIFI password
• Keep security policy up-to-date
• Enforce use of strong passwords
• Use two factor authentication
Cyber Threat Indicators
Many network attacks can be prevented by sharing information about indicators of compromise
(IOC). Each attack has unique, identifiable attributes. Indicators of compromise are the evidence
that an attack has occurred.
IOCs can be features that identify the following:

• malware files
• IP addresses of servers that are used in attacks
• filenames
• characteristic changes made to end system software
Indicators of attack (IOA) focus more on the motivation behind an attack and the potential means
by which threat actors have, or will, compromise vulnerabilities to gain access to assets. IOAs are
concerned with the strategies that are used by attackers.
Threat Sharing and Building Cybersecurity Awareness
The US Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) uses a system called
Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS). AIS enables the sharing of attack indicators between the US
government and the private sector as soon as threats are verified. CISA offers many resources
that help to limit the size of the United States attack surface.
The CISA and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) promote cybersecurity to all users.
For example, they have an annual campaign in every October called “National Cybersecurity
Awareness Month” (NCSAM).
The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) delivers advice and solutions for the
cybersecurity challenges of the EU member states.
2.2 Threat Actor Tools
Threat Actor Tools
Introduction of Attack Tools
To exploit a vulnerability, a threat actor must have a technique or tool. Over the years, attack
tools have become more sophisticated, and highly automated. These new tools require less
technical knowledge to implement.
Threat Actor Tools
Evolution of Security Tools
Ethical hacking uses many different types of tools to test the network and end devices. To validate the security of
a network and its systems, many network penetration testing tools have been developed. However, many of
these tools can also be used by threat actors for exploitation.
Categories of Tools Description
password crackers Passwords are the most vulnerable security threat. Password cracking tools are often referred to as password
recovery tools and can be used to crack or recover the password. Password crackers repeatedly make guesses
in order to crack the password and access the system. Examples of password cracking tools include John the
Ripper, Ophcrack, L0phtCrack, THC Hydra, RainbowCrack, and Medusa.
wireless hacking tools Wireless networks are more susceptible to network security threats. Wireless hacking tools are used to
intentionally hack into a wireless network to detect security vulnerabilities. Examples of wireless hacking tools
include Aircrack-ng, Kismet, InSSIDer, KisMAC, Firesheep, and NetStumbler.
network scanning and hacking Network scanning tools are used to probe network devices, servers, and hosts for open TCP or UDP ports.
tools Examples of scanning tools include Nmap, SuperScan, Angry IP Scanner, and NetScanTools.
packet crafting tools Packet crafting tools are used to probe and test a firewall’s robustness using specially crafted forged packets.
Examples of such tools include Hping, Scapy, Socat, Yersinia, Netcat, Nping, and Nemesis.
packet sniffers Packet sniffer tools are used to capture and analyze packets within traditional Ethernet LANs or WLANs. Tools
include Wireshark, Tcpdump, Ettercap, Dsniff, EtherApe, Paros, Fiddler, Ratproxy, and SSLstrip.
rootkit detectors A rootkit detector is a directory and file integrity checker used by white hat hackers to detect installed root kits.
Example tools include AIDE, Netfilter, and PF: OpenBSD Packet Filter.
Threat Actor Tools
Evolution of Security Tools (Cont.)
Categories of Tools Description
fuzzers Fuzzers are tools used by threat actors when attempting to discover a computer system’s security
vulnerabilities. Examples of fuzzers include Skipfish, Wapiti, and W3af.
forensic tools White hat hackers use forensic tools to sniff out any trace of evidence existing in a particular computer
system. Example of tools include Sleuth Kit, Helix, Maltego, and Encase.
debuggers Debugger tools are used by black hat hackers to reverse engineer binary files when writing exploits.
They are also used by white hat hackers when analyzing malware. Debugging tools include GDB,
WinDbg, IDA Pro, and Immunity Debugger.
hacking operating systems Hacking operating systems are specially designed operating systems preloaded with tools and
technologies optimized for hacking. Examples of specially designed hacking operating systems include
Kali Linux, SELinux, Knoppix, Parrot OS, and BackBox Linux.
encryption tools These tools safeguard the contents of an organization’s data when it is stored or transmitted. Encryption
tools use algorithm schemes to encode the data to prevent unauthorized access to the data. Examples
of these tools include VeraCrypt, CipherShed, Open SSH, OpenSSL, OpenVPN, and Stunnel.
vulnerability exploitation tools These tools identify whether a remote host is vulnerable to a security attack. Examples of vulnerability
exploitation tools include Metasploit, Core Impact, Sqlmap, Social Engineer Tool Kit, and Netsparker.
vulnerability scanners These tools scan a network or system to identify open ports. They can also be used to scan for known
vulnerabilities and scan VMs, BYOD devices, and client databases. Examples of these tools include
Nipper, Securia PSI, Core Impact, Nessus, SAINT, and Open VAS.
Threat Actor Tools
Categories of Attacks
Category of Attack Description
eavesdropping attack An eavesdropping attack is when a threat actor captures and listens to network traffic. This attack is also referred
to as sniffing or snooping.
data modification Data modification attacks occur when a threat actor has captured enterprise traffic and has altered the data in the
attack packets without the knowledge of the sender or receiver.
IP address spoofing An IP address spoofing attack is when a threat actor constructs an IP packet that appears to originate from a
attack valid address inside the corporate intranet.
password-based Password-based attacks occur when a threat actor obtains the credentials for a valid user account. Threat actors
attacks then use that account to obtain lists of other users and network information. They could also change server and
network configurations, and modify, reroute, or delete data.
denial-of-service (DoS) A DoS attack prevents normal use of a computer or network by valid users. After gaining access to a network, a
attack DoS attack can crash applications or network services. A DoS attack can also flood a computer or the entire
network with traffic until a shutdown occurs because of the overload. A DoS attack can also block traffic, which
results in a loss of access to network resources by authorized users.
Threat Actor Tools
Categories of Attacks (Cont.)
Category of Description
Attack
man-in-the-middle A MiTM attack occurs when threat actors have positioned themselves between a source and destination. They
attack (MiTM) can now actively monitor, capture, and control the communication transparently.
Compromised key A compromised key attack occurs when a threat actor obtains a secret key. This is referred to as a compromised
attack key. A compromised key can be used to gain access to a secured communication without the sender or receiver
being aware of the attack.
sniffer attack A sniffer is an application or device that can read, monitor, and capture network data exchanges and read
network packets. If the packets are not encrypted, a sniffer provides a full view of the data inside the packet.
Even encapsulated (tunneled) packets can be broken open and read unless they are encrypted, and the threat
actor does not have access to the key.
2.3 Malware
Malware
Types of Malware
Malware is short for malicious software or malicious code. It is code or software that is specifically
designed to damage, disrupt, steal, or generally inflict some other “bad” or illegitimate action on
data, hosts, or networks.
End devices are especially prone to malware attacks.
Three most common types of malware are:

