Introduction

Securing your corporate wide area network (WAN) connection will always be a challenge. There are numerous ways in which hackers can infiltrate your network and do damage. They can bypass your security measures, attach malicious code to an e-mail message, sniff your traffic to pick out passwords and whole e-mails, or even load drones onto unsuspecting systems and deny service by using your available bandwidth. New strategies are constantly being invented.

It s very unsettling to know that there are so many ways for people to get into your system. Some are as easy as scanning an open port and exploiting it. What you should know is that there are companies out there who work equally as hard to defend your network from those very threats. With every virus released today, there are teams of programmers at places like Symantec and Network Associates who act quickly to provide protection from them. Using a computer as a professional today is like being caught in the middle of a battle between hackers and security experts to see who is better at what they do.

This chapter will discuss several methods that hackers are actively employing to get into networks and cause damage. It will also discuss how you can protect your company from these threats. One thing to remember about this topic is that the hacks and solutions are constantly changing, so you need to make sure you keep ahead of the game. You can do this by updating your virus definitions...