Cyber Security Essay Sample: Honeypot, Encrypting and Hashing

Why would a database administrator set up a honeypot?

A honeypot is utilized in the computer field as well as Internet security. It is a safety resource, whose worth lies in being compromised, probed, or attacked. They are excellent decoy servers to detect the activities of the Black-hats (individuals with malevolence and illegitimate intents). They entice the hackers to attack a susceptible computer network that is under supervision of a security group. According to Bandakkanavar (2017), honeypot collects the data of the hackers or attackers once the attacker intrudes the network. Therefore, the database administrator would reap several benefits about the Internet security to ensure that the database is secure and that the hackers` moves are mastered and thwarted before affecting the private data contained in it. Countermeasures developed by using a honeypot will help in detecting and preventing attacks directed to the database using the known facts as well as recognized attack patterns. The administrator will have the knowledge of the type of strategy a hacker utilizes, the tools he or she uses as well as the intentions behind the attack. By knowing the attack plans, security can be enhanced, and susceptibilities can be fixed (Bandakkanavar, 2017). Therefore, the database will be protected because the administrator will have this tool aimed at gathering Black-hats using a honeypot.

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The role of a firewall in a honeypot design

Honeypots are intended to imitate networks, which an intruder would like to break into; however, limit the hacker from having contact to the whole system. If the honeypot is successful, the impostor will have no thought that he or she is being hoaxed and screened. Most of them are set up inside firewalls so that they can be managed better, although it is possible to install them on the exterior of the firewalls. A firewall in this system works differently as compared to the way the usual firewall performs (Diansyah et al., 2017). Instead of limiting what comes into a computer network from the Internet, the firewall installed on the honeypot permits all the traffic to enter from the Internet, limits what the network, and limits what the system sends back out.

By tricking an intruder into a network, a honeypot performs various purposes with the aid of the firewall that allows all information from the Internet to get into the system (Diansyah et al., 2017). Therefore, it will enable the administrator to learn the intentions of the hacker and improve the system security using the intruder's strategies. The firewall helps the manager to watch the hacker exploit the susceptibilities of the network; therefore, learning where the network has weak spots, which require to be redesigned. Moreover, the firewall helps the system to catch the hacker and stop his or her activities on the system.

The difference between hashing a password and encrypting

Encrypting and hashing are two phrases that are frequently utilized interchangeably; however, this is incorrect because the two words are different. A hash is a thread or number of produced from a series of text. The resultant number or string has a fixed length and varies broadly with small differences in input (Shahbazi & Shahbazi, 2014). Unique hashing algorithms are designed to ensure that it is not possible to reverse a hash into its original string. Hash is a perfect method to store passwords since the hashes are intrinsically one-way. On the other hand, encryption converts information into a sequence of unreadable characters, which have no fixed length. The main difference between the two is that the encrypted threads can be returned to their original form when an individual has the right key (Shahbazi & Shahbazi, 2014). Encryption ought only to be utilized over hashing if it is essential to decrypt the resultant message.

References

Bandakkanavar, R. (2017). Role of a Honeypot in Network Security - Krazytech. Retrieved from https://krazytech.com/technical-papers/honeypots

Diansyah, T. M., Faisal, I., Perdana, A., Sembiring, B. O., & Sinaga, T. H. (2017, December). Analysis Of Using Firewall And Single Honeypot In Training Attack On Wireless Network. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 930, No. 1, p. 012038). IOP Publishing.

Shahbazi, M., & Shahbazi, M. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,819,444. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.