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Composite Default screen / Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+™ and Beyond / Gregory B. White / 375-8 / Appendix

A Objectives Map:
CompTIA Security+
Topic Chapter(s)
1.0 Systems Security
1.1 Differentiate among various systems security threats.
Privilege escalation 15
Virus 15, 16
Worm 15, 16
Trojan 15, 16
Spyware 15, 16
Spam 15, 16
Adware 15, 16
Rootkits 15
Botnets 15
Logic bomb 15
1.2 Explain the security risks pertaining to system hardware and peripherals.
BIOS 10
USB devices 10
Cell phones 10
Removable storage 10
Network attached storage 10
1.3 Implement OS hardening practices and procedures to achieve workstation and server security.
Hotfixes 10, 14
Service packs 10, 14
Patches 10, 14
Patch management 10, 14
Group policies 14
Security templates 14
Configuration baselines 14
1.4 Carry out the appropriate procedures to establish application security.
ActiveX 17
Java 17
Scripting 17
Browser 17
Buffer overflows 17, 18

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Topic Chapter(s)
Cookies 17
SMTP open relays 17, 18
Instant messaging 16, 17
P2P 17
Input validation 17, 18
Cross-site scripting (XSS) 17
1.5 Implement security applications.
HIDS 13
Personal software firewalls 10, 13
Antivirus 10, 13
Anti-spam 10, 13
Popup blockers 10, 13
1.6 Explain the purpose and application of virtualization technology.
10
2.0 Network Infrastructure
2.1 Differentiate between the different ports & protocols, their respective threats and mitigation techniques.
Antiquated protocols 11
TCP/IP hijacking 11, 15
Null sessions 15
Spoofing 15
Man-in-the-middle 15
Replay 15
DOS 15
DDOS 15
Domain Name Kiting 15
DNS poisoning 15
ARP poisoning 15
2.2 Distinguish between network design elements and components.
DMZ 9
VLAN 9
NAT 9
Network interconnections 9
NAC 10
Subnetting 9
Telephony 3, 10
2.3 Determine the appropriate use of network security tools to facilitate network security.
NIDS 10, 13
NIPS 10, 13
Firewalls 10, 13

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Appendix A: Objectives Map: CompTIA Security+

Topic Chapter(s)
Proxy servers 10, 13
Honeypot 10, 13
Internet content filters 13
Protocol analyzers 10, 13
2.4 Apply the appropriate network tools to facilitate network security.
NIDS 10, 13
Firewalls 10, 13
Proxy servers 10, 13
Internet content filters 13
Protocol analyzers 10, 13
2.5 Explain the vulnerabilities and mitigations associated with network devices.
Privilege escalation 10
Weak passwords 10
Back doors 10
Default accounts 10
DOS 10
2.6 Explain the vulnerabilities and mitigations associated with various transmission media.
Vampire taps 10
2.7 Explain the vulnerabilities and implement mitigations associated with wireless networking.
Data emanation 3, 12
War driving 12
SSID broadcast 12
Blue jacking 12
Bluesnarfing 12
Rogue access points 12
Weak encryption 12
3.0 Access Control
3.1 Identify and apply industry best practices for access control methods.
Implicit deny 1
Least privilege 1, 18, 19
Separation of duties 1, 19
Job rotation 1
3.2 Explain common access control models and the differences between each.
MAC 1, 11, 22
DAC 1, 11, 22
Role & Rule based access control 1, 11, 22
3.3 Organize users and computers into appropriate security groups and roles while distinguishing between appropriate
rights and privileges.
2, 11, 22

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Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+ and Beyond

Topic Chapter(s)
3.4 Apply appropriate security controls to file and print resources.
2, 22
3.5 Compare and implement logical access control methods.
ACL 2, 11, 22
Group policies 2, 11, 22
Password policy 2, 4, 22
Domain password policy 2, 11, 22
User names and passwords 2, 4, 22
Time of day restrictions 2, 22
Account expiration 2, 4, 22
Logical tokens 2, 11, 22
3.6 Summarize the various authentication models and identify the components of each.
One, two and three-factor authentication 11
Single sign-on 11, 22
3.7 Deploy various authentication models and identify the components of each.
Biometric reader 3, 11
RADIUS 11
RAS 11
LDAP 11
Remote access policies 11
Remote authentication 11
VPN 11
Kerberos 11
CHAP 11
PAP 11
Mutual 11
802.1x 11
TACACS 11
3.8 Explain the difference between identification and authentication (identity proofing).
11
3.9 Explain and apply physical access security methods.
Physical access logs/lists 8
Hardware locks 8
Physical access control – ID badges 8
Door access systems 8
Man-trap 8
Physical tokens 8
Video surveillance – camera types and positioning 8
4.0 Assessments & Audits
4.1 Conduct risk assessments and implement risk mitigation.
14

643
Appendix A: Objectives Map: CompTIA Security+

Topic Chapter(s)
4.2 Carry out vulnerability assessments using common tools.
Port scanners 14
Vulnerability scanners 14
Protocol analyzers 14
OVAL 17
Password crackers 15
Network mappers 14
4.3 Within the realm of vulnerability assessments, explain the proper use of penetration testing versus vulnerability
scanning.
14
4.4 Use monitoring tools on systems and networks and detect security-related anomalies.
Performance monitor 14
Systems monitor 14
Performance baseline 14
Protocol analyzers 14
4.5 Compare and contrast various types of monitoring methodologies.
Behavior-based 13
Signature-based 13
Anomaly-based 13
4.6 Execute proper logging procedures and evaluate the results.
Security application 14
DNS 14
System 14
Performance 14
Access 14
Firewall 13
Antivirus 14
4.7 Conduct periodic audits of system security settings.
User access and rights review 2, 19
Storage and retention policies 19
Group policies 19
5.0 Cryptography
5.1 Explain general cryptography concepts.
Key management 5, 6, 7
Steganography 5
Symmetric key 5
Asymmetric key 5
Confidentiality 5
Integrity and availability 5

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Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+ and Beyond

Topic Chapter(s)
Non-repudiation 5
Comparative strength of algorithms 5
Digital signatures 5
Whole disk encryption 5
Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 5
Single vs. Dual sided certificates 5, 6
Use of proven technologies 5
5.2 Explain basic hashing concepts and map various algorithms to appropriate applications.
SHA 5, 23
MD5 5, 23
LANMAN 5
NTLM 5
5.3 Explain basic encryption concepts and map various algorithms to appropriate applications.
DES 5
3DES 5
RSA 5
PGP 5
Elliptic curve 5
AES 5
AES256 5
One time pad 5
Transmission encryption (WEP TKIP, etc.) 5, 7
5.4 Explain and implement protocols.
SSL/TLS 5,
S/MIME 5, 7, 16
PPTP 5, 7, 11
HTTP vs. HTTPS vs. SHTTP 5, 7
L2TP 5, 11
IPSEC 5, 7, 11
SSH 5, 11
5.5 Explain core concepts of public key cryptography.
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) 6, 16
Recovery agent 6
Public key 6
Private keys 6
Certificate Authority (CA) 6
Registration 6
Key escrow 6
Certificate Revocation List (CRL) 6
Trust models 6

