Ping Sweeps and Port Scans Essay

This re mien is to provide insight on nefarious computing device activities called hit sweeps and behavior s flush toilets as a betoken from management. I go away identify them, explain what they atomic number 18 physical exercise for, how they are employ and how to vacate them from trying a network. Finally I will discuss how they can be eliminated as security risk. The information in this report is knowing to increase the understanding and knowledge of these two activities so that this companys IT department will be in a better present to recognize them and block potential attacks from their use. According to S. Branch (2012), in his name What is a Ping Sweep he says A ping sweep, to a fault called an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) sweep, is a diagnostic proficiency used in computing to see what range of (IP) addresses are in use by live host, which are usually reckoners. Ping sweeps are non unusual, they are often used by administrators in analyze netwo rk issues however, hackers also use ping sweeps to find active computers so they will know where to concentrate their attacks. This can become a solid security breach for an unprepared network.Hackers send not one ping but many packets at the same time. This tends to slow down a network. When the hackers ping sweep finds an active computer it can send request for confidential information. There is no reason to be alarmed by ping sweeps because the solution for stopping them is very simple. The clay administrator exactly need to disable ICMP packets and if the system administrator wants to do a ping sweep, simply enable the ICMP packets temporarily. According to S. Branch (2012), ping sweeps are honest-to-god and slower technology, and are not in use as a great deal as in the past. A port scan attack is a popular reconnaissance technique that assailants use to discover run they can break into according to Yahoo Answers (2007), Author unknown. Yahoo Answers states that tout e nsemble machines connected to a network run many services that use TCP or UDP ports and there are more than 6000 defined ports available. commonly port scan does not make direct damage just by port scanning. Potentially a port scan helps the attacker find which ports are available to launch various attacks.A port scan sends a messageto each port one at a time. The response received back indicates whether the port is being used and if so, the port will be probed for weakness. TCP ports are the most attacked ports because they are connected oriented and give good feedback to the attacker. The most frequent port scan attacks to look for are Stealth Scan, which is design to be unobserved by auditing tools, SOCKS, which allows multiple machines to share a common internet connection, well access when not configured correctly. Bounce Scans, are systems that they can jounce their attacks through. These systems are FTP server, Email server, HTTP Proxy, Finger and others. These all have v ulnerabilities to do bounce scans. They also use UDP ports to find open ports, but it is not often used because it is easily blocked. air Scan attacks can be reduced or completely solved by deploying Firewalls at diminutive locations of a network to filter unwanted traffic. There is also carriage Scan Attack Detectors (PSAD) on the market for free use. In the unshakable developing world of computer technologies there will always be hackers and other types looking for ways to still. In the earlier days of computer technology they were not much of a problem if any. Today programmers and system builders program and build their goods with hackers and others in mind. Many security features are strengthened in and other features are discussed and put in place at the beginning of the project. Nothing is foolproof, but if there is a way for them to build in, there is a way to keep them out.ReferencesAuthor unknown. (2007). What is a Port Scan Attack? Yahoo Answers http//answers.yahoo. com/question/index?qid=20061105020422AAtre1p Branch S. (2012). What is a Ping Sweep? 2003-2013 Conjecture Corporation http//www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-ping-sweep.htm