Network Security Principles

Network Security Principles
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Today the internet has introduced a fresh way for criminals to beat their targets and goals with minimal risks of being caught. The capacity of cyber criminals to swiftly manage immense numbers of hosts on the internet is a savage risk today. If subversion is done the hosts may be meant for launching enormous denial of service attacks, corrupt or steal massive amounts of private information or even disrupt an entire network. I have cracked my head for quite an episode trying to establish whether the so called cyber criminals can be dealt with. As a system administrator, everyone has the accountability to protect the system, and he is responsible for all the activities in one’s network. Definitely, the question of what a system administrator can do to protect his system has been exhausted in this document (Albert, 2004).
To begin with, there exists an insecurity known as Trojans and backdoors. A computer Trojan simple description is a malicious, security-cracking program that is camouflaged as something benevolent. Trojans work akin to a client-server network mode. This mode labels the cooperation involving networked clients (computers) and its server that allows these users a right of entry to the server (Cengage Learning, 2010). Trojans can modify the registry of a PC or affect some other auto starting process. These auto starting processes restart the Trojans each time the remote computer starts or reboots. Knowing the distinct ways that a Trojan get into a system may come in as a handy weapon to a system administrator. Some of the ways are infection through instant messenger applications like Yahoo Messenger or ICQ. Next, a Trojan may get into a system through the internet relay chat. Trojan.exe may be renamed to trojan.txt (with 150 gaps).exe. It can be accepted over IRC, and Direct Client to Client, appearing as .TXT. The implementation of such cases may cause infections. Other ways of infection are email attachments, physical access, NetBIOS file sharing, fake programs or freeware, and suspicious sites (Cengage Learning, 2010).
The following procedures are the best available arsenals against Trojans and Backdoors. First, avoid downloading from unknown sites or people devoid of exercising due diligence on the files. Crosschecking the file extensions and scanning for malware should be done before opening any file. This should be executed even if the file comes from an ally. Avoid using attributes in programs with a capacity to automatically preview or get files. Monitoring the internal network traffic using commands like NETSTAT and FPORT may help identify suspicious connections to the internet. I bet we all know that it is better to prevent than wait to cure. That said, a network administrator should not be lulled into a misleading sense of security for the reason that an antivirus is running in the system (ACM Council, 1992).
Secondly, there is the threat of virus and worms. A virus is a program that self-replicates and produces its individual code by fixing copies of it to other codes, and functions exclusive of the knowledge of the client. Like a genuine virus, it is transmittable and can infect other files; nonetheless, viruses can contaminate outside computers only with the aid of computer users. A worm is a malevolent program that can contaminate both remote and local machines. Worms spread robotically by tainting systems in a network, including even spreading to additional networks. That said, worms have a larger capacity to cause damage, as they do not depend on the user’s deeds for execution. Trojans and rootkits are programs in use for concealment of devices. Once viruses multiply themselves in the target system, they initiate file and programs corruption of the host system. Other viruses have prompt events that necessitate for activation to alter the host system. Others have bugs that reproduce themselves, and execute activities such as increasing session time and deleting files (ACM Council, 1992).
Viruses distort their marks only after distribution as meant by their developers. The majority of viruses that attack target systems perform acts like deleting files and shifti...