Characteristics Of Cyber Attacks And Its

CountermeasuresBy

Venkat MeruvaSouthern University and A & M

College

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Introduction

Importance of Cyber Security

Different Types of Cyber Attacks

Counter Measures

Conclusion

Future Work

References

Outline

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◦Cyber security involves protecting the information and systems where we rely on every day.

◦Many aspects of our lives rely on the Internet and computers, there are follows:

i. Communications (e-mail, cell phones, texting).

ii. Transportation (traffic control signals, car engine systems, airplane navigation).

iii. Government (birth/death records, social security, licensing, tax records).

iv. Finance (bank accounts, loans, electronic paychecks).

v. Medicine (equipment, medical records) and

vi. Education (virtual classrooms, online report cards, research).

Cyber Security

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◦Today, the necessity of strong Cyber Security measures is self evident. An Increase in number

of cyberattacks is causing increasing damage to companies, governments and individuals.

◦The increasing of cyber attacks includes targeting phishing scams, data theft, and other online attacks .

◦The average unprotected computer connected to the Internet can be compromised in moments.

◦Thousands of infected web pages are being discovering every day.

◦Organizations need to respond to this increased threat by adopting strict Cyber Security  measures.

◦Hence there is a need to understanding of cyber-attacks and its classification, so that one can take

measures against such attacks.

Importance of Cyber Security

Ref : http://Cyber Security .alabama.gov/Documents/security/WhyCyber Security isImportant.pdf

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◦The following are the different types of Cyber Attacks:

Denial of Service (DDoS) attack

Web Based Malvertising Attack

Man in the Middle Attack

Malware Attack

Phishing Attack

Types of Cyber-Attacks

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◦ A Denial-of-service Attack (DoS attack) is a cyber attack

 where the attacker tries to make a network unavailable by

temporarily disrupting host which is connected to

the internet.

◦ This involves the attacker using multiple computers to send

the traffic that will overload the system.

◦ In many instances, a person may not even realize that the

computer has been hijacked to the DDoS attack.

Denial of Service Attack

Ref: Survey on Various Cyber Attacks and Their Classification International Journal of Network Security,

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◦ Malvertising is the use of online advertising  to

spread malware.

◦ Cyber attackers upload infected display ads to different

sites using an ad network. These ads are then distributed

to sites that match certain keywords and search criteria.

◦ Once a user clicks on one of these ads, some type of

malware will be downloaded. Any website or web

publisher can be subjected to Malvertising and many don’t

even know they’ve been compromised.

Ref: A Survey of Cyber Attack Detection Systems IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.9 No.5, May 2009

Web Based Malvertising Attack

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oA man-in-the-middle attack (mitm) is an attack where the

attacker secretly alters the communication between two parties

who believe they are directly communicating with each other.

◦ Normally, a MITM gains access through a non-encrypted

wireless access point (WAP)

◦ Then, the attacker will access to all of the information being

transferred between both parties.

Man in the Middle Attack

Ref : http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7442758/

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◦Malware is a term used to refer to a varieties of computer viruses,

worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware,

and other malicious programs.

◦Malware is most often introduced to a system through email

attachments, software downloads or operating system

vulnerabilities.

Ref: A Survey of Cyber Attack Detection Systems IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.9 No.5, May 2009

Malware Attacks

Malware by Categories

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◦Phishing attacks are sent via email and ask

users to click on a link and enter their personal

data.

◦Phishing emails have gotten much more

sophisticated in recent years.

◦Phishing emails often fall into the same

category as spam, but are more harmful than

just a simple ad.

A Survey of Cyber Attack Detection Systems IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.9 No.5, May 2009

Phishing Attack

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◦Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as

◦Username◦ password◦Social Security Number ◦credit card details..etc..

Phishing Attacks Contd. .

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Countermeasures

◦The best way to prevent  an additional breach is to keep your system as secure as possible

with regular software updates, online security monitoring

◦Strong anti-virus and anti-spyware software on all systems with Internet connectivity

◦A Kolmogorov Complexity based detection algorithm can quickly identify such attacks.

◦Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) sequential change point detection algorithm.

Ref: https://sites.google.com/a/pccare.vn/it/security-pages/dos-attacks-and-countermeasures

Denial of Service

Ref : https://people.cs.pitt.edu/~mehmud/docs/abliz11-TR-11-178.pdf

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Web Based Malvertising Attacks

◦The best way to prevent falling victim to Malvertising is to use common sense.

