Brute force attack, dictionary and passwords

Brute force attacks, dictionary and passwords

Introduction

A password is a string of characters that a computer uses to gain access to someones account. It is an important part of security that if not made secure can lead to unauthorised access to your account. A brute force attack is trying to gain access to an encrypted file, password protected device or network by repeatedly guessing passwords until they find the right one. A dictionary attack is one way of trying to hack into a password protected device or network. This attack involves a hacker systematically entering every word in a dictionary as a password. This is a type of brute force atttack.

Diagrams

Goals of the attack

The goal of a dictionary attack and a brute force attack is to gain unauthorised access to a network, device or encrypted file. The reason they want access is to be able to affect the data that is held. This could be by stealing it, changing it, deleting it , moving it or sharing it. Another reason to affect the data is to hold it for randsom so the haccker makes money from the attack.

Detection and Prevention

To prevent a brute force attack you can:

• Change your password regularly.
• Make sure you use a secure password.
• Have two factor authentication.
• Have limited password attempts.
• If user exceeds password attempts lock them out of the account.

To detect a brute force atttack you can:

• Investigate failed login attempts.
• Track events in a network.
• Monitor user activity.
• Check new IPs trying to gain access.
• Monitor how many IPs are trying to log in.

Data on attack

Example - Northern Ireland Parliament 2018

Who:

• The Northern Ireland Parliament were the victims of the attack.

Where:

• The attack took place from the mailboxes of Northern Ireland Parliament members.

When:

• During the year of 2018.

How:

• Hackers accessed the mailboxes of several members using several passwords.

Why:

• The goal of the attack was to access confidential data of Parliament members

Is this attack better than other?

This is a dangerous attack because a lot of people have easy to guess passwords because they are easier to remember. This makes them vulnerabilities of this attack since it won't take long to hack. This makes this attack better than some other attacks. However, i wouldn't say that this is the most dangerous type of attack.

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