• virus
• worm
• Trojan horse
Malware
Viruses
A virus is a type of malware that spreads by inserting a copy of itself into another program. After
the program is run, viruses then spread from one computer to another, infecting the computers.
Most viruses require human help to spread.
A simple virus may install itself at the first line of code in an executable file. When activated, the
virus might check the disk for other executables so that it can infect all the files it has not yet
infected.
Viruses can also be programmed to mutate to avoid detection.
Most viruses are now spread by USB memory drives, CDs, DVDs, network shares, and email.
Malware
Trojan Horses
Trojan horse malware is software that appears to be legitimate, but it contains malicious code
which exploits the privileges of the user who runs it.
Often, Trojans are found attached to online games. Users are commonly tricked into loading and
executing the Trojan horse on their systems. While playing the game, the user will not notice a
problem. In the background, the Trojan horse has been installed on the user’s system. The
malicious code from the Trojan horse continues operating even after the game has been closed.
The Trojan horse concept is flexible. It can cause immediate damage, provide remote access to
the system, or access through a back door. It can also perform actions as instructed remotely,
such as "send me the password file once per week."
Malware
Trojan Horse Classification
Trojan horses are usually classified according to the damage that they cause, or the manner in
which they breach a system, as shown in the table.
Type of Trojan Horse Description