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Appendix A: Objectives Map: CompTIA Security+

Topic Chapter(s)
5.6 Implement PKI and certificate management.
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) 6, 16
Recovery agent 6
Public key 6
Private keys 6
Certificate Authority (CA) 6
Registration 6
Key escrow 6
Certificate Revocation List (CRL) 6
6.0 Organizational Security
6.1 Explain redundancy planning and its components.
Hot site 19
Cold site 19
Warm site 19
Backup generator 19
Single point of failure 19
RAID 19
Spare parts 19
Redundant servers 19
Redundant ISP 19
UPS 19
Redundant connections 19
6.2 Implement disaster recovery procedures.
Planning 19
Disaster recovery exercises 19
Backup techniques and practices – storage 19
Schemes 19
Restoration 19
6.3 Differentiate between and execute appropriate incident response procedures.
Forensics 19, 23
Chain of custody 19, 23
First responders 19, 23
Damage and loss control 19, 23
Reporting – disclosure of 19, 23
6.4 Identify and explain applicable legislation and organizational policies.
Secure disposal of computers 2
Acceptable use policies 2, 19
Password complexity 2, 4
Change management 2, 19
Classification of information 2, 19

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Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+ and Beyond

Topic Chapter(s)
Mandatory vacations 2, 4, 19
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) 2, 25
Due care 2, 19
Due diligence 2, 19
Due process 2, 19
SLA 2, 19
Security-related HR policy 2, 4
User education and awareness training 2, 4
6.5 Explain the importance of environmental controls.
Fire suppression 3, 8
HVAC 3, 8
Shielding 3, 8
6.6 Explain the concept of and how to reduce the risks of social engineering.
Phishing 2, 4
Hoaxes 2, 4
Shoulder surfing 2, 4
Dumpster diving 2, 4
User education and awareness training 2, 4

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Appendix A: Objectives Map: CompTIA Security+

B About the CD

T he CD-ROM included with this book comes complete with MasterExam, the electronic version of the book, and
Session #1 of LearnKey’s online training. The software is easy to install on any Windows 2000/XP/Vista computer
and must be installed to access the MasterExam feature. You may, however, browse the electronic book directly from the
CD without installing the software. To register for LearnKey’s online training or the bonus MasterExam, simply click the
Bonus MasterExam link on the main launch page and follow the directions to the free online registration.

System Requirements
Software requires Windows 2000 or higher and Internet Explorer 6.0 or above and 20MB of hard disk space for full
installation. The electronic book requires Adobe Reader. To access the online training from LearnKey, you must
have Windows Media Player 9 or higher and Adobe Flash Player 9 or higher.

■ LearnKey Online Training

Clicking the LearnKey Online Training link will allow you to access online training from Osborne.OnlineExpert.com.
The first session of this course is provided at no charge. Additional session for this course and other courses may be
purchased directly from www.LearnKey.com or by calling 800-865-0165.
The first time that you click the LearnKey Online Training link, you will be required to complete a free online
registration. Follow the instructions for a first-time user. Please make sure to use a valid e-mail address.

■ Installing and Running MasterExam

If your computer CD-ROM drive is configured to autorun, the CD-ROM will automatically start up when you in-
sert the disc. From the opening screen, you may install MasterExam by clicking the MasterExam link. This will be-
gin the installation process and create a program group named LearnKey. To run MasterExam, select Start | All
Programs | LearnKey | MasterExam. If the autorun feature did not launch your CD, browse to the CD drive and
click the LaunchTraining.exe icon.

MasterExam
MasterExam provides you with a simulation of the actual exam. The number of questions, the type of questions,
and the time allowed are intended to be an accurate representation of the exam environment. You have the option
to take an open-book exam, including hints, references, and answers, a closed-book exam, or the timed
MasterExam simulation.
When you launch MasterExam, a digital clock display will appear in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
The clock will continue to count down to zero unless you choose to end the exam before the time expires.

648

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■ Electronic Book
The entire contents of the textbook are provided as a PDF. Adobe Reader
has been included on the CD.

■ Help
A help file is provided through the Help button on the main page in the
lower-left corner. Individual help features are also available through
MasterExam and LearnKey’s online training.

■ Removing Installation(s)
MasterExam is installed to your hard drive. For best results removing the
program, select the Start | All Programs | LearnKey | Uninstall option to
remove MasterExam.

■ Technical Support
For questions regarding the content of the electronic book or MasterExam,
please visit www.mhprofessional.com or e-mail customer.service@mcgraw-
hill.com. For customers outside the 50 United States, e-mail international_
cs@mcgraw-hill.com.

LearnKey Technical Support

For technical problems with the software (installation, operation, installa-
tion removal) and for questions regarding LearnKey online training con-
tent, please visit www.learnkey.com, e-mail techsupport@learnkey.com, or
call toll free 800-482-8244.

649
Appendix B: About the CD

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BaseTech / Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+™ and Beyond / Gregory B. White / 375-8 / Chapter 1

1 Introduction and
Security Trends
Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor
do the children of men as a whole
experience it. Avoiding danger is
no safer in the long run than
outright exposure. Life is either a
daring adventure or nothing.
—HELEN KELLER

In this chapter, you will learn

how to
■ List and discuss recent trends in
W hy should we be concerned about computer and network security? All
you have to do is turn on the television or read the newspaper to find
out about a variety of security problems that affect our nation and the world
computer security
today. The danger to computers and networks may seem to pale in comparison
■ Describe simple steps to take to
minimize the possibility of an to the threat of terrorist strikes, but in fact the average citizen is much more
attack on a system likely to be the target of an attack on their own personal computer, or a
■ Describe various types of threats computer they use at their place of work, than they are to be the direct victim of
that exist for computers and
networks a terrorist attack. This chapter will introduce you to a number of issues involved
■ Discuss recent computer crimes in securing your computers and networks from a variety of threats that may
that have been committed utilize any of a number of different attacks.

