Reconnaissance Attacks
Reconnaissance attacks are used to gather information about
a target network or system. Such attacks may seem harmless at the time and may
be overlooked by security administrators as "network noise" or pestering
behavior, but it is usually the information gained through reconnaissance
attacks that is used in subsequent Access or DoS attacks.
Several means may be used to gather information about an
organization and could include automated and manual technological attacks as
well as human social attacks. Examples might include ICMP ping sweeps against a
network or SNMP walking techniques to gather network map and device
configuration data. Likewise, application-level scanners could be used to search
for vulnerabilities such as web server CGI or ASP weaknesses.
No specific damage may be caused by the reconnaissance attack, but
it is akin to burglars staking out a neighborhood, watching for times of
inactivity, and occasionally testing windows and doors for access.
Reconnaissance attacks are quite common and should be
considered a serious threat to an organization as they may give potential
attackers the information required to perform access or DoS attacks.
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