The Types of Attacks

Now let’s take a look at the types of attacks that are occurring on the Internet. This list is not meant to be all encompassing but to give you an idea of what is occurring. The following is a high-level breakdown of network-based attacks:

  • Active attacks

    • Denial of Service

    • Breaking into a site

      • Intelligence gathering

      • Resource usage

      • Deception

  • Passive attacks

    • Sniffing

      • Passwords

      • Network traffic

      • Sensitive information

    • Information gathering

At the highest level, the preceding attacks can be broken down into two main areas: active and passive. An active attack involves a deliberate action on the part of the attacker to gain access to the information he is after. An example is trying to telnet to port 25 on a given machine to find out information ...

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