Maintenance is an essential task that is often considered to be dull. In information security, penetration testing may be wrongly perceived as being a “hacker-like” activity. In fact, when done correctly, ethical hacking is an important part of risk management. In your blog, write about ways that penetration analysts limit the risk they pose to internal systems. You may need to conduct research to fulfill this task.
Penetration Testing has been a part of information security since the early 1990’s, However it is still a misunderstood practice. Penetration Testing is considered by many as a "black art". Many CIOs and ISOs get excited at the thought of hiring a firm to perform a penetration test, because they imagine the very act of commissioning one somehow validates the idea that they are serious about the security of their organisation. This notion, combined with a lack of understanding of the realities of penetration testing and misconceptions about what penetration testing involves, tends to distort expectations about the penetration testing, especially the results.
(http://www.progllc.com/blogs/37-fed-sec/138-penetration-testing.html). A penetration test is a method of evaluating the security of a computer system or network by simulating an attack from a malicious source. The process involves an active analysis of the system for any potential vulnerabilities. This analysis is carried out from the position of a potential attacker, and can involve active exploitation of security vulnerabilities. Any security issues that are found will be presented to the system owner together with an assessment of their impact and action to take to prevent them. The intent of a penetration test is to determine feasibility of an attack and the amount of business impact of a successful exploit, if discovered. A Penetration test should be carried out on any computer system that is to be deployed in a hostile environment, in particular any Internet facing site, before it is deployed. This provides a level of practical assurance that any malicious user will not be able to penetrate the system. Black box penetration testing is useful in the cases where the tester assumes the role of an outside hacker and tries to intrude into the system without adequate knowledge of the system. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetration_test) The main advantage of penetration testing is that it gives you very accurate information about the real security position of your system.
A penetration test from a trusted provider offers an excellent means by which an organization can baseline its current security posture, identify threats and weaknesses, and start implementing strategies to remedy the threats and weaknesses. By identifying risk exposures and highlighting what resources are needed to correct them, penetration tests provide not only the basis for a security action plan, but also the compelling events, due diligence and partner interface protocols necessary to establish information security as a key corporate initiative.
(http://www.iss.net/documents/whitepapers/pentestwp.pdf)
Also, look at popular news sources for stories related to computer vulnerabilities. Research the vulnerabilities to see if there are any inconsistencies between the way the press reports them and the way researchers have documented them. Give examples.
SC Magazine
"A computer virus has made it onto the International Space Station (ISS), but Nasa says there is no danger to critical systems.Nasa has confirmed that a computer on the ISS has been infected by the Gammima.AG. virus, which tries to steal login names and passwords to popular online games like Maple Story, HuangYi Online and Talesweaver. It is not yet known how the virus got on board but the likely culprit is a USB drive taken up by one of the astronauts. All data traffic streamed direct to the station comes from Nasa uplink stations and is heavily screened before being sent into orbit.No critical systems have been infected according to the space agency and measures are being taken to expunge the malware from on-board systems.This is not the first time viruses have made it into orbit Nasa confirmed. In the past astronaut laptops have been taken up that have found to be infected but at no time were lives put at risk.Nasa now plans to beef up the security systems on the ISS to prevent such issues recurring"
(http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/121093,computer-virus-hits-space-station.aspx)
BBC News: Computer Virus Makes it to Orbit.
A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS).
Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games. Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected.
Orbital outbreak: Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS. Nasa told SpaceRef that no command or control systems of the ISS were at risk from the malicious program. The laptops infected with the virus were used to run nutritional programs and let the astronauts periodically send e-mail back to Earth.
The laptops carried by astronauts reportedly do not have any anti-virus software on them to prevent infection. Once it has scooped up passwords and login names the Gammima.AG worm virus tries to send them back to a central server. It targets a total of 10 games most of which are popular in the Far East such as Maple Story, HuangYi Online and Talesweaver. Nasa is working with partners on the ISS to find out how the virus got on to the laptop in the first place. The ISS has no direct net connection and all data traffic travelling from the ground to the spacecraft is scanned before being transmitted. It is thought that the virus might have travelled via a flash or USB drive owned by an astronaut and taken into space. The space agency also plans to put in place security systems to stop such incidents happening in the future. Nasa told Wired News that viruses had infected laptops taken to the ISS on several occasions but the outbreaks had always only been a "nuisance". (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7583805.stm)
The Gammima.AG. virus is a computer worm virus that propagates by copying itself to removable media. It also steals passwords information related to various online games. The article above states that the virus was likely to have gotten on board from a "USB drive taken up by one of the astronauts" The above definition says that the virus copies itself to removable media which is what they beleive happened in the NASA situation. The Virus was discovered by NASA onboard a computer in International Space Station on August 2007 though the virus did however not pose any threat to the International Space Station as it is a gaming virus made to steal login information for net-based computer games (Wikipedia (2009)).
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