The Chief Information Officer (CIO) receives an anonymous threatening message that says “beware of the 1st of the year”. The CIO suspects the message may be
from a former disgruntled employee planning an attack.
Which of the following should the CIO be concerned with?
A.
Smurf Attack
B.
Trojan
C.
Logic bomb
D.
Virus
Explanation:
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 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 Fool’s 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.
Incorrect Answers:
A: A smurf attack is a type of network security breach in which a network connected to the Internet is swamped with replies to ICMP echo (PING) requests. A smurf
attacker sends PING requests to an Internet broadcast address. These are special addresses that broadcast all received messages to the hosts connected to the
subnet. Each broadcast address can support up to 255 hosts, so a single PING request can be multiplied 255 times. The return address of the request itself is
spoofed to be the address of the attacker’s victim. All the hosts receiving the PING request reply to this victim’s address instead of the real sender’s address. A
single attacker sending hundreds or thousands of these PING messages per second can fill the victim’s T-1 (or even T-3) line with ping replies, bring the entire
Internet service to its knees. Smurfing falls under the general category of Denial of Service attacks — security attacks that don’t try to steal information, but instead
attempt to disable a computer or network. A smurf attack is not what is described in this question. Therefore, this answer is incorrect.
B: In computers, a Trojan horse is a program in which malicious or harmful code is contained inside apparently harmless programming or data in such a way that it
can get control and do its chosen form of damage, such as ruining the file allocation table on your hard disk. In one celebrated case, a Trojan horse was a program
that was supposed to find and destroy computer viruses. A Trojan horse may be widely redistributed as part of a computer virus. A Trojan is not what is being
described in this question.
The term comes from Greek mythology about the Trojan War, as told in the Aeneid by Virgil and mentioned in the Odyssey by Homer. According to legend, the
Greeks presented the citizens of Troy with a large wooden horse in which they had secretly hidden their warriors. During the night, the warriors emerged from the
wooden horse and overran the city. A Trojan is not what is described in this question. Therefore, this answer is incorrect.
D: A computer virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also
replicate themselves. All computer viruses are man-made. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even
such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one
capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems. Some people distinguish between general viruses and worms. A worm is a special
type of virus that can replicate itself and use memory, but cannot attach itself to other programs. A computer virus is not what is described in this question.
Therefore, this answer is incorrect.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_bomb
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/smurf.html
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/V/virus.html
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/Trojan-horse