Network Security

Ping commands can be used to bring down a network in a few ways such as Application Layer Attacks, Volume Based attacks and Protocol Attacks.  Application Layer attacks happen when an attacked creates a connection via ping commands and then continues to send connection requests, overwhelming the server.  Volume based attacks are similar, but the aim is overwhelm the bandwidth by sending large packets which prevents other from accessing the servers. Lastly, protocol attacks happen by sending specifically crafted packets that will crash or deplete the resources of the server, also known as a ping of death. (Gupta, Alka and Lalit, 2020).

Ping commands are just one of many security incidents that can happen, two that are closely related are email spam and phishing. Spam can be seen as less malicious and more inconvenient.  Basically spam is email that is sent with the intent to cause psychological and/or monetary harm to the recipient.  This is generally an undesired commercial email that causes the end user to be unsatisfied with the email.  Though spam can be seen as a less malicious and somewhat harmless attack, it is still an attack. (Rastenis, Ramanauskaitė, Suzdalev., Tunaitytė. Janulevičius, Čenys, and Szczypiorski, 2021).

Phishing however tends to look like legitimate email and are intended to make the user execute a command or take an action that could potentially harm them, either by revealing personal information or creating a way into their system.  Phishing attacks can be considered a form of social engineering as the attacker tries to force the user into an emotional response rather than a rational one.  An example of a phishing email would be an email that looks to be from a person bank informing them of a security breach and the urgent need to have the user change their password, in doing so a user may reveal their current password as well as a new one allowing the attacker to access the users personal banking information. . (Rastenis, Ramanauskaitė, Suzdalev., Tunaitytė. Janulevičius, Čenys, and Szczypiorski, 2021).