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■ The Security Problem Tech Tip

Fifty years ago, few people had access to a computer system or network, so Historical Security
securing them was a relatively easy matter. If you could secure the building Computer security is an
that these early, very large systems were housed in, you could secure the ever-changing issue. Fifty years
data and information they stored and processed. Now, personal computers ago, computer security was
are ubiquitous and portable, making them much more difficult to secure mainly concerned with the physi-
physically, and are often connected to the Internet, putting the data they cal devices that made up the com-
puter. At the time, these were the
contain at much greater risk of attack or theft. Similarly, the typical com-
high-value items that organiza-
puter user today is not as technically sophisticated as the typical computer
tions could not afford to lose.
user 50 years ago. No longer are computers reserved for use by scientists Today, computer equipment is in-
and engineers; now, even children who are barely able to read can be taught expensive compared to the value
to boot a computer and gain access to their own favorite games or educa- of the data processed by the com-
tional software. puter. Now the high-value item is
Fifty years ago companies did not conduct business across the Internet. not the machine, but the informa-
Online banking and shopping were only dreams in science fiction stories. tion that it stores and processes.
Today, however, millions of people perform online transactions every day. This has fundamentally changed
Companies rely on the Internet to operate and conduct business. Vast the focus of computer security
amounts of money are transferred via networks, in the form of either bank from what it was in the early
transactions or simple credit card purchases. Wherever there are vast years. Today the data stored and
processed by computers is almost
amounts of money, there are those who will try to take advantage of the en-
always more valuable than the
vironment to conduct fraud or theft. There are many different ways to attack
hardware.
computers and networks to take advantage of what has made shopping,
banking, investment, and leisure pursuits a simple matter of “dragging and
clicking” for many people. Identity theft is so common today that most ev-
eryone knows somebody who’s been a victim of such a crime, if they haven’t
been a victim themselves. This is just one type of criminal activity that can be
conducted using the Internet. There are many others and all are on the rise.

Security Incidents
By examining some of the computer-related crimes that have been commit-
ted over the last 20 or so years, we can better understand the threats and se-
curity issues that surround our computer systems and networks. Electronic
crime can take a number of different forms but the ones we will examine
here fall into two basic categories: crimes in which the computer was the tar-
get, and incidents in which a computer was used to perpetrate the act (for
example, there are many different ways to conduct bank fraud, one of which
uses computers to access the records that banks process and maintain).
We will start our tour of computer crimes with the 1988 Internet worm
(Morris worm), one of the first real Internet crime cases. Prior to 1988 crimi-
nal activity was chiefly centered on unauthorized access to computer sys-
tems and networks owned by the telephone company and companies which
provided dial-up access for authorized users. Virus activity also existed
prior to 1988, having started in the early 1980s.

The Morris Worm (November 1988)

Robert Morris, then a graduate student at Cornell University, released what
has become known as the Internet worm (or the Morris worm). This was the
first large-scale attack on the Internet, though it appears doubtful that

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Morris actually intended that his creation cause the impact that it did at the
time. The worm infected roughly 10 percent of the machines then connected
to the Internet (which amounted to approximately 6000 infected machines)
and caused an estimated $100 million in damage, though this number has
been the subject of wide debate. The worm carried no malicious payload,
the program being obviously a “work in progress,” but it did wreak havoc
because it continually reinfected computer systems until they could no lon-
ger run any programs. The worm took advantage of known vulnerabilities
in several programs to gain access to new hosts and then copied itself over.
Morris was eventually convicted under Title 10 United States Code Section
1030 for releasing the worm and was sentenced to three years’ probation, a
$10,000 fine, and 400 hours of community service.

Citibank and Vladimir Levin (June–October 1994)

Starting about June of 1994 and continuing until at least October of the
same year, a number of bank transfers were made by Vladimir Levin of
St. Petersburg, Russia. By the time he and his accomplices were caught, they
had transferred an estimated $10 million. Eventually all but about $400,000
was recovered. Levin reportedly accomplished the break-ins by dialing into
Citibank’s cash management system. This system allowed clients to initiate
their own fund transfers to other banks. An estimated $500 billion was
transferred daily during this period, so the amounts transferred by Levin
were very small in comparison to the overall total on any given day. To
avoid detection, he also conducted the transactions at night in Russia so that
they coincided with normal business hours in New York. Levin was ar-
rested in London in 1995 and, after fighting extradition for 30 months, even-
tually was turned over to U.S. authorities, was tried, and was sentenced to
three years in jail. Four accomplices of Levin plead guilty to conspiracy to
commit bank fraud and received lesser sentences.

Kevin Mitnick (February 1995)

Kevin Mitnick’s computer activities occurred over a number of years during
the 1980s and 1990s. He was arrested in February 1995 (not his first arrest on
computer criminal charges) for federal offenses related to what the FBI de-
scribed as a 2½-year computer hacking spree. He eventually pled guilty to
four counts of wire fraud, two counts of computer fraud, and one count of il-
legally intercepting a wire communication and was sentenced to 46 months
in jail. In the plea agreement, Mitnick admitted to having gained unautho-
rized access to a number of different computer systems belonging to compa-
nies such as Motorola, Novell, Fujitsu, and Sun Microsystems. He described
using a number of different “tools” and techniques, including social engi-
neering, sniffers, and cloned cellular telephones. Mitnick also admitted to
having used stolen accounts at the University of Southern California to store
proprietary software he had taken from various companies. He also admit-
ted to stealing e-mails and impersonating employees of targeted companies
in order to gain access to the software he was seeking.

Omega Engineering and Timothy Lloyd (July 1996)

On July 30, 1996, a software “time bomb” went off at Omega Engineering, a
New Jersey–based manufacturer of high-tech measurement and control

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instruments. Twenty days earlier, Timothy Lloyd, a computer network pro-

gram designer, had been dismissed from the company after a period of
growing tension between Lloyd and management at Omega. The program
that ran on July 30 deleted all of the design and production programs for the
company, severely damaging the small firm and forcing the layoff of 80 em-
ployees. The program was eventually traced back to Lloyd, who had left it
in retaliation for his dismissal. In May of 2000, a federal judge sentenced
Lloyd to 41 months in prison and ordered him to pay more than $2 million
in restitution.

Worcester Airport and “Jester” (March 1997)

In March of 1997, airport services to the FAA control tower as well as the Tech Tip
emergency services at the Worcester Airport and the community of Rut- Intellectual Curiosity
land, Massachusetts, were cut off for a period of six hours. This disruption In the early days of computer
occurred as a result of a series of commands sent by a teenage computer crime, much of the criminal activ-
“hacker” who went by the name “Jester.” The individual had gained unau- ity centered on gaining unautho-
thorized access to the “loop carrier system” operated by NYNEX, a New rized access to computer systems.
England telephone company. Loop carrier systems are programmable re- In many early cases, the perpetra-
mote computer systems used to integrate voice and data communications. tor of the crime did not intend to
Jester was eventually caught and ordered to pay restitution to the telephone cause any damage to the com-
company, as well as complete 250 hours of community service. puter but was instead on a quest
of “intellectual curiosity”—
trying to learn more about com-
Solar Sunrise (February 1998) puters and networks. Today the
In January of 1998, relations between Iraq and the United States again took a ubiquitous nature of computers
turn for the worse and it appeared as if the United States might take military and networks has eliminated the
action against Iraq. During this period of increased tension and military perceived need for individuals to
preparation, a series of computer intrusions occurred at a number of U.S. break into computers to learn
military installations. At first the military thought that this might be the start more about them. While there are
still those who dabble in hacking
of an information warfare attack—a possibility the military had been dis-
for the intellectual challenge, it is
cussing since the early 1990s. Over 500 domain name servers were compro-
more common today for the intel-
mised during the course of the attacks. Making it harder to track the actual
lectual curiosity to be replaced by
origin of the attacks was the fact that the attackers made a number of “hops” malicious intent. Whatever the
between different systems, averaging eight different systems before arriv- reason, today it is considered un-
ing at the target. The attackers eventually turned out to be two teenagers acceptable (and illegal) to gain
from California and their mentor in Israel. The attacks, as it turned out, had unauthorized access to computer
nothing to do with the potential conflict in Iraq. systems and networks.

