#4 SPOOFING, PHISHING AND PHARMING

Spoofing is an attack where program or person pretense to be someone else. Phishing is another kind of spoofing where a fake website is created that just appears as a legal websites. This fake websites are under the control of the hacker and they can collect your credit card details, passwords, names, and other sensitive information. Phishing is mainly done through email or instant message. Some email claims to be from a legal source but when you click on the given link, you will enter into the fake web page.

Pharming is an attack in which an attacker redirects website’s traffic to another phony website. Pharming can be done either through changing the hosts file on a victim’s system or through exploitation of vulnerability in DNS server software.

Prevention: 1) As spoofing, phishing, and pharming depend on tricking users rather than advanced technology, the best way to deal the threat is through vigilance; 2) Never access emails from unknown sources or click on links embedded in suspect messages; 3) Check out the security guidelines of websites such as PayPal to get an awareness of legitimate and fake emails.

#5 WORM

A computer worm is a self replicating software program that can be copied itself from one computer to another without user interaction. This worm can replicate in great amount with great speed. It does not need to attach itself with any existing program to spread. With their replicating nature, worms consume bandwidth and can degrade the network performances. Worms can send payloads that make the hackers to get control of the infected computers and change it into Zombie.

Prevention: 1) As worms multiply by exploiting vulnerabilities in operating systems, computers should be updated with security software or patches; 2) Keep anti-virus and anti-spyware software updated; 3) Users should not open emails from unknown sources and never run attached programs or files or visit the sites that are related to such emails.

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