Whaling Targets

This paper investigates various journals that explore findings on how to detect and respond to viruses and hackers in a business. One of the biggest problems when running a business is having to deal with computer viruses and hackers.

Viruses and hackers can cause many disruptions. Many dangers are associated with hackers and viruses in the business world. People and confidential information are put at great danger. This paper includes solutions for limiting viruses and hackers in a business. This paper explains private policies for employees and explanations on how to respond and protect against viruses and hackers before it happens.

This paper also explains the importance of knowing how to detect a virus or hacker as an employee. It can be as easy as clicking a link in your email that could cause great danger to a business. After reading this paper, readers will know the different viruses and hackers that exist, the dangers associated with hacking and viruses, important privacy policies, the culture of hacking, and protecting against viruses and hackers.

MIS Business Concerns

Technology can be very beneficial and can develop many improvements in business, but it can also raise many concerns. There are many dangers that come along with information systems, such as hackers and viruses.

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Confidential information can get into the wrong hands if you’re not careful. In this paper I will be talking about the dangers associated with hackers and viruses, privacy information policies, how to protect against hackers and viruses, hacking culture, and how to detect and respond to hackers and viruses. Businesses fight against these enemies every day in hopes to keep sensitive information safe. Hackers and viruses are a major threat to businesses and can cause much harm.

There are many dangers associated with computer viruses and hackers. According to O’Brien and Marakas, “In the last two decades information technology has emerged in the world affecting our personal, social, and public life and has made a significant impact on the quality of life.” (2008) Viruses have been spread in different ways throughout many years, affecting numerous amounts of people. According to Lahti, Huopio, & Bergroth, “Early viruses were spread by the copying of infected files onto floppy disks, and the transfer of the file from the disk onto a previously uninfected computer.” (2007) When the user tries to open the infected file, the virus is triggered and the computer becomes infected. Recently, viruses have been spread by the Internet. For example, they have been spread by using e-mail. An email can carry a malicious code and the code can be activated when the user opens an attachment or a link in the email. There are different types of email viruses such as ransomware, phishing, spoofing, whaling, spam. Keyloggers, zero-day exploits, and social engineering. Ransomware is delivered through emails and encrypts the victims data and then demands a fee to restore it. Phishing tricks victims into revealing sensitive information by sending a link or attachment that looks legitimate, but is actually harmful when the user opens it. Spoofing allows for hackers to use email addresses that are much like legitimate ones and trick users to believe that the fraudulent emails they are receiving are from a trustworthy individual. Whaling targets an organization in hopes to get financial transactions, such as a wire transfer from someone in the organization. Spam has been known to deliver malware. Keyloggers is a method used by criminals to obtain passwords and Ids. This happens when a user unknowingly clicks on a link or an attachment. Zero-day exploits are used by criminals to gain unauthorized access and steal sensitive information. Lastly, social engineering is used by criminals to build trust before stealing confidential information. This happens when a user engages in a conversation and builds trust, then the criminal tricks the victim into disclosing sensitive information. (Comodo, 2018) According to Lahti, Huopio, & Bergroth, “In the future it can be expected that viruses will be spread by the wireless transmission of data, for example by communications between mobile communication devices using a cellular telephone network.” (2007) It is scary to see all of the different virus attacks and to see how viruses have evolved over the years.

It is important to have certain privacy information policies in a business. These policies will help keep the business and the employees safe. According to Lilley “we live in a world that has changed beyond recognition in the last 10 years: it is now almost possible to live your entire life online or through technology.” (2002) The author also states that “Analysis and financial institutions put complete faith in technology investments; small companies were told that unless they had an Internet and e-commerce plan they were doomed.”(Lilley, 2002) Business must offer online services nowadays to be successful. It is the world we live in now. Having information privacy policies will also ensure that the customers information will be safe and it will offer customers a sense of security. According to Reeder, Karat, and Brodie, “Policies, sets of rules that govern permission to access resources, have long been used in computer security and online privacy management.” (2007) It is essential for the customers to feel safe when they have to use sensitive information to make a purchase. If customers do not feel safe, the company will lose business. There are many different policies employees are trained on while working in a business. They are trained to know how to keep information secure and the importance of it. According to Duri, Elliot, Moskowitz, Liu, Salmi, Tang , & Singh, “Such policies attempt to protect private user information while still ensuring data sharing to enable useful applications or services.” (2003) It is important for a business to still be able to offer products and services online for the convenience of their customers. The business should be able to ensure that the customers information will remain secure and safe.