The Melissa Virus (March 1999)

Melissa is the best known of the early macro-type viruses that attach them-
selves to documents for programs that have limited macro programming capa-
bility. The virus, written and released by David Smith, infected about a million
computers and caused an estimated $80 million in damages. Melissa, which
clogged networks with the traffic it generated and caused problems for e-mail
servers worldwide, was attached to Microsoft Word 97 and Word 2000 docu-
ments. If the user opened the file, the macro ran, infecting the current host and
also sending itself to the first 50 addresses in the individual’s e-mail address
book. The e-mail sent contained a subject line stating “Important Message
From” and then included the name of the individual who was infected. The
body of the e-mail message contained the text “Here is that document you
asked for … don’t show anyone else ;-).” The nature of both the subject line and

3
Chapter 1: Introduction and Security Trends

the body of the message usually generated enough user curiosity that many
people opened the document and thus infected their system, which in turn sent
the same message to 50 of their acquaintances. As a final action, if the minute of
the current hour when the macro was run matched the day of the month, the
macro inserted “Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points
for using all my letters. Game’s over. I’m outta here.” into the current docu-
ment. Smith, who plead guilty, was ultimately fined $5000 and sentenced to
20 months in jail for the incident. Because the macro code is easy to modify,
there have been many variations of the Melissa virus. Recipients could avoid
infection by Melissa simply by not opening the attached file.

The Love Letter Virus (May 2000)

Also known as the “ILOVEYOU” worm and the “Love Bug,” the Love Let-
ter virus was written and released by a Philippine student named Onel de
Guzman. The virus was spread via e-mail with the subject line of
“ILOVEYOU.” Estimates of the number of infected machines worldwide
have been as high as 45 million, accompanied by a possible $10 billion in
damages (it should be noted that figures like these are extremely hard to
verify or calculate). Similar to the Melissa virus, the Love Letter virus spread
via an e-mail attachment, but in this case, instead of utilizing macros, the at-
tachments were VBScript programs. When the receiver ran the attachment,
it searched the system for files with specific extensions in order to replace
them with copies of itself. It also sent itself to everyone in the user’s address
book. Again, since the receiver generally knew the sender, most individuals
opened the attachment without questioning it. de Guzman ultimately was
not convicted for releasing the worm because the Philippines, at the time,
did not have any laws denoting the activity as a crime. Again, recipients
avoided infection from the virus simply by not opening the attachments.

The Code Red Worm (2001)

On July 19, 2001, over 350,000 computers connected to the Internet were in-
fected by the Code Red worm. This infection took only 14 hours to occur.
The cost estimate for how much damage the worm caused (including varia-
tions of the worm released on later dates) exceeded $2.5 billion. The vulner-
ability exploited by the Code Red worm had been known for a month. The
worm took advantage of a buffer-overflow condition in Microsoft’s IIS web
servers. Microsoft released a patch for this vulnerability and made an offi-
cial announcement of the problem on June 18, 2001. The worm itself was
“memory resident,” so simply turning off an infected machine eliminated it.
Unfortunately, unless the system was patched before being reconnected to
the Internet, chances were good that it would soon become reinfected.
Though the worm didn’t carry a malicious payload designed to destroy data
on the infected system, on some systems, the message “Hacked by Chinese”
was added to the top-level page for the infected host’s web site. If the date
on the infected system was between the 1st and the 19th of the month, the
worm would attempt to infect a random list of IP addresses it generated. If
the date was between the 20th and the 28th of the month, the worm stopped
trying to infect other systems and instead attempted to launch a denial-of-
service (DoS) attack against a web site owned by the White House. After the
28th, the worm would lay dormant until the 1st of the next month. This date

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scheme actually ended up helping to eliminate the worm, because soon after
it was released on the 19th, the worm stopped trying to infect systems. This
provided a period of time when systems could be rebooted and patched be-
fore they were infected again.

Adil Yahya Zakaria Shakour (August 2001–May 2002)

On March 13, 2003, 19-year-old Adil Yahya Zakaria Shakour plead guilty to a
variety of crimes, including unauthorized access to computer systems and
credit card fraud. Shakour admitted to having accessed several computers
without authorization, including a server at Eglin Air Force Base (where he
defaced the web site), computers at Accenture (a Chicago-based management
consulting and technology services company), a computer system at Sandia
National Laboratories (a Department of Energy facility), and a computer at
Cheaptaxforms.com. Shakour admitted to having obtained credit card and
personal information during the break-in of Cheaptaxforms.com and having
used it to purchase items worth over $7000 for his own use. Shakour was sen-
tenced to one year and one day in federal prison and a three-year term of su-
pervised release, and was ordered to pay $88,000 in restitution.

The Slammer Worm (2003)

On Saturday, January 25, 2003, the Slammer worm (also sometimes referred
to as the Slammer virus) was released. It exploited a buffer-overflow vulnera-
bility in computers running Microsoft’s SQL Server or Microsoft SQL Server Tech Tip
Desktop Engine. Like the vulnerability in Code Red, this weakness was not
new and, in fact, had been discovered in July of 2002; Microsoft issued a patch Speed of Virus
for the vulnerability before it was even announced. Within the first 24 hours Proliferation
of Slammer’s release, the worm had infected at least 120,000 hosts and caused The speed at which the Slammer
network outages and the disruption of airline flights, elections, and ATMs. At virus spread served as a wakeup
call to security professionals. It
its peak, Slammer-infected hosts were generating a reported 1TB of worm-
drove home the point that the
related traffic every second. The worm doubled its number of infected hosts ev-
Internet could be adversely im-
ery 8 seconds. It is estimated that it took less than ten minutes to reach global
pacted in a matter of minutes.
proportions and infect 90 percent of the possible hosts it could infect. Once a This in turn caused a number of
machine was infected, the host would start randomly selecting targets and professionals to rethink how pre-
sending packets to them to attempt infection at a rate of 25,000 packets per pared they needed to be in order
second. Slammer did not contain a malicious payload. The problems it caused to respond to virus outbreaks in
were a result of the massively overloaded networks, which could not sustain the future. A good first step is to
the traffic being generated by the thousands of infected hosts. The worm sent apply patches to systems and soft-
its single packet to a specific UDP port, 1434, which provided an immediate ware as soon as possible. This will
fix to prevent further network access. Thus, the response of administrators often eliminate the vulnerabilities
was to quickly block all traffic to UDP port 1434, effectively curbing the that the worms and viruses are
designed to target.
spread of the worm to new machines.

