IT Security Threats in Smart Devices

Question: Discuss about the IT Security Threats in Smart Devices. Answer: Introduction Before discussing the various impacts which malwares have had in different realms of time, it is important to discuss the basic terms, the textual definition of malwares and the various types of malwares present. Malware- It is a term coined to computer programmes which have been created with a malicious intent and for harming other people and their systems. They are designed for performing harmful and unauthorized actions on systems. This is a really generic terminology which is being used for software built with bad intents. A lot of different malwares are present such as spyware, root kits, virus, bots, backdoors and Trojan horses Now talking about different types of malwares and how it works It is quite obvious that today, everyone knows what an adware, virus, spyware, Ransom ware or worms does to your system. Now more important for us is to analyse the past activities and pattern of the malwares and then make a plan for defending our systems against the malware attacks in future (Ozkaya, 2010). Now for understanding that we need to understand the stage life of a malware:- Design- a design is based as per the needs of the malware developer Replication- the malware starts replicating itself as soon as it is developed, this is the time when the developer tries to infect its intended target Launch- now, when the malware is residing on the target's system, it will activate itself as soon as the intended target performs a particular action or unknowingly activated the malware by clicking. Detection- this is the stage for which one can hope to come as early as possible to minimise the losses incurred by the malwares. The anti-malware team is required to do reverse engineering on the malware. Incorporation- in this stage, the code of malware is reverse engineered to find out all the damages it has don and then lastly a core is made in order to remove all the malware from the computer systems. Elimination- the very last step is of protecting the anti malware files with signature files to prevent any further damage. Background/ problems Malwares have been one of the most hazardous threats for the computer systems and it is not that they have been round the corner recently rather, malwares have been present right from the dawn of computer age. A lot of independent studies have shown that malware have led to billions of dollars of losses annually. Moreover, the people who are creating malwares can be anyone right from an activist to an official; hence, the future for keeping a hold on malwares also looks to be gloomy. Literature review Past In 1962, Bell telephone labs researchers had invented a game which was created in order to destroy software programs. So, it can be said that all really started with a game and the very first virus came i the year 1971, which was named APRANET and the virus replicated itself along with a message, Im Creeper, catch me if you can . Then in the year, 1981, we saw the first outbreak of viruses was seen o the Apple 2 platform. A person named Eric Cloner had spread a virus with the help of floppy disc which started infecting the boot sector and generated messages which hampered the performance of the system. Then finally, the term virus was coined to us by Professor Len Adleman at the Lehigh University. He explained the concept of virus in a seminar and soon after that computer virus became a part and parcel of our lives. 1986 was the year when people realized about the disaster which a virus can do their systems quietly, Brain Virus had tormented the systems in that time. The following year, 1987 was also equally disastrous for computer systems as Vienna virus spread across the globe and created havoc for computer users. Right after, the aftermath of Vienna virus, IBM introduced the very first antivirus to the world, Viruscan for MS-DOS In the year, 1991, several anti viruses companies came up with 300 viruses documents and the 1996 viruses started to hit the Microsoft platform, Laroux and then even the windows 32 was affected by viruses. The virus named HLLP.DE Trio started stealing viruses. The year 2001 can be stated as the benchmark year for the increase in number of e-mail and internet users, and due to this overwhelming number of users for internet, malware and viruses also started spreading several folds through the help of internet. 2007 was the year when Botnets affected millions of systems and DOS attacks also started changing the computer systems. Present In todays world, malware have become a strong force to beat for the developers and anti-malware teams. Its nice to see that several countries and states have come up with urgent contingencies but at the same time many developing and developed countries are still struggling to have a proper cyber security infrastructure for fighting against the ever-rising threat of malwares, although, currently the malware are easily winning this battle. The governments and independent bodies need to come up with emphatic and effective measures for curbing these malicious softwares from entering the World Wide Web and through that our systems. The article, Malware Are Defeating Cyber Security Safeguards with Ease clearly defines the battle between cyber security companies and malwares. It is appropriate to say that anti-virus programmes and other security software are of no use for now as till the time they arrive in the market, malware already do the damage they are supposed to do. The anti-viruses software is just able to clear up the left-over from these malwares. An article titled, "Prospective Cyber Security Trends" by Praveen Lal clearly predicts that the sponsored attacks would increase, and even social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter also issued certain warnings regarding state sponsored attacks for their products and services. There have been several malware which was so sophisticated that they were not even detected and did damage to our systems, some of the malware such as FinFisher, Blackshades, Gameover Zeus, etc. are some of these malwares. The reality is that, available antivirus products in the market cannot shield the customers against various malware which are created by well funded nation-states. The anti-virus software can protect us against malware such as keystroke loggers, banking Trojans and e-mail worms but the zero-day exploits which are by these attacks and malware are still not known to antivirus companies (McClure, 2010). Future It is true, that these attacks will increase more in the future and these attacks will not be restricted to computer systems or smart devices Now, the reader can go through some of the statements from the IT experts:- Linux Securitys official site had an article which predicted the trend for future attacks, Mobile malwares would be monetized ultimately, the process of localization will definitely attract the attention of coders', the Open Source Anti- Malware will become more familiar and the Zero day malwares will see an increase in demand. A Cryptoviral extortion will undoubtedly emerge, which will hijack botnets in a more particular manner" As per, Todd Feinman, anonymous groups are not developing malware for the sake of money. More than money, their target is to embarrass their goals primarily the government agencies and different law enforcement. But unfortunately, when these developers post sensitive information online, they unknowingly help the second tier of the lower-skilled criminals who specialize in committing identity theft (Dalal, 2015). Critical/missing issues not addressed in the forum: The following assignment has really good information regarding malwares in past, present but not a lot of information was available for platforms such as malwares which can affect cars, home appliances and other things when, Internet of stuff would reach the grass root level of society. It is important to notice that milestones such as the zero day attacks, Stuxnet or Flame have not been discussed and that is really important to evaluate. It is essential to mention over here that if malware is a major concern, then in that case, it is essential to have a Risk Management Programme in the future planning system. It was missing in most of the research papers and if anything was mentioned then that was really scanty. References Dalal, P. (2016, April 4).Is present day Malware beyond the reach of Cyber security products and services?Retrieved June 5, 2016, from https://ptlb.in/csrdci/?p=358 Dalal. (2016, April 3).Malware are defeating Cyber security safeguards with ease. Retrieved June 5, 2016, from https://perry4law.org/?p=107 Huq, N. (2014).A trend micro research paper PoS RAM Scraper Malware past, present, and future. Retrieved from https://www.trendmicro.com/cloud-content/us/pdfs/security-intelligence/white-papers/wp-pos-ram-scraper-malware.pdf McClure. (2015, January 3).Prospective Cyber security trends in India 2015. Retrieved June 5, 2016, from https://perry4law.org/?p=47 Ozkaya, E. (2010). Retrieved June 5, 2016, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/malware-past-present-future-erdal-ozkaya