BCA IV Sem Cyber Law & Internet Security
BCA IV Sem Cyber Law & Internet Security
Prepared By
SUSHANT SRIVASTAVA
(Assistant Professor)
Kulbhaskar Ashram Post Graduate College, Prayagraj
2
BCA IVth Sem, Course Code - BCA-119 (Cyber Law & Internet Security)
UNIT-I
Introduction:
Website security is the last thing that many companies will think while they're on their
website building process. Even if a website security expert is hired in their team, they'll
always focus how and when to put their websites live – leaving major vulnerabilities
unattended.
You have to understand that an effective approach to website security must be proactive
and defensive. This is a gentle reminder to you that website security must be taken
seriously. It's good to be worried about the bad effects of it to your business and reputation.
List of the 5 website security issues and notable website creation mistakes that you should
know:
If you want a smooth filter of untrusted input, injections flaws must be avoided at all cost. An
injection flaw can let you pass unfiltered data to the SQL server, to the browser, to the
LDAP server (LDAP injection), or anywhere else. These website layers can be used by a
hacker to inject commands. This can result in loss of data and hacking your own website. In
fact, it can also infect other websites as well.
Security Issues with Websites #2: Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
This is another form injection vulnerability that can input sanitization failure. A hacker sets
up your web application JavaScript tags on input. When this input is returned to the user
unsanitized, the user’s browser will carry it out. It can be as simple as crafting a link and
persuading a user to click it, or it can be something much more sinister. On page load the
script runs and, for example, can be used to post your cookies to the hacker.
Security Issues with Websites #3: Not Updating Security Settings
Any responsible website security personnel will always make sure to personalize your
security settings such as passwords and authentications. Perhaps, some people are still
human to miss important things in their jobs. Some concrete scenarios are:
It's a huge failure for a website security personnel – to not encrypt and not protect your
sensitive data. Information (such as credit card details) and user passwords should never
travel or be stored unencrypted, and passwords should always be hashed. And while it
goes without saying that session IDs and sensitive data should not be traveling in the
URLs. Moreover, sensitive cookies should have the secure flag on, this is very important
and cannot be over-emphasized.
Security Issues with Websites #5: A Lost Function Level Access Control
An authorization failure can also disrupt your website. It means that when a
function is called on the server, proper authorization was not performed. A lot of times,
website developers rely on the fact that the server side generated the UI. They think that
the functionality that is not supplied by the server cannot be accessed by the client. It is not
as easy as they thought, as a hacker can always fake requests to the “hidden” functionality
and will not be prevented by the fact that the UI doesn’t make this functionality easily
accessible. Nothing can stop an attacker from discovering this functionality and abusing it if
authorization is missing.
It is important to always keep in mind that the 5 security issue with websites
mentioned above are just a few to mention. There are a lot more website security issues
that website security personnel deals with as technology develops and changes.
This, the original type of firewall, operates inline at junction points where devices such as
routers and switches do their work.
However, this firewall doesn't route packets, but instead compares each packet received to
a set of established criteria -- such as the allowed IP addresses, packet type, port number,
etc. Packets that are flagged as troublesome are, generally speaking, unceremoniously
dropped -- that is, they are not forwarded and, thus, cease to exist.
Circuit-level gateways
Using another relatively quick way to identify malicious content, these devices monitor the
TCP handshakes across the network as they are established between the local and remote
hosts to determine whether the session being initiated is legitimate -- whether the remote
system is considered trusted. They don't inspect the packets themselves, however.
Stateful inspection firewalls
State-aware devices, on the other hand, not only examine each packet, but also keep track
of whether or not that packet is part of an established TCP session. This offers more
security than either packet filtering or circuit monitoring alone, but exacts a greater toll on
network performance.
A further variant of stateful inspection is the multilayer inspection firewall, which considers
the flow of transactions in process across multiple layers of the ISO Open Systems
Interconnection seven-layer model.
