Information Security Management Short Answer IT & Computer Essay

1. (8.0 points)
List four examples of which threat actors are generally believed to be the most dangerous threat actors? Explain your answer in your own words.
*  Privileged users
* Organized Cybercriminals
* Hackers
* State-sponsored actors
Threat actors have the potential to affect the security or safety of an entity. Privileged users are a form of insider threat that have access to sensitive data and expose sensitive data and information intentionally or unintentionally. Privileged user threat is a concern as they have permission and are difficult to manage. They can also be targeted by outsiders and become the link to cyber intrusions and attacks.
Organized cyber criminals coordinate their actions and people who can attack different entities. These malicious cyber actors can attack systems and networks through diverse ways and engage in different cybercrimes including those with technical knowledge on hacking and cyber attacks.
Hackers mostly have the expertise and sophistication to attack diverse entities, where they can compromise digital devices, systems and attacks. Some attackers can deliver malware and steal sensitive information.
State-sponsored actors mostly target government-affiliated entities, and are well organized, well-funded, and sophisticated. The actors tend to get money or direction on what to target including critical infrastructure. Since they are well-coordinated they pose a big threat and can launch attacks for long.
2. (8.0 points)
In your own words, explain what botnets are, why they are valuable for an adversary, and one thing you can do to protect against becoming a bot? 
Botnets are numerous computers that flood networks or servers with traffic with the aim of slowing down activities, where the attackers control the infected computers and servers remotely. A bot is a malicious program that takes control of an infected computer and these bots are web robots that are part of a network of infected machines, called botnets, and they can infect victim machines from all over the world. The network of bots, run automatically and control infected computers and servers, where cybercriminals can spread viruses through the network in order to infect as many computers as possible and even cause a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack to disrupt a network. Bots initiate different types of attacks such as viruses, spam, spyware, and are used for fraud. Installing programs the monitor computer for suspicious activities and potential infection helps to detect botnets.
3. (8.0 points)
In your own words describe what protocol u...