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What are Network Attacks?

There are different Types of Network attacks which can take advantage of lack of security on you Network.

If you are not ready for Network Attacks you can loose a Lot of information which is important for you.

Now in general there are two Types of attacks Passive Network Attach and Active Network Attack.

Passive Network Attack: These Network Attacks are meant to just monitor the Information on your network.

Active Network Attack: These Network Attacks are meant to alter the information and also intented to corrupt the data or the network itself.

Networks are vulnerable to the following types of Network attacks if you do not have a security plan in action.

Eavesdropping

All the network communication (i.e. Transfer of data) occurs in an unsecured 0r cleartext format. This allows the attacker to intercept the data path and interpret the traffic. Eavesdropping on you communication path refers to sniffing or snooping. This ability of the attacker to eavesdrop is the biggest security problem for administrators in an enterprise. To protect your network against these eavesdroppers requires a strong encryption service which are based on cryptography.

Data Modification

The next thing an attacker has to do after he has gained access to your network or he has read your data is to modify it or alter it, keeping in mind that neither the sender or the receiver has any idea that it has happened. There are instances where you do not require confidentiality but again you still wont like anyone to tamper with your data.

Identity Spoofing (IP Address Spoofing)

Most networks and operating systems use the IP address of a computer to identify a valid entity. In certain cases, it is possible for an IP address to be falsely assumed— identity spoofing. An attacker might also use special programs to construct IP packets that appear to originate from valid addresses inside the corporate intranet.

After gaining access to the network with a valid IP address, the attacker can modify, reroute, or delete your data. The attacker can also conduct other types of attacks, as described in the following sections.

Password based Network Attacks

A common way to access Network security plans and operating systems is through Passwords. Password allow different users to access your network or operating systems by validating their identity.

Older applications do not always protect identity information as it is passed through the network for validation. This might allow an eavesdropper to gain access to the network by posing as a valid user.

When an attacker finds a valid user account, the attacker has the same rights as the real user. Therefore, if the user has administrator-level rights, the attacker also can create accounts for subsequent access at a later time.

After the attacker has gained access to the your network with a valid account he can make any of the following changes.

• Obtain a list of valid users and computer names and network information.
• Modify the network and server Configuration.
• Modify, reroute or even delete your data.

Denial of service Network Attack

Unlike a password-based attack, the denial-of-service attack prevents normal use of your computer or network by valid users.

After accessing you r network with this type of Network attack the user can do the following:

• Randomize the attention of your internal Information Systems staff so that they do not see the intrusion immediately, which allows the attacker to make more attacks during the diversion.
• Send invalid data to applications or network services, which causes abnormal termination or behavior of the applications or services.
• Flood a computer or the entire network with traffic until a shutdown occurs because of the overload.
• Block traffic, which results in a loss of access to network resources by authorized users.

Man-in-the-Middle Network Attack

As the name indicates, a man-in-the-middle attack occurs when someone between you and the person with whom you are communicating is actively monitoring, capturing, and controlling your communication transparently. For example, the attacker can re-route a data exchange. When computers are communicating at low levels of the network layer, the computers might not be able to determine with whom they are exchanging data.

Man-in-the-middle attacks are like someone assuming your identity in order to read your message. The person on the other end might believe it is you because the attacker might be actively replying as you to keep the exchange going and gain more information. This attack is capable of the same damage as an application-layer attack, described later in this section.

Compromised-Key Network Attack

A key is a secret code or number necessary to interpret secured information. Although obtaining a key is a difficult and resource-intensive process for an attacker, it is possible. After an attacker obtains a key, that key is referred to as a compromised key.

An attacker uses the compromised key to gain access to a secured communication without the sender or receiver being aware of the attack.With the compromised key, the attacker can decrypt or modify data, and try to use the compromised key to compute additional keys, which might allow the attacker access to other secured communications.

Sniffer Network 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 attacker does not have access to the key.

Using a sniffer, an attacker can do any of the following:

• Analyze your network and gain information to eventually cause your network to crash or to become corrupted.
• Read your communications.

Application-Layer Network Attack

An application-layer attack targets application servers by deliberately causing a fault in a server’s operating system or applications. This results in the attacker gaining the ability to bypass normal access controls. The attacker takes advantage of this situation, gaining control of your application, system, or network, and can do any of the following:

• Read, add, delete, or modify your data or operating system.
• Introduce a virus program that uses your computers and software applications to copy viruses throughout your network.
• Introduce a sniffer program to analyze your network and gain information that can eventually be used to crash or to corrupt your systems and network.
• Abnormally terminate your data applications or operating systems.
• Disable other security controls to enable future attacks.

This post will not help you secure your network but would help you start with your network security by giving you information on Types of Network Attacks.

Posted under Computers, Network and Security