@Hindsite
You'll be amazed at what people can do with a computer. I learned a great deal in my TCP/IP class. Networking & Security is one of my next classes where we will be learning how to take a layered approach to defend networks from cyber-attack. But we learned some pretty valuable stuff in TCP/IP class. It was a tough class but fun and very interesting. The class i took before that was Foundations in Cyber-security which went into the basics of cyber-security like CIA for example (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability).
We learned a lot in that particular class such as using hashes like SHA1 and MD5 to assure the integrity of data transmitted over networks so that we know they hadn't been compromised, intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevention systems, deep packet inspection firewalls, stateful firewalls, packet filtering firewalls, application layer gateways, public and private key logins, asymmetric encryption, symmetric encryption. The different kinds of malware out there.
Like trojan horse malware can be secretly installed on a host to turn into a rogue DHCP server and the malware would starve out the legitimate DHCP server of the network of IP addresses to lease out to the other hosts in the network which forces them to go to the rogue DHCP server who then in turn leases out IP addresses and has it's own DNS server which could then in turn send hosts to phishing websites or websites infected with other malware or the rogue DHCP server can conduct man in the middle attacks on hosts in the networks. Those things can wreck serious havoc. I use the free version of Sophos anti-virus software on my Linux Ubuntu box. Sophos is a one of the leaders in anti-virus software. They publish a threatsarus for cyber-security professionals. You can take a look at it in their link here:
Another valuable thing we learned is how to look up a website's certificates to determine if it's a legitimate business or not and to see if that certificate came from a Certificate Authority. A website that has a certificate given to it by a Certificate Authority guarantees the identity of the website (the Certificate Authority who is issuing the certificate is guaranteeing the identity of that website and that it is a legitimate business and not a scam website). Plus, you learn how to check to be sure that it is using proper encryption to guarantee the security of any business transactions like the use of TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption. TLS is more secure than SSL but SSL is also pretty secure encryption.
@Hindsite
Here is a news article where ransomware has been a big problem with counties in the state of Florida:
Mohit Kumar of Hacker News wrote:
In the last two weeks, Florida has paid more than $1.1 million in bitcoin to cybercriminals to recover encrypted files from two separate ransomware attacks—one against Riviera Beach and the other against Lake City.
Lake City, a city in northern Florida, agreed on Monday to pay hackers 42 Bitcoin (equivalent to $573,300 at the current value) to unlock phone and email systems following a ransomware attack that crippled its computer systems for two weeks.
The ransomware attack, dubbed "Triple Threat" since it combines three different methods of attack to target network systems, infected Lake City systems on June 10 after an employee in city hall opened a malicious email.
Though the IT staff disconnected computers within just 10 minutes of the cyber attack starting, it was too late. The attack locked down the city workers' email accounts and servers.
Since the police and fire departments operate on a different server, they were the only ones not impacted by the attack. While other Lake City networks are currently disabled, Public Safety services remain unaffected by this attack.
The unknown hackers contacted the city's insurer and negotiated ransom payment of 42 bitcoins, currently $573,300. Lake City officials voted on Monday to pay the ransom to regain access to their important files.
That pisses me off that these attackers were able to do this. That's pretty sick isn't it what these attackers have done to Florida's taxpayers.
https://thehackernews.com/2019/06/flori ... ttack.html
"I need ammunition, not a ride!" -Volodymyr Zelenskyy