CYB Week 2 Discussion - Assignment Example

CYB Week 2 Discussion due: The word reconnaissance is originated from military, where it is used to denote to a mission into the enemy area to gain information. In computer security, reconnaissance is usually an initial step toward a further attack pursuing to exploit a computer system. The attacker regularly uses port scanning to discover any vulnerable ports.Importance of Reconnaissance1. Network reconnaissance is an important process as it helps to identify security threats to the system and services provided.2. Facilitates solution to Cyber-security which is an area in which much course development is taking place and of much interest, Cyber-security training is important and necessities to be extended.3. Help network administrators comprehend emerging and current cyber security threats, antivirus statistics, malware-related domain name system, and malware binary data.

Ways that reconnaissance phase of a pen testing can be automated 1. Concepts of web application Penetration Testing Web applications find flaws in enterprises Web apps before the attackers do. You will insert SQL into back-end databases, learning how attackers exfiltration delicate data. You will use cross-site scripting attacks to control a targeted infrastructure in a unique hands-on laboratory situation (Kizza, 2005). 2. Ping sweepsA ping sweep is a diagnostic method used to determine what range of Internet Protocol addresses that are in use by live hosts, usually computers.

It is usually used to indicate where active computers are on a network and is sometimes used by the system administrator for identifying a network issue. Ping sweeps are also utilized by computer attackers to see which machines are active so they know where to focus their attacks (Kizza, 2005).3. Packet SniffersA packet sniffer is a program that sees all of the data passing over the network of which the computer is connected to. As data creeks back and forth on the network, the program "sniffs," each packet.

A packet is a section of the message that has been broken up. Example[admin@MikroTik] tool sniffer> start, [admin@MikroTik] tool sniffer> stop. The initial command is used to start/reset sniffering, while stop stops sniffering4. Port Scanning Port scanning is defined as the technique of systematically skimming a computers ports, a port is where information gets into and out of a computer, and port scanning identifies open ports to a computer. For instance, TCP Null, TCP Xmas, TCP FIN, TCP SYN, and UDP port scans.

ReferenceKizza, J. M. (2005). Computer Network Security. New York, NY: Springer.