Question

1. Discuss the difficulties in defending systems when there are delays in security updating products?

2. Discuss the difficulties in defending against the availability and simplicity of attack tools.

Answer 1

1. Below mentioned are the difficulties that are caused if there is any delay in updating security products :-

• Universal connected device - If there is any delay in updates - then there might be chances that attackers from any part of the world can attack.
• Speed of attack - Due to above mentioned reason, there will be increased amount of attack as well / speed will increase.
• With the increase in technology, the attackers have also trained themselves to match the world. Attacking to a system is now not limited to highly skilled attackers. If there is delay in the updating the security products then there is a high chance that the low skilled attackers might evade the system.
• Vulnerablity - Attackers might find it easy to attack the system if the system runs on old security paches,
• Distribution of attacks - For 1 system, attackers use 1000 of systems to attack. Hence, a high risk is always there if there is any delay

Generally, when a software is launched in the market there are updates coming through to secure the software. As for example in the current times the malware attack has increased so much that the software vendors has stopped the old rule of following any traditional rule of fighting the viruses. Every month or, after some period of time there are software updates where software attack risks are reduced / potnetial threats are reduced

2. Coming on to the simplicity and availability of the attacking tools - In the past time when there was lesser threats of attack, one had to be technically skilled to attack to a system. Without proper knowledge it was impossible to attack any software, But in the current times, there are free softwares online/ market where a person can download and start attack any system without having any sort of technical knowledge. Tools are simple as well as readily available online - where any person can search, download and learn by their own and attack. Below graph shows the availability of the softwares in the internet with time.