U.S. Electric Power Grid (1997–2009)

In April 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters
that the United States was aware of attempts by both Russia and China to break
into the U.S. electric power grid, map it out, and plant destructive programs
that could be activated at a later date. She indicated that these attacks were not
new and had in fact been going on for years. One article in the Kansas City Star,
for example, reported that in 1997 the local power company, Kansas City

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Power and Light, saw perhaps

Try This 10,000 attacks for the entire year. In
Software Patches contrast, in 2009 the company has
been experiencing 10 to 20 attacks
One of the most effective measures security professionals can take to
every second. While none of these
address attacks on their computer systems and networks is to ensure
attacks is credited with causing any
that all software is up-to-date in terms of vendor-released patches.
significant loss of power, the attacks
Many of the outbreaks of viruses and worms would have been much
nonetheless highlight the fact that
less severe if everybody had applied security updates and patches
the nation’s critical infrastructures
when they were released. For the operating system that you use, use
are viewed as potential targets by
your favorite web browser to find what patches exist for the operating
other nations. In the event of some
system and what vulnerabilities or issues they were created to address.
future conflict, the United States
could expect to experience a cyber
attack on the cyber infrastructures
that operate its critical systems.

Conficker (2008–2009)
In late 2008 and early 2009, security experts became alarmed when it was
discovered that millions of systems attached to the Internet were infected
with the Downadup worm. Also known as Conficker, the worm was first
detected in November 2008 and was believed to have originated in Ukraine.
Infected systems were not initially damaged beyond having their antivirus
solution updates blocked. What alarmed experts was the fact that infected
systems could be used in a secondary attack on other systems or networks.
Each of these infected systems was part of what is known as a bot network
and could be used to cause a DoS attack on a target or be used for the for-
warding of spam e-mail to millions of users. It was widely believed that this
network of subverted systems would be activated on April 1, 2009, and
would result in the widespread loss of data and system connectivity. As it
turned out, very little damage was done on that date, though millions of dol-
lars were spent in responding to the millions of infected systems.

Fiber Cable Cut (2009)

On April 9, 2009, a widespread phone and Internet outage hit the San Jose
area in California. This outage was not the result of a group of determined
hackers gaining unauthorized access to the computers that operate these
networks, but instead occurred as a result of several cuts in the physical ca-
bles that carry the signals. A cable being cut is not an unusual occurrence;
backhoes have been responsible for many temporary interruptions in tele-
phone service in the past decade. What was unusual, and significant, about
this incident was that the cuts were deliberate. A manhole cover had been
removed to allow the attacker(s) to gain access to the cables underground.
The cuts resulted in a loss of all telephone, cell phone, and Internet service
for thousands of users in the San Jose area. Emergency services such as 911
were also affected, which could have had severe consequences. What is im-
portant to take away from this incident is the fact that the infrastructures
that our communities, states, and the nation rely on can also be easily at-
tacked using fairly simple physical techniques and without a lot of technical
expertise.

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Threats to Security
The incidents described in the previous section provide a glimpse into the
many different threats that face administrators as they attempt to protect
their computer systems and networks. There are, of course, the normal natu-
ral disasters that organizations have faced for years. In today’s highly net-
worked world, however, new threats have developed that we did not have
to worry about 50 years ago.
There are a number of ways that we can break down the various threats.
One way to categorize them is to separate threats that come from outside of
the organization from those that are internal. Another is to look at the vari-
ous levels of sophistication of the attacks, from those by “script kiddies” to
those by “elite hackers.” A third is to examine the level of organization of the
various threats, from unstructured threats to highly structured threats. All
of these are valid approaches, and they in fact overlap each other. The fol-
lowing sections examine threats from the perspective of where the attack
comes from.

Viruses and Worms

While your organization may be exposed to viruses and worms as a result of
employees not following certain practices or procedures, generally you will
not have to worry about your employees writing or releasing viruses and
worms. It is important to draw a distinction between the writers of malware
and those who release them. Debates over the ethics of writing viruses per-
meate the industry, but currently, simply writing them is not considered a
criminal activity. A virus is like a baseball bat; the bat itself is not evil, but the
inappropriate use of the bat (such as to smash a car’s window) falls into the Tech Tip
category of criminal activity. (Some may argue that this is not a very good Malware
analogy since a baseball bat has a useful purpose—to play ball—but viruses Viruses and worms are just two
have no useful purpose. In general, this is true but in some limited environ- types of threats that fall under the
ments, such as in specialized computer science courses, the study and cre- general heading of malware. The
ation of viruses can be considered a useful learning experience.) term malware comes from “mali-
By far, viruses and worms are the most common problem that an organi- cious software,” which describes
zation faces because literally thousands of them have been created and re- the overall purpose of code that
leased. Fortunately, antivirus software and system patching can eliminate falls into this category of threat.
the largest portion of this threat. Viruses and worms generally are also non- Malware is software that has a ne-
farious purpose, designed to cause
discriminating threats; they are released on the Internet in a general fashion
problems to you as an individual
and aren’t targeted at a specific organization. They typically are also highly
(for example, identity theft) or
visible once released, so they aren’t the best tool to use in highly structured
your system. More information on
attacks where secrecy is vital. This is not to say that the technology used in the different types of malware is
virus and worm propagation won’t be used by highly organized criminal provided in Chapter 15.
groups, but its use for what these individuals are normally interested in ac-
complishing is limited. The same cannot be said for terrorist organizations,
which generally want to create a large impact and have it be highly visible.

