Computer and Network Infrastructure Attacks

System and Infrastructure Attacks

Student 's Name

Department

Student Code

Date

System and infrastructure attacks

Its impact on E-Commerce

E-Commerce has made strong progress in the last decade . With the event of computers perpetrating the entire world , including the most backward countries , the applications of E-Commerce have increased exponentially However with the increase in applications the vulnerabilities associated with E-Commerce have also increased . Some of the many attack on a system of network are Eavesdropping , Hijacking , Impersonation and Denial of Service Attack

Beginning with Eavesdropping , it

is the intercepting of conversations by unintended recipients . One who participates in eavesdropping (i .e someone who secretly listens in on the conversations of others ) is called an eavesdropper . Basically it is nothing but listening of private talk or conversation by unauthorized people . Eavesdropping can be done over telephone lines , email , instant messaging , and any other method of communication considered private

Eaves dropping possess a serious threat to E- commerce . Through it messages involving transactions can result in loss of privacy . Loss of privacy means all the details like credit card number , password of online accounts can get divulged to other persons who can misuse them and may result in frauds involving online transfer of money or online purchase . These frauds cause losses to both financial institutions as well as its customers (Mitchell , 2005 . Eavesdropping operations generally have three principal elements (USDA

Pickup Device : A microphone , video camera or other device picks up sound or video images and converts them to electrical impulses

Transmission Link : The electrical impulses created by the pickup device are transmitted to a listening post by a transmission link . This may be done by a radio frequency transmission or by wire

Listening Post : This is a secure area where the signals can be monitored , recorded , or retransmitted to another area for processing The listening post may be as close as the next room or as far as several blocks

Countermeasures to eavesdropping on transactions include

use of cryptographic protection for transfer of data between merchant and acquirer , and between banks across the brand network . However , it appears this threat is not always considered a major issue , since eavesdropping at merchant premises is very difficult to address (Mitchell , 2005 . Messages can be protected against eavesdropping by employing a security service of confidentiality (or privacy . This security service is usually implemented by encryption

However with smart use of highly sophisticated devices with proper encryption techniques can prevent eavesdropping . Preventing Eavesdropping require running of enterprise Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP ) traffic on Virtual Private Networks (VPN ) with encryption /decryption processing . It will cause decrease of bandwidth and increase latency . Applied in this way , a call made to a destination can be encrypted transparently with decryption capability through VoIP VPN , and proceed without encryption for calls to destinations without decryption (Juniper , 2006 . Most enterprise VoIP deployments are internal or campus-level , where all external calls are converted by a media gateway to travel over the circuit-switched Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN . This makes a condition...