◦Any ad that promises riches, free computers is probably too good to be true,

and therefore could be hiding malware.

◦ As always, up-to-date software and operating systems are your best first line

of defense.

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Web Based Malvertising Contd..

The following are the techniques and the algorithms are used to avoid the Web

Based Malvertising attacks.

◦Extended sleep is one of the most common evasion techniques.

◦Domain generating algorithm (DGA).

◦Pseudorandom number generating algorithm.

◦Time packing algorithms.

https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/forensics/detecting-malware-sandbox-evasion-techniques-36667

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Man in the Middle Attack

◦The best way to prevent the Man in the Middle attack is to only use encrypted wireless

access points that use WPA security or greater.

◦If you need to connect to a website, make sure it uses an HTTPS connection or, for

better security, consider investing in a Virtual Private Network HTTPS uses certificates

that verify the identity of the servers you’re connecting to using a third-party company

such as VeriSign.

◦ The Diffie-Hellman key exchange is vulnerable to a man-in-the-

middle attack.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7442758/

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Malware Attack

◦The best way to prevent malware is to avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from

unknown senders.

◦This is also done by updated firewalls which prevent the transfer of large data files over the

network in a hope to weed out attachments that may contain malware.

◦ It’s also important to make sure your computer’s operating system (e.g. Windows, Mac OS X,

Linux) uses the most up-to-date security updates.

◦Software programmers update programs frequently to address any holes or weak points. It’s

important to install these updates as well to decrease your own system’s weaknesses.

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Malware Attack Contd ..

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aditya_Mathur2/publication/229008321_A_survey_of_malware_detection_techniques/links/543153450cf29bbc1278860d.pdf

• A Finite State Automata (FSA).

• DP matching Algorithm .

• Longest Common Subsequence

(LCS) algorithm.

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Phishing Attack

◦Verifying any requests from institutions that arrive via email over the phone.

◦ If the email itself has a phone number, don’t call that number, but rather one you find

independently online or within documentation you’ve received from that company.

◦Apriori algorithm

◦Hybrid Feature Selection algorithm.

◦Multi-class Classification based on Association Rule(MCAR) and Classification based on

Association (CBA) to detect the phishing websites.

◦Link guard algorithm to avoid phishing attacks.

http://www.ijcaonline.org/research/volume139/number1/suganya-2016-ijca-909084.pdf

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Attacks Vs Countermeasures Attacks Countermeasures

Denial of Service Attacks Kolmogorov Complexity Algorithm cumulative sum sequential change point detection Algorithm

Web Based Malvertising Attacks Domain generating algorithm (DGA) Algorithm

Time packing Algorithm

Man in the Middle Attacks The Diffie-Hellman key Algorithm

Malware Attacks A Finite State Automata (FSA) Algorithm

Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) Algorithm

Phishing Attacks Apriori Algorithm,

File matching Algorithm

Conclusion

◦Cyber security is one of the most urgent issues of the day.

◦Computer networks have always been the target of criminals, and it is likely that the danger of

cyber security attacks will only increase in the future as these networks expand.

◦But there are sensible precautions that organizations can take to minimize losses from those

who seek to do harm.

◦With the right level of preparation and specialist external assistance, it is possible to control

damages, and recover from a cyber breach and its consequence.

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Future Work

◦ In this presentation , we have discussed only the 5 major types of attacks and its

countermeasures .

◦We are planning to include more attacks and countermeasures.

◦We also planning to study in depth about the countermeasures algorithms.

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References o Survey on Various Cyber Attacks and Their Classification International Journal of

Network Security, Vol.15, No.5, PP.390-396, Sept. 2013 ◦ A Survey of Cyber Attack Detection Systems IJCSNS International Journal of

Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.9 No.5, May 2009 ◦ A survey of Cyber Attack Detection Strategies International Journal of Security

and Its Applications Vol.8, No.1 (2014), pp.247-256 ck Detection Strategies ◦http://www.afitc-event.com/cyberattacks-in-the-u-s/◦http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/technology-and-security/8-types-of-cyber-attacks-

your-business-needs-to-avoid/◦https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cyber-attacks◦http://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/19/top-5-cyber-security-risks-for-2015.html◦ A Review on Phishing Attacks and Various Anti Phishing International Journal of Computer

Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 139 – No.1, April 2016 ◦ A survey of Distributed Denial of Service attack

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Thank You Q & A