Network security

 Pinging a server or computer does not do much damage. It pretty much is the basic calling out someone’s name and them looking at you. That is about how much computing power it takes. However, imagine if you were in a small room filled with people and they were all shouting your name. That can cause quite a confusion for a person. How does a computer handle it? Well, it depends. It responds to each shout as fast as it can (Imperiva, 2020). If there is a bunch it can cause network congestion (small room) with multiple different responses (multiple people) in a short amount of time (Impervia, 2020). This type of attack usually happens over long periods of time (Impervia, 2020) and over multiple ping requests from a bunch of computers (Impervia, 2020). This can bring down at least the computer, at most the network it is operating on. A passionate company and be brought down to its knees. Microsoft has been victim of network manipulation multiple times (Microsoft, 2021). Script kiddies or hackers usually do it for the laughs or for social statements. Microsoft reported Anonymous released a statement on attacking Live Servers earlier this year (Microsoft, 2020). The reason why computers are vulnerable is because of how networking works. You cannot hide behind a door on a network. You sort of can, but not really. If you want to communicate to the outside world, you have obligations to fulfil. There are things like firewalls or VPNS which allow you to circumvent the system, but if your original IP is found out. It can still be pinged to death.

 

            Social Engineering is popular. My T-Mobile store gets hit multiple times a week by people pretending to be IT. They usually want you to give remote access or personal information over the phone. They speak in double speak and don’t give much detail. For instance, “Was your call over email access for account jsmith1 resolved last week?” turns into “Was your technical issue resolved last week?” It is annoying and shows humanity at its worst. These people are after social security numbers, phone numbers, address, anything really (Indusface, 2021). Most of the time, I answer with a quick “yes it was resolved and reviewed.” They sometimes get pushy but most of the time they will just hang up. Some of my classmates work in the health industry. I imagine that data is highly sought after. I am sure he has worse stories than phone calls. He probably gets people in person claiming to be IT. It just happens to be the necessities of a digital world.