Application-level gateways
This kind of device, technically a proxy, and sometimes referred to as a proxy firewall,
combines some of the attributes of packet filtering firewalls with those of circuit-level
gateways. They filter packets not only according to the service for which they are intended -
- as specified by the destination port -- but also by certain other characteristics, such as the
HTTP request string.
While gateways that filter at the application layer provide considerable data security, they
can dramatically affect network performance.
Next-gen firewalls
This looser category is the most recent -- and least-well delineated -- of the types of
firewalls. A typical next-gen product combines packet inspection with stateful inspection, but
also includes some variety of deep packet inspection.
You should follow five basic guidelines when designing a firewall system:
• Develop a security policy.
• Create a simple design solution.
• Use devices as they were intended.
• Implement a layered defense to provide extra protection.
• Consider solutions to internal threats that should be included in your design.
The following subsections cover these five key design points.
Developing a Security Policy
One of the first things you do when designing a firewall system is to create a security
policy. The policy should define acceptable and unacceptable behavior, should state
restrictions to resources, and should adhere to the company's business plan and policies.
Without a security policy, it is practically impossible to develop a security solution that will
meet your company's needs.
The key to a good design is basing it on a security policy. Basically, a policy defines
who is allowed to access resources, what they are allowed to do with resources, how
resources should be protected (in general terms), and what actions are taken when a
security issue occurs. Without a security policy, it is impossible to design a firewall system
that will protect your assets. In other words, if you don't have a security policy, what should
you protect? How much should you protect resources? Who is allowed to access
resources? If your policy does not define these items, it is hard to design and implement a
Prepared By : SUSHANT SRIVASTAVA (Assistant Professor), Kulbhashkar Ashram PG College
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BCA IVth Sem, Course Code - BCA-119 (Cyber Law & Internet Security)
solution based on hunches. Actually, without a security policy, the firewall system that you
put in place might be creating a security risk: It might not be providing adequate protection
to your company's resources.
Designing a security policy is beyond the scope of this book. However, it minimally
should address the following items:
• The resources that require access from internal and external users
• The vulnerabilities associated with these resources
• The methods and solutions that can be used to protect these resources
• A cost-benefit analysis that compares the different methods and solutions
Designing Simple Solutions
A firewall system design should be kept simple and should follow your security
policy. The simpler the design is, the easier it will be to implement it, maintain it, test and
troubleshoot it, and adapt it to new changes. Many people like to call this
the KISS principle: Keep it simple, stupid. The last kind of problem you want to deal with is
a design or configuration error that leaves your network open to all different kinds of
attacks.
CAUTION
Complex solutions are prone to design and configuration errors, and are difficult to
test and troubleshoot. The simpler you can make the design, the easier it will be to manage
it.
precaution we did as children, crossing to the other side of the street whenever we saw a
suspicious stranger. This precaution is needed even more after seeing some critical
statistics surface, claiming that nearly one-third of the world’s computers are infected with some
type of malware.
The most common network security threats
1. Computer virus
2. Rogue security software
3. Trojan horse
4. Adware and spyware
5. Computer worm
6. DOS and DDOS attack
7. Phishing
8. Rootkit
9. SQL Injection attack
10. Man-in-the-middle attacks
1. Computer virus
We’ve all heard about them, and we all have our fears. For everyday Internet users,
computer viruses are one of the most common threats to cybersecurity. Statistics show that
approximately 33% of household computers are affected with some type of malware, more than half
of which are viruses.
Computer viruses are pieces of software that are designed to be spread from one
computer to another. They’re often sent as email attachments or downloaded from specific
websites with the intent to infect your computer — and other computers on your contact list
— by using systems on your network. Viruses are known to send spam, disable your
security settings, corrupt and steal data from your computer including personal information
such as passwords, even going as far as to delete everything on your hard drive.
2. Rogue security software
Leveraging the fear of computer viruses, scammers have a found a new way to
commit Internet fraud.
Rogue security software is malicious software that mislead users to believe there is a
computer virus installed on their computer or that their security measures are not up to
date. Then they offer to install or update users’ security settings. They’ll either ask you to
download their program to remove the alleged viruses, or to pay for a tool. Both cases lead
to actual malware being installed on your computer.