Remote-access Enables unauthorized remote access.
Data-sending Provides the threat actor with sensitive data, such as passwords.
Destructive Corrupts or deletes files.
Proxy Uses the victim's computer as the source device to launch attacks and perform
other illegal activities.
FTP Enables unauthorized file transfer services on end devices.
Security software disabler Stops antivirus programs or firewalls from functioning.
Denial of Service (DoS) Slows or halts network activity.
Keylogger Actively attempts to steal confidential information, such as credit card numbers, by
recording keystrokes that have been entered into a web form.
Malware
Worms
Computer worms are like viruses because they replicate and can cause the same type of damage.
Specifically, worms replicate themselves by independently exploiting vulnerabilities in networks.
Worms can slow down networks as they spread from system to system.
SQL Slammer, known as the worm that ate the internet, was a denial of service (DoS) attack that
exploited a buffer overflow bug in Microsoft’s SQL Server. At its peak, the number of infected
servers doubled in size every 8.5 seconds. It infected 250,000+ hosts within 30 minutes, as shown
in the figure.
Malware
Worm Components
Most worm attacks consist of three components:
•Enabling vulnerability - A worm installs itself using an exploit mechanism, such as an

email attachment, an executable file, or a Trojan horse, on a vulnerable system.
•Propagation mechanism - After gaining access to a device, the worm replicates itself
and locates new targets.
•Payload - Any malicious code that results in some action is a payload. Most often this is
used to create a backdoor that allows a threat actor access to the infected host or to create
a DoS attack.
Malware
Worm Components (Cont.)
The propagation technique used by

the Code Red worm is shown in the
figure.
Malware
Ransomware
Currently, the most dominant malware is ransomware.
• Ransomware is malware that denies access to the infected computer system or its
data. The cybercriminals then demand payment to release the computer system.
• Ransomware has evolved to become the most profitable malware type in history.
• There are dozens of ransomware variants.
• Ransomware frequently uses an encryption algorithm to encrypt system files and data.
• Payments are typically paid in Bitcoin because users of bitcoin can remain
anonymous.
• Email and malicious advertising, also known as malvertising, are vectors for
ransomware campaigns.
• Social engineering is also used.
Malware
Other Malware
These are some examples of the varieties of modern malware:
Type of Malware Description
Spyware Used to gather information about a user and send the information to another entity without the user’s
consent. Spyware can be a system monitor, Trojan horse, Adware, tracking cookies, and key loggers.
Adware Displays annoying pop-ups to generate revenue for its author. The malware may analyze user interests
by tracking the websites visited. It can then send pop-up advertising pertinent to those sites.
Scareware Includes scam software which uses social engineering to shock or induce anxiety by creating the
perception of a threat. It is generally directed at an unsuspecting user and attempts to persuade the
user to infect a computer by taking action to address the bogus threat.
Phishing Attempts to convince people to divulge sensitive information. Examples include receiving an email from
their bank asking users to divulge their account and PIN numbers.
Rootkits Installed on a compromised system. After it is installed, it continues to hide its intrusion and provide
privileged access to the threat actor.
Malware
Common Malware Behaviors
Computers infected with malware often exhibit one or more of the following symptoms:
• Appearance of strange files, programs, or desktop icons
• Antivirus and firewall programs are turning off or reconfiguring settings
• Computer screen is freezing or system is crashing
• Emails are spontaneously being sent to your contact list without your knowledge
• Files have been modified or deleted
• Increased CPU and/or memory usage
• Problems connecting to networks
• Slow computer or web browser speeds
• Unknown processes or services running
• Unknown TCP or UDP ports open
• Connections are made to hosts on the internet without user action
• Other strange computer behavior
2.4 Common Network Attacks -
Reconnaissance, Access, and
Social Engineering
Common Network Attacks - Reconnaissance, Access, and Social Engineering
Types of Network Attacks
To mitigate attacks, it is useful to first categorize the various types of attacks. By

