In: Computer Science
Which cyber security measure would have been most likely to have prevented the 2016 successful attack on the Democratic National Committee (DNC): A. Stronger passwords used by DNC employees B. 2-factor authentication that uses a password and a security question for the user C. Hardware 2-factor authentication D. 2-factor authentication that uses a password and a text to the user's phone E. Software 2-factor authentication
Before discussing the measure that would have prevented the cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee in 2016 we must be aware of about this attack
Democratic National Committee(DNC) is a political party in the US and in 2016 few Russian Computers hacked the Computer networks of DNC and breached their data. This cyber-attack was done in order to get Donald Trump to win the election which was held in 2016 for the new president of America. Russian Government wanted to let Donald Trump win that's why the Russian government indulges its hackers to do this cyberattack on DNC. Later on when Barak Obama gave orders to get the details of this attack then it was clear that it was done by Russian computer attackers.
Democratic National Committee could have avoided such cyber-attacks if they would have taken certain steps in order to save their computer networks. Various steps can be taken in such a case but the most appropriate action that could have been taken is
A. Stronger passwords used by DNC employees
AND
E. Software 2-factor authentication
The reason behind this is:
1. If DNC employees would have used stronger passwords then it would not be easy for Russian computer hackers to hack such systems with stronger passwords and the DNC network would have saved.
2. DNS should have enabled 2-factor authentication in software so that no external or public email or webmails can easily and directly reach to DNC network because mails contain a major malicious code of hacking that causes data breach. Do if such emails are stopped before only with 2 step authentication in software so this breach could have been avoided
3. DNS employees can get good training on such attacks on their network so that they can avoid such attacks.
4. 2-factor authentication also checks the employee credentials of DNS so that even their own employees can also not harm their network and such cyber attacks could be avoided.