Anatomy of an attack

This chapter describes the clever methods that may be employed by a hacker to gain access to a systems and network to discover information.

Abstract

This chapter describes the clever methods that may be employed by a hacker to gain access to a systems and network to discover information. An attack on a system can come from either inside or outside an organization. Protecting the systems only from external attack may be a fatal flaw in the security policy.Most attacks, however, do come from the outside by either experienced hackers or inexperienced, newly budding hackers, and take place during the night when risk of detection is low. The tools that a hacker needs to try to break into a network and systems are available on the Internet. The entire process is illustrated in the chapter through the use of an example.