categorizing network attacks, it is possible to address types of attacks rather than
individual attacks.
Although there is no standardized way of categorizing network attacks, the method used
in this course classifies attacks in three major categories.
• Reconnaissance Attacks
• Access Attacks
• DoS Attacks
Reconnaissance Attacks
Reconnaissance is information gathering. Threat actors use reconnaissance (or recon) attacks to do
unauthorized discovery and mapping of systems, services, or vulnerabilities. Recon attacks precede
access attacks or DoS attacks. Some of the techniques used by malicious threat actors to conduct
reconnaissance attacks are described in the table.
Technique Description
Perform an information query of a target The threat actor is looking for initial information about a target. Various tools can be used,
including the Google search, organizations website, whois, and more.
Initiate a ping sweep of the target network The information query usually reveals the target’s network address. The threat actor can now
initiate a ping sweep to determine which IP addresses are active.
Initiate a port scan of active IP addresses This is used to determine which ports or services are available. Examples of port scanners
include Nmap, SuperScan, Angry IP Scanner, and NetScanTools.
Run vulnerability scanners This is to query the identified ports to determine the type and version of the application and
operating system that is running on the host. Examples of tools include Nipper, Secuna PSI,
Core Impact, Nessus v6, SAINT, and Open VAS.
Run exploitation tools The threat actor now attempts to discover vulnerable services that can be exploited. A variety
of vulnerability exploitation tools exist including Metasploit, Core Impact, Sqlmap, Social
Engineer Toolkit, and Netsparker.
Video - Reconnaissance Attacks
This video will explain the following techniques used in a

reconnaissance attack:
• Perform an information query on a target
• Initiate a ping sweep of the target network
• Initiate a port scan of active ip addresses
• Run vulnerability scanners
• Run exploitation tools
Access Attacks
Access attacks exploit known vulnerabilities in authentication services, FTP services, and
web services. The purpose of this type of attack is to gain entry to web accounts,
confidential databases, and other sensitive information.
Technique Description
Password Attacks In a password attack, the threat actor attempts to discover critical system passwords using various
methods.
Spoofing Attacks In spoofing attacks, the threat actor’s device attempts to pose as another device by falsifying data.
Common spoofing attacks include IP spoofing, MAC spoofing, and DHCP spoofing.
Trust Exploitation In a trust exploitation attack, a threat actor uses unauthorized privileges to gain access to a system,
possibly compromising the target.
Port redirection In a port redirection attack, a threat actor uses a compromised system as a base for attacks against
other targets.
Man-in-the-Middle In a man-in-the-middle attack, the threat actor is positioned in between two legitimate entities in order to
read or modify the data that passes between the two parties.
Buffer Overflow Attack In a buffer overflow attack, the threat actor exploits the buffer memory and overwhelms it with
unexpected values. This usually renders the system inoperable, resulting in a DoS attack.
Video - Access and Social Engineering Attacks
This video will cover the following:
• Techniques used in access attacks (password attacks, spoofing attacks,

trust exploitations, port redirections, man-in-the-middle attacks, buffer
overflow attacks)
• Techniques used in social engineering attacks (pretexting, phishing, spear
phishing, spam, something for something, baiting, impersonation, tailgating,
shoulder surfing, dumpster diving)
Social Engineering Attacks
Social engineering is an access attack that attempts to manipulate individuals into performing actions or
divulging confidential information. Information about social engineering techniques is shown in the table.
Social Engineering Description
Attack
Pretexting A threat actor pretends to need personal or financial data to confirm the identity of the recipient.
Phishing A threat actor sends fraudulent email which is disguised as being from a legitimate, trusted source to trick the
recipient into installing malware on their device, or to share personal or financial information.
Spear phishing A threat actor creates a targeted phishing attack tailored for a specific individual or organization.
Spam Also known as junk mail, this is unsolicited email which often contains harmful links, malware, or deceptive
content.
Something for Sometimes called “Quid pro quo”, this is when a threat actor requests personal information from a party in
Something exchange for something such as a gift.
Baiting A threat actor leaves a malware-infected flash drive in a public location. A victim finds the drive and
unsuspectingly inserts it into their laptop, unintentionally installing malware.
Impersonation In this type of attack, a threat actor pretends to be someone else to gain the trust of a victim.
Social Engineering Attacks (Cont.)
Social Description
Engineering
Attack
Tailgating This is where a threat actor quickly follows an
authorized person into a secure location to gain
access to a secure area.
Shoulder This is where a threat actor inconspicuously looks
surfing over someone’s shoulder to steal their passwords
or other information.
Dumpster This is where a threat actor rummages through
diving trash bins to discover confidential documents.
Strengthening the Weakest Link
Cybersecurity is only as strong as its weakest link. Because computers and other internet-
connected devices have become an essential part of our lives, they no longer seem new or
different.
The weakest link in cybersecurity can be the personnel within an organization, and social
engineering is a major security threat. Because of this, one of the most effective security
measures that an organization can take is to train its personnel and create a “security-aware
culture.”
Lab - Social Engineering
In this lab, you will research examples of social engineering and identify ways to
recognize and prevent it.
2.5 Network Attacks - Denial of
Service, Buffer Overflows, and
Evasion
Video - Denial of Service Attacks
This video will cover the following:
• Techniques used in Denial-of-Service attacks (overwhelming quantity of

