Doing System Scans

 

Doing System Scans....

Once you know how you can actively gather information about your network, you will have an idea on how criminal hackers would possibly launch an attack against your network. Here are some of the things that you can do to see how vulnerable your system is:

1. Use the data you found on your Who is searches to see how related host names and IP addresses can be laid out. For example, you can verify information on how some internal host names, operating protocols, running services, open ports, and applications are displayed on a web search, which may give you an idea on how criminal hackers may soon infiltrate your system. 

2. Scan your internal hosts and know what possibly rogue users may access. Keep in mind that an attacker may come from within your organization and set up shop in one of your hosts, which can be very difficult to point out.

3. Check your system’s ping utility, or use a third-party utility that enables you to ping different addresses simultaneously. You can do this by using tools such as NetScan Tools, fping (if you are using Unix), or SuperScan. If you are not aware of what your gateway IP address is, you can search for your public IP address by going to https://www.whatismyip.com/

4. Do an outside-in scan of your system by scanning for open ports. To do that, you can use tools such as Nmap or Superscan, and then check what others can see on your network traffic by using tools such as Wireshark or Omnipeek

By doing this scan, you can get an idea on what other people can see when they scan your public IP address and then connect a workstation right into a hub or switch on your router’s public side

Once you are able to scan open ports, you will be able to realize that outsiders who are doing sweeps on your open ports can easily find the following information:

• VPN services that you are running,such as IPSec, PPTP, and SSL
• Services that are running on your ports,such as email, database apps, and web servers 
• Authentication requirement for sharing across netwoks 
• Remote access services available on your system, such as Remote Desktop, Secure Shell, VNC, and Windows Terminal Services.