3. Trojan horse
Computer worms are pieces of malware programs that replicate quickly and spread
from one computer to another. A worm spreads from an infected computer by sending itself
to all of the computer’s contacts, then immediately to the contacts of the other computers.
6. DOS and DDOS attack
Have you ever found yourself waiting impatiently for the online release of a product,
one that you’re eagerly waiting to purchase? You keep refreshing the page, waiting for that
moment when the product will go live. Then, as you press F5 for the last time, the page
shows an error: “Service Unavailable.” The server must be overloaded!
There are indeed cases like these where a website’s server gets overloaded with
traffic and simply crashes, sometimes when a news story breaks. But more commonly, this
is what happens to a website during a DoS attack, or denial-of-service, a malicious traffic
overload that occurs when attackers overflood a website with traffic. When a website has
too much traffic, it’s unable to serve its content to visitors.
A DoS attack is performed by one machine and its internet connection, by flooding a
website with packets and making it impossible for legitimate users to access the content of
flooded website. Fortunately, you can’t really overload a server with a single other server or
a PC anymore. In the past years it hasn’t been that common if anything, then by flaws in the
protocol.
A DDoS attack, or distributed denial-of-service attack, is similar to DoS, but is more
forceful. It’s harder to overcome a DDoS attack. It’s launched from several computers, and
the number of computers involved can range from just a couple of them to thousands or
even more.
Since it’s likely that not all of those machines belong to the attacker, they are
compromised and added to the attacker’s network by malware. These computers can be
distributed around the entire globe, and that network of compromised computers is called
botnet.
Since the attack comes from so many different IP addresses simultaneously, a
DDoS attack is much more difficult for the victim to locate and defend against.
7. Phishing
Phishing is a method of a social engineering with the goal of obtaining sensitive data
such as passwords, usernames, credit card numbers.
The attacks often come in the form of instant messages or phishing emails designed
to appear legitimate. The recipient of the email is then tricked into opening a malicious link,
which leads to the installation of malware on the recipient’s computer. It can also obtain
Prepared By : SUSHANT SRIVASTAVA (Assistant Professor), Kulbhashkar Ashram PG College
9
BCA IVth Sem, Course Code - BCA-119 (Cyber Law & Internet Security)
personal information by sending an email that appears to be sent from a bank, asking to
verify your identity by giving away your private information.
Uncovering phishing domains can be done easily with SecurityTrails.
8. Rootkit
We know today that many servers storing data for websites use SQL. As technology
has progressed, network security threats have advanced, leading us to the threat of SQL
injection attacks.
SQL injection attacks are designed to target data-driven applications by exploiting
security vulnerabilities in the application’s software. They use malicious code to obtain
private data, change and even destroy that data, and can go as far as to void transactions
on websites. It has quickly become one of the most dangerous privacy issues for data
confidentiality. You can read more on the history of SQL injection attacks to better
understand the threat it poses to cybersecurity.
10. Man-in-the-middle attacks
UNIT-II
Q 1: What is Encription. Explain encryption methods?
Answer:
Encryption is a technique for transforming information on a computer in such a way
that it becomes unreadable. So, even if someone is able to gain access to a computer with
personal data on it, they likely won’t be able to do anything with the data unless they have
complicated, expensive software or the original data key.
The basic function of encryption is essentially to translate normal text into ciphertext.
Encryption can help ensure that data doesn’t get read by the wrong people, but can also
ensure that data isn’t altered in transit, and verify the identity of the sender.
3 different encryption methods
There are three different basic encryption methods, each with their own advantages
(list courtesy of Wisegeek):
• Hashing
Hashing creates a unique, fixed-length signature for a message or data set. Each
“hash” is unique to a specific message, so minor changes to that message would be
easy to track. Once data is encrypted using hashing, it cannot be reversed or
deciphered. Hashing, then, though not technically an encryption method as such, is still
useful for proving data hasn’t been tampered with.