Intruders
The act of deliberately accessing computer systems and networks without
authorization is generally referred to as hacking, with individuals who con-
duct this activity being referred to as hackers. The term hacking also applies
to the act of exceeding one’s authority in a system. This would include

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authorized users who attempt to gain access to files they aren’t permitted to
access or who attempt to obtain permissions that they have not been
granted. While the act of breaking into computer systems and networks has
been glorified in the media and movies, the physical act does not live up to
the Hollywood hype. Intruders are, if nothing else, extremely patient, since
the process to gain access to a system takes persistence and dogged determi-
nation. The attacker will conduct many preattack activities in order to ob-
tain the information needed to determine which attack will most likely be
successful. Generally, by the time an attack is launched, the attacker will
have gathered enough information to be very confident that the attack will
succeed. If it doesn’t, the attacker will gather additional information and
take a different approach (though launching the first attack may alert secu-
rity personnel). Generally, attacks by an individual or even a small group of
attackers fall into the unstructured threat category. Attacks at this level gen-
erally are conducted over short periods of time (lasting at most a few
months), do not involve a large number of individuals, have little financial
backing, and are accomplished by insiders or outsiders who do not seek col-
lusion with insiders.
Intruders, or those who are attempting to conduct an intrusion, defi-
nitely come in many different varieties and have varying degrees of sophis-
tication (see Figure 1.1). At the low end technically are what are generally
referred to as script kiddies, individuals who do not have the technical exper-
tise to develop scripts or discover new vulnerabilities in software but who
have just enough understanding of computer systems to be able to down-
load and run scripts that others have developed. These individuals gener-
ally are not interested in attacking specific targets, but instead simply want
to find any organization that may not have patched a newly discovered vul-
nerability for which the script kiddie has located a script to
exploit the vulnerability. It is hard to estimate how many of
the individuals performing activities such as probing net-
works or scanning individual systems are part of this
group, but it is undoubtedly the fastest growing group and
the vast majority of the “unfriendly” activity occurring on
the Internet is probably carried out by these individuals.
At the next level are those people who are capable of
writing scripts to exploit known vulnerabilities. These indi-
viduals are much more technically competent than script
kiddies and account for an estimated 8 to 12 percent of ma-
licious Internet activity. At the top end of this spectrum are
those highly technical individuals, often referred to as elite
hackers, who not only have the ability to write scripts that
exploit vulnerabilities but also are capable of discovering
new vulnerabilities. This group is the smallest of the lot,
• Figure 1.1 Distribution of attacker skill levels however, and is responsible for, at most, only 1 to 2 percent
of intrusive activity.

Insiders
It is generally acknowledged by security professionals that insiders are
more dangerous in many respects than outside intruders. The reason for
this is simple—insiders have the access and knowledge necessary to cause
immediate damage to an organization. Most security is designed to protect

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against outside intruders and thus lies at the boundary between the organi-
zation and the rest of the world. Insiders may actually already have all the Tech Tip
access they need to perpetrate criminal activity such as fraud. In addition to The Inside Threat
unprecedented access, insiders also frequently have knowledge of the secu- One of the hardest threats that se-
rity systems in place and are better able to avoid detection. Attacks by insid- curity professionals will have to
ers are often the result of employees who have become disgruntled with address is that of the insider.
their organization and are looking for ways to disrupt operations. It is also Since employees already have ac-
possible that an “attack” by an insider may be an accident and not intended cess to the organization and its
as an attack at all. An example of this might be an employee who deletes a assets, additional mechanisms
critical file without understanding its critical nature. need to be in place to detect at-
Employees are not the only insiders that organizations need to be con- tacks by insiders and to lessen the
cerned about. Often, numerous other individuals have physical access to ability of these attacks to succeed.
company facilities. Custodial crews frequently have unescorted access
throughout the facility, often when nobody else is around. Other individu-
als, such as contractors or partners, may have not only physical access to the
organization’s facilities but also access to computer systems and networks.

Criminal Organizations
As businesses became increasingly reliant upon computer systems and net-
works, and as the amount of financial transactions conducted via the
Internet increased, it was inevitable that criminal organizations would
eventually turn to the electronic world as a new target to exploit. Criminal
activity on the Internet at its most basic is no different from criminal activity
in the physical world. Fraud, extortion, theft, embezzlement, and forgery all
take place in the electronic environment.
One difference between criminal groups and the “average” hacker is the
level of organization that criminal elements employ in their attack. Criminal
groups typically have more money to spend on accomplishing the criminal
activity and are willing to spend extra time accomplishing the task provided
the level of reward at the conclusion is great enough. With the tremendous
amount of money that is exchanged via the Internet on a daily basis, the
level of reward for a successful attack is high enough to interest criminal ele-
ments. Attacks by criminal organizations usually fall into the structured
threat category, which is characterized by a greater amount of planning, a
longer period of time to conduct the activity, more financial backing to ac-
complish it, and possibly corruption of, or collusion with, insiders.

Terrorists and Information Warfare

As nations have increasingly become dependent on computer systems and
networks, the possibility that these essential elements of society might be
targeted by organizations or nations determined to adversely affect another
nation has become a reality. Many nations today have developed to some
extent the capability to conduct information warfare. There are several defi-
nitions for information warfare, but a simple one is that it is warfare con-
ducted against the information and information processing equipment used
by an adversary. In practice, this is a much more complicated subject, be-
cause information not only may be the target of an adversary, but also may
be used as a weapon. Whatever definition you use, information warfare falls
into the highly structured threat category. This type of threat is characterized
by a much longer period of preparation (years is not uncommon),

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tremendous financial backing, and a large and organized group of attackers.

The threat may include attempts not only to subvert insiders but also to
plant individuals inside of a potential target in advance of a planned attack.
An interesting aspect of information warfare is the list of possible targets
Tech Tip available. We have grown accustomed to the idea that, during war, military
forces will target opposing military forces but will generally attempt to de-
Information Warfare stroy as little civilian infrastructure as possible. In information warfare, mil-
Once only the concern of govern- itary forces are certainly still a key target, but much has been written about
ments and the military, informa- other targets, such as the various infrastructures that a nation relies on for its
tion warfare today can involve daily existence. Water, electricity, oil and gas refineries and distribution,
many other individuals. With the
banking and finance, telecommunications—all fall into the category of
potential to attack the various
critical infrastructures for a nation. Critical infrastructures are those whose
civilian-controlled critical infra-
structures, security professionals
loss would have severe repercussions on the nation. With countries relying
in nongovernmental sectors today so heavily on these infrastructures, it is inevitable that they will be viewed as
must also be concerned about de- valid targets during conflict. Given how dependent these infrastructures are
fending their systems against at- on computer systems and networks, it is also inevitable that these same
tacks by agents of foreign computer systems and networks will be targeted for a cyber attack in an in-
governments. formation war.
Another interesting aspect of information warfare is the potential list of
attackers. As mentioned, several countries are currently capable of conduct-
ing this type of warfare. Nations, however, are not the only ones that can
conduct information, or cyber, warfare. Terrorist organizations can also ac-
complish this. Such groups fall into the category of highly structured threats
since they too are willing to conduct long-term operations, have (in some
cases) tremendous financial support, and often have a large following. Re-
ports out of Afghanistan related stories of soldiers and intelligence officers
finding laptop computers formerly owned by members of al-Qaeda that
contained information about various critical infrastructures in the United
States. This showed that terrorist organizations not only were targeting such
infrastructures, but were doing so at an unexpected level of sophistication.

