Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit


Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit

The concept of low-hanging fruit comes from the idea that it is much easier to go after information that is readily available than to spend time digging for deeply rooted information; however, identifying the low-hanging fruit can be difficult. Most cybercriminals will walk away from a system that is too hard or takes too long to get into. In some instances, grabbing the low-hanging fruit may be nothing more than choosing the easiest part of the system to deal with at the time.

The cybersecurity field is rife with low-hanging fruit. When a company doesn't install patches for operating systems, or enforce sound password and logoff policies, it leaves its systems vulnerable. Some people believe that if you leave your system unprotected , you deserve to be hacked. And it will happen, because the low-hanging fruit is the easiest to grab. As most network administrators know, more employees will attempt to access a network folder called private than a folder named data . In a way, this is similar to a honeypot . A honeypot is a security resource whose value lies in being probed, attacked , or compromised. In essence, you put low-hanging fruit out there, and then watch to see what happens.

honeypot

A specially equipped system deployed to lure hackers and track their use of the system's resources.

As a forensic investigator , you will have to determine whether the low-hanging fruit provides enough evidence for your case. Let's start with the area that might provide you the evidence you need without doing an extreme amount of investigative work. This is evidence that is readily available, such as computer and log files, especially with unsophisticated criminals. People treat their computers as their own private storage facilities, even if they are the company's computers that they're assigned to use. What people keep in their computers can be incredible-everything from their sexual preferences to evidence of crimes.

Although you should strive to have more than enough evidence, you might be able to use low-hanging fruit to get the information you need. It is at least a good place to start.




Computer Forensics JumpStart
Computer Forensics JumpStart
ISBN: 0470931663
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 153

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net