• Symmetric methods
Symmetric encryption is also known as private-key cryptography, and is called so
because the key used to encrypt and decrypt the message must remain secure,
because anyone with access to it can decrypt the data. Using this method, a sender
encrypts the data with one key, sends the data (the ciphertext) and then the receiver
uses the key to decrypt the data.
• Asymmetric methods
Asymmetric encryption, or public-key cryptography, is different than the previous
method because it uses two keys for encryption or decryption (it has the potential to be
more secure as such). With this method, a public key is freely available to everyone and
is used to encrypt messages, and a different, private key is used by the recipient to
decrypt messages.
Any of these methods would likely prove sufficient for proper data security, and a quick
Google search will reveal the multitude of software available for data encryption. Data
encryption is a necessity (both for legal reasons and otherwise) when transmitting
information like PHI, so no matter what method you choose, make sure you’re doing
everything you can to protect data.
Answer:
Encryption can protect your consumer information, emails and other sensitive data as
well as secure network connections. Today, there are many options to choose from,
and finding one that is both secure and fits your needs is a must. Here are
four encryption methods and what you should know about each one.
AES
The Advanced Encryption Standard, AES, is a symmetric encryption algorithm and one
of the most secure. The United States Government use it to protect classified
information, and many software and hardware products use it as well. This method
uses a block cipher, which encrypts data one fixed-size block at a time, unlike other
types of encryption, such as stream ciphers, which encrypt data bit by bit.
AES is comprised of AES-128, AES-192 and AES-256. The key bit you choose
encrypts and decrypts blocks in 128 bits, 192 bits and so on. There are different rounds
for each bit key. A round is the process of turning plaintext into cipher text. For 128-bit,
there are 10 rounds; 192-bit has 12 rounds; and 256-bit has 14 rounds.
Since AES is a symmetric key encryption, you must share the key with other individuals
for them to access the encrypted data. Furthermore, if you don’t have a secure way to
share that key and unauthorized individuals gain access to it, they can decrypt
everything encrypted with that specific key.
3DES
Twofish
RSA
This asymmetric algorithm is named after Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adelman. It
uses public-key cryptography to share data over an insecure network. There are two
keys: one public and one private. The public key is just as the name suggests: public.
Anyone can access it. However, the private key must be confidential. When using RSA
cryptography, you need both keys to encrypt and decrypt a message. You use one key
to encrypt your data and the other to decrypt it.
According to Search Security, RSA is secure because it factors large integers that are
the product of two large prime numbers. Additionally, the key size is large, which
increases the security. Most RSA keys are 1024-bits and 2048-bits long. However, the
longer key size does mean it’s slower than other encryption methods.
While there are many additional encryption methods available, knowing about and
using the most secure ones ensures your confidential data stays secure and away from
unwanted eyes.
Digital signatures are based on public key cryptography, also known as asymmetric
cryptography. Using a public key algorithm, such as RSA, one can generate two keys that
are mathematically linked: one private and one public.
Digital signatures work because public key cryptography depends on two mutually
authenticating cryptographic keys. The individual who is creating the digital signature uses
their own private key to encrypt signature-related data; the only way to decrypt that data is
with the signer's public key. This is how digital signatures are authenticated.
Digital signature technology requires all the parties to trust that the individual creating the
signature has been able to keep their own private key secret. If someone else has access
to the signer's private key, that party could create fraudulent digital signatures in the name
of the private key holder.
How to create a digital signature
To create a digital signature, signing software -- such as an email program -- creates a one-
way hash of the electronic data to be signed. The private key is then used to encrypt the
hash. The encrypted hash -- along with other information, such as the hashing algorithm --
is the digital signature.
The reason for encrypting the hash instead of the entire message or document is that a
hash function can convert an arbitrary input into a fixed length value, which is usually much
shorter. This saves time as hashing is much faster than signing.
The value of a hash is unique to the hashed data. Any change in the data, even a change in
a single character, will result in a different value. This attribute enables others to validate
the integrity of the data by using the signer's public key to decrypt the hash.
If the decrypted hash matches a second computed hash of the same data, it proves that the
data hasn't changed since it was signed. If the two hashes don't match, the data has either
been tampered with in some way -- integrity -- or the signature was created with a private
key that doesn't correspond to the public key presented by the signer -- authentication.