traffic, maliciously formatted packets)
• Techniques used in Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks (zombies)
DoS and DDoS Attacks
A Denial of Service (DoS) attack creates some sort of interruption of network services
to users, devices, or applications. There are two major types of DoS attacks:
• Overwhelming Quantity of Traffic
• Maliciously Formatted Packets
A Distributed DoS Attack (DDoS) is like a DoS attack, but it originates from multiple,
coordinated sources.
Components of DDoS Attacks
If threat actors can compromise many hosts, they can perform a Distributed DoS Attack (DDoS). DDoS attacks are
similar in intent to DoS attacks, except that a DDoS attack increases in magnitude because it originates from
multiple, coordinated sources. The following terms are used to describe components of a DDoS attack:
Component Description
zombies This refers to a group of compromised hosts (i.e., agents). These hosts run malicious code referred to as robots
(i.e., bots). The zombie malware continually attempts to self-propagate like a worm.
bots Bots are malware that is designed to infect a host and communicate with a handler system. Bots can also log
keystrokes, gather passwords, capture and analyze packets, and more.
botnet This refers to a group of zombies that have been infected using self-propagating malware (i.e., bots) and are
controlled by handlers.
handlers This refers to a master command-and-control (CnC or C2) server controlling groups of zombies. The originator of a
botnet can use Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or a web server on the C2 server to remotely control the zombies.
botmaster This is the threat actor who is in control of the botnet and handlers.
Video - Mirai Botnet
This video will demonstrate a DDoS attack using Mirai Botnet.
Buffer Overflow Attack
The goal of a threat actor when using a buffer

overflow DoS attack is to find a system memory-
related flaw on a server and exploit it. Exploiting
the buffer memory by overwhelming it with
unexpected values usually renders the system
inoperable, creating a DoS attack.
It is estimated that one third of malicious attacks

