Basic explanations of the Lab

To give us an idea how to setup anti-malware program under window defender and how to perform a virus scan with that, also try some features on the internet explorer to increase our pc security level.

Ans 1 Discuss when you may need to use the Windows Defender feature from the lab

We use the windows Defender Quick for a full or Custom Scan virus and spyware on the PC, also we can use it to update the virus database.

If your computer get infected by a computer virus, you may get an unexpected onscreen  ads pop-up, then this the time to have a virus scan on you PC. Before you get the PC scan, an updated virus database is required because updated virus database contain latest list of viruses and its behavior of known virus.

Ans 2 Discuss a scenario when you may need to use the Online Anti-Malware Scanner 

Malware is an application and code which can damage and disrupt our PC. There are several types of malware such as coin miner, exploits, exploit kits phishing, worms ets.

The most comment sign for a malware infection is the computer is slowing down. There are several reasons of the computer slow down, such as not enough system memory or hard disk space, or open too many tabs on the browser. If you checked all these possible causes and everything is work well and the computer still very slow, it is the time the have an online anti-Malware scan to make sure your computer is clean.

Ans 3 Select a feature Internet Explorer Browser Security from the lab and discuss the reason it is required.

There are so many security tools provided by Internet Explore Browser for you optimize your Browser security lever.

Such as:

• Tracking protection
• Pop-up Blocker
• SmartScreen Filter
• ActiveX Filtering
• InPrivate Browsing

One of the most useful function is Pop-up Blocker which can prevents pop-up windows showing on your screen.

Pop-up window is a widow open automatically without receiving any instruction by the user. Company use pop-up as their marketing tool. Sometime showing some useful information for the use, however, most of the time are annoying and take up all the screen which block your view to read the previous website.

This is the reason why browser provide a Pop-up blocker and allow user to adjust the setting.

In the Pop-up blocker, under Medium blocking level, most pop-up will be blocked atomically, but sometimes you would like to allow some pop-up form specific web site. At the Pop-up Blocker Settings, you can add the address of website to the list which is the exception. Which means that if you do that, most of the pop-up will be blocked except the website on the list.

Basic explanations of the Lab

The aim of the lab is try to log in to the social media website, MyBook, and collect personal information form our target Phillip Nomad. And then use these information to plan an attack.

Ans 1 Summaries the key information gathered from MyBook

Form the front page we know that

1.     Phillip is married

2.     He has two close friends: John and Alexis (who are close enough to Phillip to comment on his pictures)

3.     Phillips car has broken down

From the about page we know that

1.     Personal details: mobile no., date of birth

2.     He studies in oxford UK

3.     Work in Costa, HP and Google

4.     possible home location based in Kingston

From the Album page we know that

1.     Philips has him listed as a creative Director which imply that he may have access to important resources and information

2.     his passwords likely provide him with Admin level or root access to domains or servers full of data which in situations like corporate espionage could be very lucrative.

3.     The album photo suggested that he enjoys going to raves, scenic views 

4.     The pug dog photo also useful, because a classic question asked in secure questions is “what is/was the name of your first pet/dog/cat?”

From friend page we know that

1.     Sophia Lee is at Oxford and its possible they attended University at the same as each other.

2.     Robert Cook, photographer, might have more interesting photos of Phillips life, providing more insist into the type of person he is

3.     Linda who is also a Software Engineer that might work with Phillip, 

4.     James who is a CEO of a company called IT Farm, he could have a working relationship 

Ans 2: What are the risks of using a social networking platform?

Almost everybody is using social networking platform and we will put so much personal information on them, if the people who don’t protect their personal well, it is possible to be hacked by different way.

For example, if we put so much personal on the social network, such as date of birth, education, work place, work history, photos and hobbies on public profile, the attacker can collect that information easily without your permission and use that to organize an attack to hack your computer.

Ans 3: Consider how the information gathered can be leveraged to attack an organization?

After collecting some personal information form the person, like Phillip who are working in Google now, the possible attack target would be

1.      IT Farm

2.      Google

To complete the attack, we could:

1.      First, as we know the mobile number, we can call him serval time act as a guy from the car repair shop to get more information.

2.      Second, need to build trust by getting the permission of friend request. We can use the information from the album photo, there are photos of the sea, concert and wedding, so we can portent a friend he met from the beach also meet him at the wedding.

3.      Third, we can act of pretending to be another person such as a coworker or college friend (impersonation). We know that Philips have some relationship with IT Farm, we can pretend work for IT Farm and gain friendship with Philips.4.      We know the address of Philips and we can Dumpster Diving his stuff, maybe we could find some important information such as meeting notes, appointments and work notes in the dumpster.