Security Trends
The biggest change that has occurred in security over the last 30 years has
been the change in the computing environment from large mainframes to a
highly interconnected network of much smaller systems (smaller is a rela-
tive term here because the computing power of desktop computers exceeds
the power of many large mainframes of 30 years ago). What this has meant
for security is a switch from an environment in which everything was fairly
contained and people operated in a closed environment to one in which ac-
cess to a computer can occur from almost anywhere on the planet. This has,
for obvious reasons, greatly complicated the job of the security professional.
The type of individual who attacks a computer system or network has
also evolved over the last 30 years. There was, of course, the traditional in-
telligence service operator paid by a particular country to obtain secrets
from other government computer systems. These people still exist. What
has increased dramatically is the number of nonaffiliated intruders. As dis-
cussed earlier, the rise of the “script kiddie” has greatly multiplied the num-
ber of individuals who probe organizations looking for vulnerabilities to
exploit. This is actually the result of another recent trend: as the level of so-
phistication of attacks has increased, the level of knowledge necessary to

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Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+ and Beyond

exploit vulnerabilities has decreased. This is due to the number of auto-

mated tools that have been created that allow even novice attackers to ex-
ploit highly technical and complex vulnerabilities. The resulting increase in
network attacks has been reflected in a number of different studies con-
ducted by various organizations in the industry.
One of the best-known security surveys is the joint survey conducted an-
nually by the Computer Security Institute (CSI) and the FBI (this survey, CSI
Computer Crime and Security Survey, can be obtained from www.gocsi.com).
The respondents, who normally number over 500 individuals, come from
all walks of life: government, academia, and industry. Over the last several
years, the percentage of organizations that have experienced security inci-
dents has slowly declined (from 46 percent in 2007 to 43 percent in 2008).
This decline has been seen in the most frequent type of incidents experi-
enced (viruses, insider abuse, laptop theft, and unauthorized access) which
have remained the same for the last four years. Only four types of attacks
showed any increase from 2007 to 2008 (unauthorized access, theft/loss of
proprietary information, misuse of web applications, and DNS attacks).
One of the most interesting and oft-repeated statistics from the survey is
the average loss experienced by organizations due to specific types of secu-
rity incidents. The average loss as a result of theft of proprietary informa-
tion, for example, hit a high of $6.57 million in 2002 but was only
$2.70 million in 2003 before rising to $6.03 million in 2006 and then dropping
again to $5.69 million in 2007. Financial fraud plunged from $4.63 million in
2002 to $328,000 in 2003 before rising to $2.56 million in 2006 and then sky-
rocketing to $21.12 million in 2007. While it is tempting to assume that this
means we, as a community, are becoming more secure (and there is indeed
some indication that organizations are doing a better job of securing their
systems), the reality is that these figures reflect the difficulty in quantifying
the actual state of Internet security and of producing accurate results. While
we all like to use figures such as those from the CSI/FBI survey, the truth of
the matter is that these numbers likely don’t accurately portray the state of
current security. They are, however, the most reliable ones we have.

■ Avenues of Attack
There are two general reasons a particular computer system is attacked: ei-
ther it is specifically targeted by the attacker, or it is an opportunistic target.
In the first case, the attacker has chosen the target not because of the hard-
ware or software the organization is running but for another reason, per-
haps a political reason. An example of this type of attack would be an
individual in one country attacking a government system in another. Alter-
natively, the attacker may be targeting the organization as part of a
hacktivist attack. An example, in this case, might be an attacker who defaces
the web site of a company that sells fur coats because the attacker feels that
using animals in this way is unethical. Perpetrating some sort of electronic
fraud is another reason a specific system might be targeted. Whatever the
reason, an attack of this nature is decided upon before the attacker knows
what hardware and software the organization has.

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The second type of attack, an attack against a target of opportunity, is con-

ducted against a site that has software that is vulnerable to a specific exploit.
The attackers, in this case, are not targeting the organization; instead, they
have learned of a vulnerability and are simply looking for an organization
with this vulnerability that they can exploit. This is not to say that an attacker
might not be targeting a given sector and looking for a target of opportunity
in that sector, however. For example, an attacker may desire to obtain credit
card or other personal information and may search for any exploitable com-
pany with credit card information in order to carry out the attack.
Targeted attacks are more difficult and take more time than attacks on a
target of opportunity. The latter simply relies on the fact that with any piece of
widely distributed software, there will almost always be somebody who has
not patched the system (or has not patched it properly) as they should have.

The Steps in an Attack

The steps an attacker takes in attempting to penetrate a targeted network are
similar to the ones that a security consultant performing a penetration test
would take.
First, the attacker gathers as much information about the organization as
possible. There are numerous ways to do this, including studying the orga-
nization’s own web site, looking for postings on newsgroups, or consulting
resources such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC)
EDGAR web site (www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml). A number of different finan-
cial reports are available through the EDGAR web site that can provide in-
formation about an organization that is useful for an attack—particularly a
social engineering attack. The type of information that the attacker wants in-
cludes IP addresses, phone numbers, names of individuals, and what net-
works the organization maintains. This step is known as “profiling” or
“reconnaissance.” Commands such as whois are useful in this step for ob-
taining information on IP blocks and DNS server addresses. An even more
common tool that is useful in gathering data is a traditional web search en-
gine such as Google.
Typically, the next step, which is the first step in the technical part of an
attack, is to determine what target systems are available and active. This
step moves us from profiling to actual scanning and is accomplished with
methods such as a ping sweep,
which simply sends a “ping” (an
Try This ICMP echo request) to the target
Security Tools machine. If the machine responds,
Numerous tools are available on the Internet to conduct the initial re- it is reachable. The next step is of-
connaissance activity described in this chapter. Examples include Nmap ten to perform a port scan. This
and superscan. Most security professionals recommend that security ad- will help identify which ports are
ministrators run these tools against their own systems in order to see open, thus giving an indication of
what attackers will see when they inevitably run the same, or similar, which services may be running on
tools against the network. Using your favorite search engine, see what the target machine. Determining
open source security tools you can find. Do the same for commercial se- the operating system (known as
curity tools. If you have access to a closed network that you can play OS fingerprinting) that is running
with, you may want to download some of the tools and try them to see on the target machine, as well as
how they work and what information they supply. specific application programs, fol-
lows, along with determining the

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services that are available (which can be accomplished by banner grabbing).