are the result of buffer overflows.
Evasion Methods
Some of the evasion methods used by threat actors include:
Evasion Method Description
Encryption and tunneling This evasion technique uses tunneling to hide, or encryption to scramble, malware files. This makes it
difficult for many security detection techniques to detect and identify the malware. Tunneling can mean
hiding stolen data inside of legitimate packets.
Resource exhaustion This evasion technique makes the target host too busy to properly use security detection techniques.
Traffic fragmentation This evasion technique splits a malicious payload into smaller packets to bypass network security detection.
After the fragmented packets bypass the security detection system, the malware is reassembled and may
begin sending sensitive data out of the network.
Protocol-level This evasion technique occurs when network defenses do not properly handle features of a PDU like a
misinterpretation checksum or TTL value. This can trick a firewall into ignoring packets that it should check.
Traffic substitution In this evasion technique, the threat actor attempts to trick an IPS by obfuscating the data in the payload.
This is done by encoding it in a different format. For example, the threat actor could use encoded traffic in
Unicode instead of ASCII. The IPS does not recognize the true meaning of the data, but the target end
system can read the data.
Evasion Methods (Cont.)
Evasion Method Description
Traffic insertion Similar to traffic substitution, but the threat actor inserts extra bytes of data in a sequence of malicious data.
The IPS rules miss the malicious data, accepting the full sequence of data.
Pivoting This technique assumes that the threat actor has compromised an inside host and wants to expand their
access further into the compromised network. An example is a threat actor who has gained access to the
administrator password on a compromised host and is attempting to login to another host using the same
credentials.
Rootkits A rootkit is a complex attacker tool used by experienced threat actors. It integrates with the lowest levels of
the operating system. When a program attempts to list files, processes, or network connections, the rootkit
presents a sanitized version of the output, eliminating any incriminating output. The goal of the rootkit is to
completely hide the activities of the attacker on the local system.
Proxies Network traffic can be redirected through intermediate systems in order to hide the ultimate destination for
stolen data. In this way, known command-and-control cannot be blocked by an enterprise because the proxy
destination appears benign. Additionally, if data is being stolen, the destination for the stolen data can be
distributed among many proxies, thus not drawing attention to the fact that a single unknown destination is
serving as the destination for large amounts of network traffic.
2.6 Network Threats Summary
Network Threats Summary
What Did I Learn in this Module?
• Understanding network security requires you to understand the following terms: threat, vulnerability, attack
surface, exploit, and risk.
• Four common ways to manage risk are risk acceptance, risk avoidance, risk reduction, and risk transfer.
• Threat actors include script kiddies, vulnerability brokers, hacktivists, cybercriminals, and state-sponsored
hackers.
• Threat actors use a variety of attack tools including password crackers, wireless hacking tools, network
security scanning and hacking tools, packet crafting tools, and many more.
• Categories of attacks include eavesdropping attacks, data modification attacks, IP address spoofing
attacks, password-based attacks, denial-of-service attacks, man-in the-middle attacks, and others.
• Three common types of malware include are virus, worm, and Trojan horse.
• A virus spreads by inserting a copy of itself into another program.
• Trojan horse malware is software that appears to be legitimate, but it contains malicious code that exploits
the privileges of the user that runs it.
• Worms are similar to viruses because they replicate and can cause the same type of damage. Viruses
require a host program to run. Worms can run themselves.
Network Threats Summary
What Did I Learn in this Module? (Cont.)
• Ransomware denies access to the infected system or its data and then demands payment to release the
computer system.
• Reconnaissance is information gathering where threat actors perform unauthorized discovery and
mapping of systems, services, or vulnerabilities.
• Access attacks exploit known vulnerabilities and include password attacks, spoofing attacks, trust
exploitation attacks, and others.
• Social engineering is an access attack that attempts to manipulate individuals into performing unsafe
actions or divulging confidential information and include pretexting, phishing, spam, impersonation,
tailgating, shoulder surfing, dumpster diving, etc.
• There are two major types of DoS attacks: overwhelming quantity of traffic and maliciously formatted
packets.
• DDoS attacks are similar in intent to DoS attacks, except that the DDoS attack increases in magnitude
because it originates from multiple, coordinated sources.
• The following terms are used to describe DDoS attacks: zombies, bots, botnet, handlers, and botmaster.
• Evasion methods include encrypting and tunneling, resource exhaustion, traffic fragmentation, and more.

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What are the common types of malware discussed in the document?

What are the common types of malware discussed in the document?

What are some common reconnaissance techniques threat actors use?

What are some common reconnaissance techniques threat actors use?

Module 2: Network Threats

Networking Security v1.0

Animations Expose learners to new skills and concepts.

Interactive Activities A variety of formats to help learners gauge content understanding.

Networking Security v1.0

Module Objective: Explain the various types of threats and attacks.

Topic Title Topic Objective

Describe the various types of attack tools used by Threat

Malware Describe types of malware.

Cybercriminals are threat actors

• While some cybercriminals

• Use a trustworthy IT vendor

IOCs can be features that identify the following:

End devices are especially prone to malware attacks.

Three most common types of malware are:

Viruses can also be programmed to mutate to avoid detection.

Type of Trojan Horse Description

Most worm attacks consist of three components:

•Enabling vulnerability - A worm installs itself using an exploit mechanism, such as an

The propagation technique used by

Currently, the most dominant malware is ransomware.

To mitigate attacks, it is useful to first categorize the various types of attacks. By

This video will explain the following techniques used in a

This video will cover the following:

• Techniques used in access attacks (password attacks, spoofing attacks,

This video will cover the following:

• Techniques used in Denial-of-Service attacks (overwhelming quantity of

This video will demonstrate a DDoS attack using Mirai Botnet.

The goal of a threat actor when using a buffer

It is estimated that one third of malicious attacks

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