How intruders exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities

Cybersecurity is the part of information security focused on protecting computer software, systems, and networks from threats that can expose, steal, damage, or disrupt them. What vulnerabilities can intruders exploit, and how can you understand the ways they do so? The lessons build an understanding of how intrusions work and why protection can be challenging.

3 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 2 hr 12 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   cybersecurity · Wikipedia · 60+ min read

   In cybersecurity, worms are similar to viruses, but viruses can function only when a user opens a compromised program. Worms spread between programs, apps and devices without human interaction. In cybersecurity, Wi-Fi SSID spoofing simulates a Wi-Fi base station SSID to capture and modify internet traffic and transactions. Attackers can also use local network addressing and reduced network defenses to penetrate the target's firewall by breaching known vulnerabilities. A network attack from a single IP address can be blocked by adding a new firewall rule, while many forms of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks come from a large number of points. Defending against these attacks is much more difficult.

2. Read
   What is Cybersecurity? | CISA · Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA · 4 min read

   Some malware claims to speed up a computer, while it may actually be sending confidential information to a remote intruder.

3. Read
   

   New Cybersecurity Primer by the Center for a New American Security · Just Security · 4 min read

   Cybersecurity strategies offer some needed protection when applied collectively as a coordinated "defense in depth," but they cannot assure comprehensive protection. They are typically costly, so users commonly choose less security than they could obtain because of operational, financial or convenience costs.

4. Watch
   

   Defining Cybersecurity with Gene Spafford - Computerphile · YouTube · 26 min watch

   Professor Gene Spafford joins Computerphile to try to define what cyber-security is, covering what the field means.

5. Book
   

   The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage · Bookshop.org

   The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll describes how a 75-cent accounting discrepancy led an astronomer to track down an intruder, as people worldwide were discovering what networks could reveal and hide.

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