Cyber Techniques and Operations

Cyber techniques and operations provided an overview of a range of cybersecurity concepts and hands-on training using various methods.

The first assignment for this class was basic Linux commands. Linux System for Cybersecurity was a requirement for this course, so this assignment was a review that established some basics for the course.

The second assignment was on traffic sniffing. Prior to the assignment, we learned about the basics of IP addresses and Subnets: an IP being a unique, 32-bit, global address and subnetting is a technique that divides a larger network into smaller, more secure and efficient, sub-networks. During this time we also went over the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) standards and addressed how they work together to securely transmit data from sender to receiver.

The third assignment was a “Sword vs Shield” lab. Prior to this lab, the lectures covered firewalls: a device that monitors and acts as a barrier between trusted and untrusted networks. We learned this through the lens of the OSI model, which typically operates on the network layer (layer 3) of the OSI model. These lectures also covered the vulnerability of internet services (HTTP and FTP) and the types of firewalls that can be used.

The fourth assignment covered ethical hacking: what it is, how to find and use exploits on Linux and Windows, and applying what we learned through a series of lectures. Ethical hacking is when the owner of a system, network, or application consents to a “hacker” probing for vulnerabilities, then reporting it back to them or fixing the vulnerability.

Note: There was a task C for this assignment; however, the website we were using for the labs had been having issues for a couple of weeks, so we did that part together in class.

Assignment five was on password cracking using John the Ripper and AirCrack-NG. Before the lab, we reviewed Linux files that store and encrypt user passwords. From there, we learned:

Different types of password cracking: brute force, dictionary attacks, phishing, social engineering, and malware.

John the Ripper: fast password cracking that works on various operating systems

Cain and Abel: technically a password cracking tool, but it can recover passwords through packet sniffing, dictionary attacks, brute force attacks, and cryptanalysis attacks.

AirCrack-NG: a set of tools used to crack Wi-Fi passwords

Assignment six was on digital stenography: the process of hiding information in other digital media, like images. Prior to the assignment, we also learned about cryptography, which is the process of hiding or coding information so only the person who is meant to view the information has access to it. Stenography can be done in various ways; this assignment focused on hiding information in an image.