A digital signature can be used with any kind of message -- whether it is encrypted or not --
simply so the receiver can be sure of the sender's identity and that the message arrived
intact. Digital signatures make it difficult for the signer to deny having signed something --
assuming their private key has not been compromised -- as the digital signature is unique to
both the document and the signer and it binds them together. This property is
called nonrepudiation.
Digital signatures are not to be confused with digital certificates. A digital certificate, an
electronic document that contains the digital signature of the issuing certificate authority,
binds together a public key with an identity and can be used to verify that a public key
belongs to a particular person or entity.
Most modern email programs support the use of digital signatures and digital certificates,
making it easy to sign any outgoing emails and validate digitally signed incoming
messages. Digital signatures are also used extensively to provide proof of authenticity, data
integrity and nonrepudiation of communications and transactions conducted over the
internet.
Digital signature vs. electronic signature
While digital signature is a technical term, defining the result of a cryptographic process that
can be used to authenticate a sequence of data, the term electronic signature -- or e-
signature -- is a legal term that is defined legislatively.
UNIT-III, IV
Q 1: What is Jurisprudence of Cyber Law.
Answer:
Jurisprudence studies the concepts of law and the effect of social norms and
regulations on the development of law.
Jurisprudence refers to two different things.
Legal theory does not study the characteristics of law in a particular country but studies
law in general i.e. those attributes common to all legal systems.
Case law is the law that is established through the decisions of the courts and other fficials.
Case law assumes even greater significance when the wordings of a particular law are
ambiguous. The interpretation of the Courts helps clarify the real objectives and meaning of
such laws.
What is Cyber Law?
Cyber Law is the law governing cyber space. Cyber space is a very wide term and includes
computers, networks, software, data storage devices (such as hard disks, USB disks etc),
the Internet, websites, emails and even electronic devices such as cell phones, ATM
machines etc.
Law encompasses the rules of conduct:
1) that have been approved by the government, and
2) which are in force over a certain territory, and
3) which must be obeyed by all persons on that territory.
Violation of these rules could lead to government action such as imprisonment or fine or an
order to pay compensation.
Cyber law encompasses laws relating to:
1. Cyber Crimes
2. Electronic and Digital Signatures
3. Intellectual Property
4. Data Protection and Privacy
Cyber crimes are unlawful acts where the computer is used either as a tool or a target or
both. The enormous growth in electronic commerce (e-commerce) and online share trading
has led to a phenomenal spurt in incidents of cyber crime.
Electronic signatures are used to authenticate electronic records. Digital signatures are
one type of electronic signature. Digital signatures satisfy three major legal requirements –
signer authentication, message authentication and message integrity. The technology and
efficiency of digital signatures makes them more trustworthy than hand written signatures.
Intellectual property is refers to creations of the human mind e.g. a story, a song, a
painting, a design etc. The facets of intellectual property that relate to cyber space are
covered by cyber law. These include:
Prepared By : SUSHANT SRIVASTAVA (Assistant Professor), Kulbhashkar Ashram PG College
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BCA IVth Sem, Course Code - BCA-119 (Cyber Law & Internet Security)
Data protection and privacy laws aim to achieve a fair balance between the privacy
rights of the individual and the interests of data controllers such as banks, hospitals, email
service providers etc. These laws seek to address the challenges to privacy caused by
collecting, storing and transmitting data using new technologies.
There are various reasons why it is extremely difficult for conventional law to cope with
cyberspace. Some of these are discussed below.
The IT Act also penalizes various cyber crimes and provides strict
punishments (imprisonment terms upto 10 years and compensation up to Rs 1
crore).
It also provides for payment and receipt of fees in relation to the Government
bodies.
On the same day, the Information Technology (Certifying Authorities) Rules, 2000 also
came into force.
Copyright
Copyright is a legal right, existing in many countries, that grants the creator of an
original work exclusive rights to determine whether, and under what conditions, this original
work may be used by others. This is usually only for a limited time. Copyright is one of two
types of intellectual property rights, the other is industrial property rights.
