Information Security and Systems: Analysis and Evaluation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of information security, exploring the motivations behind hacking, various hacking techniques such as phishing, malicious code, cookie theft, and denial of service, and the evolution of hacking practices. It examines the malware cycle, detailing how infected computers can be used as proxies to launch attacks and amplify damage. Furthermore, the report evaluates the moral issues faced by white hackers, who are ethical professionals in the field of cybersecurity, and discusses the importance of adhering to a code of conduct to maintain integrity. The report references various sources to support its findings and provide a well-rounded understanding of the subject.

Running head: INFORMATION SECURITY AND SYSTEMS
INFORMATION SECURITY AND SYSTEMS
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Table of Contents
Analysis of the motivations behind hacking..............................................................................2
Analysis of hacking techniques..................................................................................................2
Analysis of evolution of hacking...............................................................................................3
Evaluation of Malware cycle.....................................................................................................3
Evaluation of moral issues faced by the white hackers..............................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

2INFORMATION SECURITY AND SYSTEMS
Analysis of the motivations behind hacking
In reference to the digital world, along with the rise of technological innovations as
well as the internet of things, the hackers are highly being motivated by the following main
reason (Ablon & Libicki, 2015). The reasons behind the motivation of hackers are,
i) Curiosity- some hackers may opt for the techniques of hacking in order to feed
their curious behavior regarding the working of the as well as the understanding of
a specific device along with the working of a specific network.
ii) Bragging- some of the amateur hackers may opt for the techniques of hacking in
order to hold a higher reputation among their group of friends in regard to such a
deed.
iii) Financial gain- taking help from the techniques of hacking, can get the specific
hacker with some sort of financial gain from that particular organization or
company.
Analysis of hacking techniques
In the past decade, the various methods of ethical hacking along with the procedure of
penetration testing by selective experts working within this field dealing with that of cyber
security (Cayubit et al., 2017). Some of the newly utilized techniques of hacking are,
i) Phishing- referred to one of the most dangerous hacking techniques, which utilizes
a similar looking website where the user puts the credentials and in turn gets
hacked by the hacker.
ii) Malicious code or virus- hackers consist of the potential to crawl right into any
website and leave by affecting the database of the same website with viruses that
affect the sensitive information directly linked with that of the website.

3INFORMATION SECURITY AND SYSTEMS
iii) Cookie theft- taking a providing helping hand from that of the malicious software,
the hackers consist of the potential to steal cookies from that of the browsers and
later utilize the respective cookies within their preferred techniques of hacking.
iv) Denial of Service- is one of the most preferred technique of hacking by the
hackers, where the hackers specifically crash or block down a specific server, and
in turn denying the user from accessing the desired webpage or website.
Analysis of evolution of hacking
In reference to the past decade, the various methods related to that of hacking as well
as the related method of penetration testing are being only performed by selected individual
experts working with the betterment of cyber security. Particularly, the tools that have been
working along with the methods of ethical hacking provide with the pathway for the
scanning, along with that of the searching and finding of various flaws that exist within the
security (Delfanti & Söderberg, 2015). However, keeping all of these potential risks in mind,
the organizations as well as the business owners have started paying much more heed to the
various lying factors that carry the potential to be a threat to their business. As a result,
professionals working towards the betterment of cyber security are being recently recruited
by every single organization as a means of providing protection to company’s sensitive
information.
There have been the inclusion of a number of threats along with that of the network
design related options as well as the defenses that have been discussed within this module.
However, all of the options that have been placed forward consists of the availability towards
the dealing of these particular threats. These specifically refer to the devices that are network
based along with that of the software as well as the configurations that can place forward the
particular helping hand to harden the desktops along with that of the servers.

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Evaluation of Malware cycle
A personal computer when faces the security breach under which the respective
computer gets exposed to the potential attack by any kind of virus, may in turn be utilized by
the criminals to affect the other surrounding systems as well. Because of such happening, the
cyber criminals working towards the common motive utilize the affected personal computers
as the prime proxies (Karapoola et al., 2019). This provides the hackers with such allowances
of hiding their original identity along with their individual locations. In addition to this, the
hackers get provisioned with the particular facility to amplify the related damage that is
supposed to be their prime point of interest (Kate & Dhavale, 2015). After affecting a specific
computer and then setting up the desired personal computer as their proxy, the hackers start
with the procedure of sending quite a number of messages, giving birth to the cycle of
malware.
Evaluation of moral issues faced by the white hackers
The ethical professionals working within the field of improving the dealing of threats
are commonly referred to as the white hackers. All of these white hackers work within the
field of cyber security abiding by certain rules related to that of the code of conduct. All of
these referred white hackers follow certain rigidly set principles. These principles put forward
the common procedures of scanning along with that of the probing and the checking of
information without having the proper consent from the owner of the business (Makandar &
Patrot, 2015). However, some of the white hackers do not always follow the set of principles
by the code of conduct, putting a big question mark towards the morality of the white hackers
in particular.

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References
Ablon, L., & Libicki, M. (2015). Hacker's Bazaar: The Markets for Cybercrime Tools and
Stolen Data. Def. Counsel J., 82, 143.
Cayubit, R. F. O., Rebolledo, K. M., Kintanar, R. G. A., Pastores, A. G., Santiago, A. J. A., &
Valles, P. B. V. (2017). A Cyber Phenomenon: A Q-Analysis on the Motivation of
Computer Hackers. Psychological Studies, 62(4), 386-394.
Delfanti, A., & Söderberg, J. (2015). Repurposing the Hacker. Three Cycles of Recuperation
in the Evolution of Hacking and Capitalism. Three Cycles of Recuperation in the
Evolution of Hacking and Capitalism (June 23, 2015).
Karapoola, S., Rebeiro, C., Parekh, U., & Veezhinathan, K. (2019, July). Towards Identifying
Early Indicators of a Malware Infection. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Asia
Conference on Computer and Communications Security(pp. 679-681). ACM.
Kate, P. M., & Dhavale, S. V. (2015, August). Two phase static analysis technique for
Android malware detection. In Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on
Women in Computing and Informatics (pp. 650-655). ACM.
Makandar, A., & Patrot, A. (2015). Overview of malware analysis and
detection. International Journal of Computer Applications, 975, 8887.