There are many ways to protect against these enemies. For example, there can be a software authentication system for the business. It does not require a mutually trusted center of both software vendors and users. According to Harn, L., Lin, H.-yu, & Yang, S., “Vendors will assume responsibility by signing released software and users verify the authenticity of received software before using it. Through such an authentication process, users eliminate the risk of running “unlicensed” or modified programs, thus eliminating the possibility of virus infections.” (n.d.) This authentication process will be able to verify the authenticity of the software because they use it, so the business will not have to worry about the risk of running unlicensed programs. Therefore, the possibility of viruses will be low. Another way to protect against hackers is to practice computer security, such as hiding things from hackers. According to Yuill, Denning, & Feer, “ systems and files are hidden behind firewalls and access controls, and data is hidden with encryption.” (2006) Information is denied to hackers and the victim has not been protected.

There are also many ways to detect viruses before they cause much harm to the business. Various anti-virus applications are available on the market today. These tend to work by maintaining a database of signatures or fingerprints for known viruses. According to Lahti, Huopio, & Bergroth, “with a “real time” scanning application, when a user tries to perform an operation on a file, e.g. open, save, or copy, the request is redirected to the anti-virus application.” (2007) If the application has no existing record of the file, then the file is scanned for known virus signatures. If a virus is identified in a file, the application reports this to the user. “The anti-virus application may then add the identity of the infected file to a register of infected files. Access to the file is denied. When a subsequent operation on the file is requested, the anti-virus application first checks the register to see if the file is infected. If it is infected, the access is denied. If the file is not infected, access is permitted.” (Lahti, P., Huopio, S., & Bergroth, I., 2007) A system is used to identify infected files and access to infected files is very complex.

There are many reasons why hackers choose to hack. According to Ludlow, originally, a hacker was someone who liked to have computer code or in some cases hack electronic hardware.” (1996) News media have turned the word “hacker” into a negative connotation, usually meaning those who illicitly had their way to other people’s computer systems. Many people have tried to bring back the original meaning of “hacker” but attempts have failed. Some hackers break in the systems in order to learn more about how the system works. Some of them devote most of the time to learning how to break the locks and other security mechanisms and systems. A hacker sees a security hole and takes advantage of it because it is there, not to destroy information or steal. We should not underestimate the effectiveness of the networks and which hackers learn aircraft. Many hackers say that legitimate computer access they have through their home in school computers do not meet their needs. (Ludlow, 1996) We see the word “hacker” and automatically think that it means that someone is trying to do harm and take sensitive information. In some cases, people hack and do no harm at all. According to Thomas, “Hacking is about the imagination, the creative uses of technology, and our ability to comment on culture then about any tool, computer, or mechanism.” (2002) Hacking is not always bad and was actually meant to be something good. It was a way for people to show their skills and learn about computer systems. People have taken advantage of their skills and have used them to turn themselves into criminals by stealing others information for a financial gain.

All in all, hacking can cause many dangers to a company. If employees are not well trained to know the signs of a hacking attempt, a business can be in great danger. It also takes being careful as well. Emails that are sent out to people can look very legitimate. You have to investigate every email before clicking any links or opening any attachments. Some things to look for could be misspellings in the email. This could be a sign that the email is a hacking attempt. Besides identifying the dangers associated with viruses and hacking, there are many ways to also protect yourself against these hackers. Privacy policies are a way for businesses to ensure that information is kept safe. Many businesses have only options for services to their customers. It is essential that the customer’s information is kept safe. There are also many different security programs that can scan and identify unlicensed programs that will eliminate the possibility of a virus attack. There is also a scanning application used to scan for infected files. This allows for accessing infected files complex, ensuring the safety of others. Hacking has not always been a bad thing. Hacking was actually something good to do years ago. It was meant for people to use their imagination and put their skills to the test. Unfortunately, people took advantage of that and used “hacking” to steal others information. Hacking is now something extremely dangerous and harmful to people and businesses.