Chapter 2: Threats, Attacks & Vulnerabilities

Pretexting

A fictitious scenario to persuade someone to perform an action or give information.

Botnet

A group of zombie computers that are commanded from a central control infrastructure.

Hacktivist

A hacker with political motive.

Script Kiddy

A less-skilled hacker who often relies on automated tools or scripts written by crackers to scan systems and exploit weaknesses.

Trojan horse

A malicious program that is disguised as legitimate or desirable software.

Cybercriminal

A person (or team of individuals) who use technology to steal sensitive information for a profit. Cybercriminals are often associated with large organized crime syndicates such as the mafia.

Cracker

A person actively engaged in developing and distributing worms, Trojans, and viruses; engaging in probing and reconnaissance activities; creating toolkits so that others can hack known vulnerabilities; and/or cracking protective measures.

Virus

A program that attempts to damage a computer system and replicate itself to other computer systems.

Scareware

A scam to fool a user into thinking there is some form of malware on the system.

Worm

A self-replicating malware program.

Rootkit

A set of programs that allows attackers to maintain hidden, administrator-level access to a computer.

Gray hat

A skilled hacker who falls in the middle of white hat and black hat hackers. The gray hat may cross the line of what is ethical, but usually has good intentions and isn't malicious like a black hat hacker.

White hat

A skilled hacker who uses skills and knowledge for defensive purposes only. The white hat hacker interacts only with systems for which express access permission is given.

Black hat

A skilled hacker who uses skills and knowledge for illegal or malicious purposes.

Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP)

A software inadvertently installed that contains adware, installs toolbars, or has other objectives.

Nation state

A sovereign state threat agent that may wage an all-out war on a target and have significant resources for the attack.

Cybercriminal

A subcategory of hacker threat agents. Cybercriminals are willing to take more risks and use more extreme tactics for financial gain.

Elictation

A technique to extract information from a target without arousing suspicion.Preloading

Competitor

A threat agent who carries out attacks on behalf of an organization and targets competing companies.

Insider

A threat agent who has authorized access to an organization and either intentionally or unintentionally carries out an attack.

Internal threat

A threat from authorized individuals (insiders) who exploit assigned privileges and inside information to carry out an attack.

External threat

A threat from individuals or groups not associated with the organization, who seek to gain unauthorized access to data.

Non-persistent threat

A threat that focuses on getting into a system and stealing information. It is usually a one-time event, so the attacker is not concerned with detection.

Persistent threat

A threat that seeks to gain access to a network and remain there undetected.

Hoax

A type of malicious email with some type of urgent or alarming message to deceive the target.

Targeted attack

A type of threat in which threat actors actively pursue and compromise a target entity's infrastructure while maintaining anonymity.

Zero-day Vulnerability

A vulnerability unknown to the vendor

Opportunistic attack

An attack in which the threat actor is almost always trying to make money as fast as possible and with minimal effort.

Social Engineering

An attack involving human interaction to obtain information or access.

Hacker

Any threat agent who uses technical knowledge to bypass security, exploit a vulnerability, and gain access to protected information. A person who commits crimes through gaining unauthorized access to computer systems.

SMiShing

Doing phishing through an SMS message. In other words, tricking a user to download a virus, Trojan horse, or malware onto a cell phone.

Data Breach

The exposure of confidential or protected data, either accidentally or through malicious acts.

Data Loss

The loss of files and documents either accidentally or through malicious acts.

Data Exfiltration

The unauthorized transfer of information or files from a computer.

Fileless Virus

Uses legitimate programs to infect a computer.

Footprinting

Uses social engineering to obtain as much information as possible about an organization.

Preloading

Influencing a target's thoughts, opinions, and emotions before something happens.

Open-source intelligence (OSINT)

Information that is readily available to the public and doesn't require any type of malicious activity to obtain.

Availability Loss

Loss of access to computer resources due to the network being overwhelmed or crashing.

Logic Bomb

Malware designed to execute only under predefined conditions. It is dormant until the predefined condition is met.

Crimeware

Malware designed to perpetrate identity theft. It allows a hacker access to online accounts at financial services, such as banks and online retailers.

Ransomware

Malware that denies access to a computer system until the user pays a ransom.

Remote Access Trojan (RAT)

Malware that includes a back door to allow a hacker administrative control over the target computer.

Adware

Malware that monitors a user's personal preferences and sends pop-up ads that match those preferences.

Impersonation

Pretending to be somebody else and approaching a target to extract information.

Crypto-malware

Ransomware that encrypts files until a ransom is paid.

SPIM

Similar to spam, but the malicious link is sent to the target over instant messaging instead of email.

Malware

Software designed to take over or damage a computer without the user's knowledge or approval.

Spyware

Software installed without the user's consent or knowledge and is designed to intercept or take partial control of the user's computer.

Zombie

A computer that is infected with malware and is controlled by a command and control center called a zombie master.

Identify Theft

A crime in which an attacker commits fraud by using someone else's name or existing accounts to obtain money or to purchase items.