Blog Post 7 - Understanding Network Security

I chose to write about network security, what it means and how to implement features to protect a network. Throughout our course and text, we’ve discussed the concept of information technology. Networks play a major role in IT. Whether it’s a personal home network, connecting a couple of computers to a printer, or something larger such as a major organization’s network of computers, or even bigger, the World Wide Web, all networks require some form of security. According to Cisco, “network security combines multiple layers of defense at the edge and in the network” (What is network security, 2019a). Our text discussed the different types of attacks computers can face, such as DDOS attacks, malware attacks, and trojans (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017). These types of attacks, as well as others, can go undiagnosed or prevented based on the level of security in place for each network.

Blog Post 6 - Network Security

During our week three assignment, we used the ping and tracert commands to understand better how data travels through networks. Through my research of the ping command, I learned about attacks that can be executed. DoS and DDoS attacks can be crippling to websites and are not difficult to execute. A DoS attack, or denial of service, is executed when a user uses the ping command to overwhelm a system, slowing it down or causing it to completely shut down (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017). A DDoS, or distributed denial of service, is when an attacker uses a botnet (a large network of computers under the attacker’s control) to send a very large number of requests to website blocking access for actual users. DoS and DDoS attacks are not limited to just computers, anything that is connected to the internet can potentially be a victim of these types of attacks (Delving into internet ddos attacks, 2018). These types of attacks cost organizations time by trying to block the attack; they can also cause significant monetary damage due to the downtime of the website and loss in productivity. To block these attacks, the IT department can ensure that their network is behind a firewall. The firewall will allow the team to block IP addresses of incoming attackers.  They should also have an intrusion detection system in place to identify potential threats and stop any illegal activities.

Blog Post 4 - Traveling Through a Network

I found the traceroutes to be particularly interesting because it was fun to see where the data traveled. I chose to use a website that could be found in different countries, to see if their servers were hosted in those countries as well. So, I decided on cnn.com, cnn.co.jp, the Japanese version, and news18.com which is India’s version. Below are the pings and traceroutes.