Copyright is applicable to certain forms of creative work. Some, but not all
jurisdictions require "fixing" copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among
multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are
commonly referred to as rights holders. These rights frequently include reproduction,
control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as
attribution.
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered "territorial
rights". This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend
beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction.
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 50 to 100 years after the
creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction.
Copyright licenses can also be granted by those deputized by the original claimant,
and private companies may request this as a condition of doing business with them.
Services of internet platform providers like YouTube, Facebook, GitHub, Hotmail, DropBox,
Instagram, WhatsApp or Twitter only can be used when users grant the platform provider
beforehand the right to co-use all uploaded content, including all material exchanged per
email, chat or cloud-storage. These copyrights only apply for the firm that operates such a
platform, no matter in what jurisdiction the platform-services are being offered. Private
companies in general do not recognize exceptions or give users more rights than the right
to use the platform according certain
Trademark
Trademark law is the set of laws and legal regulations that are set up to
protect trademarks. A trademark is a legal protection given to any word, name, symbol, or
design that is used in commerce to identify the product of one manufacturer from another.
Indian trademark law statutorily protects trademarks as per the Trademark Act,
1999 and also under the common law remedy of passing off. Statutory protection of
trademark is administered by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks,
a government agency which reports to the Department of Industrial Policy and
Promotion (DIPP), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The law of trademark deals with the mechanism of registration, protection of
trademark and prevention of fraudulent trademark.[2] The law also provides for the rights
acquired by registration of trademark, modes of transfer and assignment of the rights,
nature of infringements, penalties for such infringement and remedies available to the
owner in case of such infringement.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another
author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as
one's own original work. Plagiarism is not in itself a crime, but can constitute copyright
infringement.
The Common Types of Plagiarism
• Direct Plagiarism. Direct plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription of a section of
someone else's work, without attribution and without quotation marks. ...
• Self Plagiarism. ...
• Mosaic Plagiarism. ...
• Accidental Plagiarism.
Is plagiarism punishable by law?
• Most cases of plagiarism are considered misdemeanors, punishable by fines of
anywhere between $100 and $50,000 — and up to one year in jail. Plagiarism can
also be considered a felony under certain state and federal laws.Jun 23, 2010
Is plagiarism a legal issue?
Viruses
A computer virus is a type of malicious software that, when
executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own
code. When this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with
a computer virus.
Virus writers use social engineering deceptions and exploit detailed knowledge
of security vulnerabilities to initially infect systems and to spread the virus. The vast majority
of viruses target systems running Microsoft Windows, employing a variety of mechanisms
to infect new hosts, and often using complex anti-detection/stealth strategies to
evade antivirus software. Motives for creating viruses can include seeking profit (e.g.,
with ransomware), desire to send a political message, personal amusement, to
demonstrate that a vulnerability exists in software, for sabotage and denial of service, or
simply because they wish to explore cybersecurity issues, artificial life and evolutionary
algorithms.
Computer viruses currently cause billions of dollars' worth of economic damage each
year, due to causing system failure, wasting computer resources, corrupting data,
Prepared By : SUSHANT SRIVASTAVA (Assistant Professor), Kulbhashkar Ashram PG College
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BCA IVth Sem, Course Code - BCA-119 (Cyber Law & Internet Security)
increasing maintenance costs, etc. In response, free, open-source antivirus tools have been
developed, and an industry of antivirus software has cropped up, selling or freely
distributing virus protection to users of various operating systems. As of 2005, even though
no currently existing antivirus software was able to uncover all computer viruses (especially
new ones), computer security researchers are actively searching for new ways to enable
antivirus solutions to more effectively detect emerging viruses, before they have already
become widely distributed.
