Hacker Assignment Name:

1. What are four reasons that might motivate a hacker?

2. Distinguish between a white hat hacker and a black hat hacker.

3. What is a neophyte?

4. What is a hacktivist?

5. What are some common examples of security exploits?

6. What is a port scanner?

7. What is a packet analyzer?

WORD LIST FOR MATCHING (on the next page)

Keystroke logging, Name-dropping, Helpfulness, Computer virus, Intimidation, Technical, Computer worm, Trojan Horse, Rootkit, Spoofing Attack

________________________ 1. In this sub-group of social engineering, the hacker can send a fax or email to a legitimate user, seeking a response that contains vital information. The hacker may claim that he or she is involved in law enforcement and needs certain data for an investigation, or for record-keeping purposes.

________________________ 2. In this sub-group of social engineering, the hacker convinces the person who answers the phone that their job is in danger unless they help them. At this point, many people accept that the hacker is a supervisor and give them the information they seek.

________________________ 3. a tool designed to record ("log") every keystroke on an affected machine for later retrieval, usually to allow the user of this tool to gain access to confidential information typed on the affected machine.

________________________ 4. a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents.

________________________ 5. also a self-replicating program. It differs from a virus in that (a.) it propagates through computer networks without user intervention; and (b.) does not need to attach itself to an existing program.

________________________ 6. In this sub-group of social engineering, the hacker exploits many people's natural instinct to help others solve problems. Rather than acting angry, the hacker acts distressed and concerned. The help desk is the most vulnerable to this type of social engineering, as (a.) its general purpose is to help people; and (b.) it usually has the authority to change or reset passwords, which is exactly what the hacker wants.

________________________ 7. a program that uses low-level, hard-to-detect methods to subvert control of an operating system from its legitimate operators. Rootkits usually obscure their installation and attempt to prevent their removal through a subversion of standard system security.

________________________ 8. In this sub-group of social engineering, the hacker uses names of authorized users to convince the person who answers the phone that the hacker is a legitimate user him or herself. Some of these names, such as those of webpage owners or company officers, can easily be obtained online.

________________________ 9. involves one program, system or website that successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and is thereby treated as a trusted system by a user or another program — usually to fool programs, systems or users into revealing confidential information, such as user names and passwords.

________________________ 10. a program that seems to be doing one thing but is actually doing another. It can be used to set up a back door in a computer system, enabling the intruder to gain access later.