Chapter 4

Front

Unintentional Threats

Back

Security risks that occur without malicious intent, usually caused by mistakes, lack of awareness, or poor procedures. These are among the most common causes of security breaches.

Front

 Human errors

Back

Happens when users accidentally compromise security, such as clicking unsafe links, misconfiguring systems, or mishandling sensitive data.

Front

Example of Human Errors

Back

• Sending confidential data to the wrong email address

• Using weak or reused passwords

• Falling for phishing emails

• Accidentally deleting important files

Front

Social Engineering

Back

A technique where attackers manipulate people psychologically into revealing confidential information or performing actions that compromise security.

Instead of hacking systems, attackers “hack people.”

Front

Example of Social Engineering

Back

Kevin Mitnick, one of the most famous hackers discussed in IS courses, used social engineering rather than technical attacks. He tricked employees into giving him passwords by pretending to be IT staff or trusted insiders.

Example:

An attacker calls an employee pretending to be IT support and asks for login credentials to “fix a system issue.”

Front

Deliberate Threats (Software Attacks)

Back

Are intentional attacks designed to damage systems, steal data, or disrupt operations.

Front

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack

Back

Flood a system with traffic or requests, overwhelming it so that legitimate users cannot access services.

Front

Example of Denial of Service (DoS) Attack

Back

An attacker sends massive amounts of traffic to a website, causing it to crash or slow down significantly.

Front

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack

Back

Traffic comes from many compromised computers (botnets) simultaneously, making it harder to stop.

Front

Example of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack

Back

In the Dyn attack, hackers used thousands of infected IoT devices to flood Dyn’s DNS servers. This caused major websites like Twitter, Netflix, and Amazon to become temporarily unavailable.