IS-230 Journal 5 & IS-181 Journal 6

This week's class focused mainly around securing or hardening a network. A lot of the information in this chapter, I thought was common knowledge. Things like dial-up internet and 56k modems are a thing of the past, at least in my opinion. Other things talked about in the book I thought are basic concepts that every network tech needs to know.

In talking about firewalls, packet filtering is one of the most important things that routers do. Firewalls also act as an application and circuit level gateway, as well as a proxy server. But the packet filtering is what keeps the network secure. An intrusion detection system is also important. An IDS establishes and maintains network security.

Along with understanding the hardware, a good tech also needs to understand the different terms and location associated to networks. When I say terms and locations I am referring to first knowing you network and what you can trust and second knowing what is outside you network and more importantly when you are accessing resources outside you network. In my experience a network you are familiar with is much easier to keep secure than with a network you know nothing about.

IS-230 Journal 4 & IS-181 Journal 5

Chapter 4 talks about hardening your system. These types of systems include: server, networks, operating systems, etc. Hardening has two parts. The first part is to make sure things are up to date. The second is restricting access to the system.

Keeping thing up to date can be done many different ways. Service packs are a collection of updates put out to remedy a known problem or patch up a loophole. Hotfixes are usually related more to a software bug or feature that doesn’t work. Last but not least is the patch. Patches remedy either a security flaw or an update a specific software problem.

Now access in my opinion is more subjective. Obviously by limited access to the data, the security level goes up and chances of corrupted or compromised data goes down. In businesses, it is common practice to have user policies. Policies can be setup lots of different way, but almost all are effective.

IS-181 Journal 2

Hackers and their types of attacks is such a broad topic because there are so many types and reasons it is done. In the media hacking has been almost glorified. When the truth of it is, the guys who actually do this stuff aren’t usually the good guy or Robin Hood as portrayed in the movies. The reality of hacking becomes more real if it happens to you or maybe someone you love.
As I have been reading through the book and Doing these exercises, I have been awakened to how easy it is to obtain the software or tools that these hackers use. Also, the truth of it is, the more time that goes by the more software will be developed, distributed, and made readily available to use for those purposes. Granted, the majority of this software has a legitimate use, some was designed with idea for nothing more than hacking.
The Advanced Office Password Recovery tool that we used in one of our assignments I thought was very useful. I enjoy learning about these kinds of tools. I believe that knowing about these kinds of tools help us to better understand how to protect ourselves or the risk we can put ourselves in by not protecting ourselves against these kinds of easily accessible tools.