The term "virus" is also commonly, but erroneously, used to refer to other types
of malware. "Malware" encompasses computer viruses along with many other forms of
malicious software, such as computer "worms", ransomware, spyware, adware, trojan
horses, keyloggers, rootkits, bootkits, malicious Browser Helper Object (BHOs), and other
malicious software. The majority of active malware threats are actually trojan horse
programs or computer worms rather than computer viruses. The term computer virus,
coined by Fred Cohen in 1985, is a misnomer. Viruses often perform some type of harmful
activity on infected host computers, such as acquisition of hard disk space or central
processing unit(CPU) time, accessing private information (e.g., credit card numbers),
corrupting data, displaying political or humorous messages on the user's
screen, spamming their e-mail contacts, logging their keystrokes, or even rendering the
computer useless. However, not all viruses carry a destructive "payload" and attempt to
hide themselves—the defining characteristic of viruses is that they are self-replicating
computer programs which modify other software without user consent.
Trojan Horse
One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your
computer of virusesbut instead introduces viruses onto your computer. The term comes
from the a Greek story of the TrojanWar, in which the Greeks give a giant wooden horse to
their foes, the Trojans, ostensibly as a peace offering.
In computing, a Trojan horse, or Trojan, is any malicious computer program which
misleads users of its true intent. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek story of the
deceptive wooden horse that led to the fall of the city of Troy.
Trojans are generally spread by some form of social engineering, for example where
a user is duped into executing an e-mail attachment disguised to appear not suspicious,
(e.g., a routine form to be filled in), or by clicking on some fake advertisement on social
media or anywhere else. Although their payload can be anything, many modern forms act
as a backdoor, contacting a controller which can then have unauthorized access to the
affected computer. Trojans may allow an attacker to access users' personal information
such as banking information, passwords, or personal identity. It can infect other devices
connected to the network. Ransomware attacks are often carried out using a Trojan.
Unlike computer viruses and worms, Trojans generally do not attempt to inject
themselves into other files or otherwise propagate themselves.
Malicious Code
What are Virus & Malicious Code
Malicious code refers to a broad category of programs that can cause damage or
undesirable effects to computers or networks. Potential damage can include modifying,
destroying or stealing data, gaining or allowing unauthorised access to a system, bringing
up unwanted screens, and executing functions that a user never intended.
Prepared By : SUSHANT SRIVASTAVA (Assistant Professor), Kulbhashkar Ashram PG College
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BCA IVth Sem, Course Code - BCA-119 (Cyber Law & Internet Security)
Examples of malicious code include computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, logic
bombs, spyware, adware and backdoor programs. Because they pose a serious threat to
software and information processing facilities, users and administrators must take
precautions to detect and prevent malicious code outbreaks.
Computer viruses are still the most common form of malicious code. A virus is a
program that infects a computer by attaching itself to another program, and propagating
itself when that program is executed. Another frequently encountered malicious code is the
worm, which is a computer program that can make copies of itself, spreading through
connected systems and consuming resources on affected computers or causing other
damage.
Some malicious codes, including most viruses, are fragments of programs that
cannot exist alone and need to attach themselves to host programs. Other types of
malicious code are able to spread and replicate by themselves (such as worms) and are
able to propagate from computer to computer across a network.
It should be noted that some malicious programs are able to exhibit the behaviors of
more than one type of malicious code. For example, certain programs may be a virus and a
trojan horse at the same time.
Logic Bombs
A logic bomb is a piece of code intentionally inserted into a software system that will
set off a malicious function when specified conditions are met.
A logic bomb is a piece of code intentionally inserted into a software system that will
set off a malicious function when specified conditions are met. For example, a programmer
may hide a piece of code that starts deleting files (such as a salary database trigger),
should they ever be terminated from the company.
Software that is inherently malicious, such as viruses and worms, often contain logic
bombs that execute a certain payload at a pre-defined time or when some other condition is
met. This technique can be used by a virus or worm to gain momentum and spread before
being noticed. Some viruses attack their host systems on specific dates, such as Friday the
13th or April Fools' Day. Trojans that activate on certain dates are often called "time
bombs".
To be considered a logic bomb, the payload should be unwanted and unknown to
the user of the software. As an example, trial programs with code that disables certain
functionality after a set time are not normally regarded as logic bombs.