Various techniques can be used to send specifically formatted packets to the
ports on a target system to view the response. Often this response provides
clues as to which operating system and specific applications are running on
the target system. Once this is done, the attacker would have a list of possible
target machines, the operating system running on them, and some specific
applications or services to target.
Up until this point, the attacker has simply been gathering the informa-
tion needed to discover potential vulnerabilities that may be exploited. Fur-
ther research is conducted to find possible vulnerabilities and once a list
of these is developed, the attacker is ready to take the next step: an actual at-
tack on the target. Knowing the operating system and services on the target
helps the attacker decide which tools to use in the attack.
Numerous web sites provide information on the vulnerabilities of spe-
cific application programs and operating systems. This information is valu-
able to administrators, since they need to know what problems exist and
how to patch them. In addition to information about specific vulnerabilities,
some sites may also provide tools that can be used to exploit the vulnerabili-
ties. An attacker can search for known vulnerabilities and tools that exploit
them, download the information and tools, and then use them against a site.
If the administrator for the targeted system has not installed the correct
patch, the attack may be successful; if the patch has been installed, the at-
tacker will move on to the next possible vulnerability. If the administrator
has installed all of the appropriate patches so that all known vulnerabilities
have been addressed, the attacker may have to resort to a brute-force attack,
which involves guessing a user ID and password combination. Unfortu-
nately, this type of attack, which could be easily prevented, sometimes
proves successful.
This discussion of the steps in an attack is by no means complete. There
are many different ways a system can be attacked. This, however, is the gen-
eral process: gathering as much information about the target as possible (us-
ing both electronic and nonelectronic means), gathering information about
possible exploits based on the information about the system, and then sys-
tematically attempting to use each exploit. If the exploits don’t work, other,
less system-specific attacks may be attempted.

Minimizing Possible Avenues of Attack

Understanding the steps an attacker will take enables you to limit the expo-
sure of your system and minimize those avenues an attacker might possibly
exploit.
The first step an administrator can take to reduce possible attacks is to
ensure that all patches for the operating system and applications are in-
stalled. Many security problems that we read about, such as viruses and
worms, exploit known vulnerabilities for which patches exist. The reason
such malware caused so much damage in the past was that administrators
did not take the appropriate actions to protect their systems.
The second step an administrator can take is system hardening, which
involves limiting the services that are running on the system. Only using
those services that are absolutely needed does two things: it limits the possi-
ble avenues of attack (those services with vulnerabilities that can be

13
Chapter 1: Introduction and Security Trends

exploited), and it reduces the number of services the administrator has to

worry about patching in the first place. This is one of the important first
steps any administrator should take to secure a computer system.
Another strategy to minimize possible avenues of attack is to provide as
little information as possible about your organization and its computing re-
sources on publicly available places (such as web sites). Since the attacker is
after information, don’t make it easy to obtain. For example, at one time it
was not uncommon for organizations to list the type of OS or browser used
on login banners but, as has been discussed, this gives a potential attacker
information that can be used to select possible attacks. In addition, consider
what contact information is absolutely necessary to have displayed on pub-
licly available sites.

Types of Attacks
There are a number of ways that a computer system or network can be at-
tacked (this topic will be covered in greater detail in Chapter 15). If success-
ful, the attack may produce one of the following: a loss of confidentiality, if
information is disclosed to individuals not authorized to see it; a loss of in-
tegrity, if information is modified by individuals not authorized to change
it; or a loss of availability, if information or the systems processing it are not
available for use by authorized users when they need the information.

14
Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+ and Beyond

Chapter 1 Review
■ Chapter Summary
After reading this chapter and completing the quizzes, ■ Numerous web sites exist that provide information
you should understand the following regarding on vulnerabilities in specific application programs
security trends. and operating systems.
■ The first step an administrator can take to
List and Discuss Recent Trends in Computer Security minimize possible attacks is to ensure that all
■ Fifty years ago, few people had access to a patches for the operating system and applications
computer system or network, so securing them are installed.
was a relatively easy matter.
■ There are many different ways to attack computers Describe Various Types of Threats That Exist for
and networks to take advantage of what has made Computers and Networks
shopping, banking, investment, and leisure ■ There are a number of different threats to security,
pursuits a simple matter of “dragging and including viruses and worms, intruders, insiders,
clicking” for many people. criminal organizations, terrorists, and information
■ The biggest change that has occurred in security warfare conducted by foreign countries.
over the last 30 years has been the change in the ■ There are two general reasons a particular
computing environment from large mainframes to computer system is attacked: it is specifically
a highly interconnected network of much smaller targeted by the attacker, or it is a target of
systems. opportunity.
■ Targeted attacks are more difficult and take more
Describe Simple Steps to Take to Minimize the time than attacks on a target of opportunity
Possibility of an Attack on a System
■ The steps an attacker takes in attempting to Discuss Recent Computer Crimes That Have Been
penetrate a targeted network are similar to the ones Committed
that a security consultant performing a penetration ■ The different types of electronic crime fall into two
test would take. main categories: crimes in which the computer was
■ A ping sweep simply sends a “ping” (an ICMP the target of the attack, and incidents in which the
echo request) to the target machine. computer was a means of perpetrating a criminal
■ A port scan will help identify which ports are act.
open, thus giving an indication of which services ■ One significant trend observed over the last several
may be running on the targeted machine. years has been the increase in the number of
computer attacks.

15
Chapter 1: Introduction and Security Trends

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BaseTech / Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+™ and Beyond / Gregory B. White / 375-8 / Chapter 1

■ Key Terms
critical infrastructures (10) information warfare (9)
elite hackers (8) ping sweep (12)
hacker (7) port scan (12)
hacking (7) script kiddies (8)
hacktivist (11) structured threat (9)
highly structured threat (9) unstructured threat (8)

■ Key Terms Quiz

Use terms from the Key Terms list to complete the 7. _______________ are the most technically
sentences that follow. Don’t use the same term more competent individuals conducting intrusive
than once. Not all terms will be used. activity on the Internet. They not only can exploit
known vulnerabilities but are usually the ones
1. A(n) _______________ is a threat characterized responsible for finding those vulnerabilities.
by a greater amount of planning, a longer period
8. A _______________ helps identify which ports
of time to conduct the activity, more financial
are open, thus giving an indication of which
backing to accomplish it, and the possible
services may be running on the targeted
corruption of, or collusion with, insiders.
machine.
2. A hacker whose activities are motivated by
9. _______________ are individuals who do not
a personal cause or position is known as a
have the technical expertise to develop scripts or
_______________.
discover new vulnerabilities in software but who
3. Infrastructures whose loss would have a severe have just enough understanding of computer
detrimental impact on the nation are called systems to be able to download and run scripts
_______________. that others have developed.
4. _______________ is warfare conducted against 10. A(n) _______________ is a threat characterized
the information and information processing by attacks that are conducted over short periods
equipment used by an adversary. of time (lasting at most a few months), that do
5. A _______________ simply sends a “ping” (an not involve a large number of individuals, that
ICMP echo request) to the target machine. have little financial backing, and are accomplished
6. A(n) _______________ is a threat that generally is by insiders or outsiders who do not seek collusion
short-term in nature, does not involve a large with insiders.
group of individuals, does not have large
financial backing, and does not include collusion
with insiders.

16
Mike Meyers’ CompTIA Network+ Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting Networks

■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. Which threats are characterized by possibly long 5. Which of the following is generally viewed as the
periods of preparation (years is not uncommon), first Internet worm to have caused significant
tremendous financial backing, a large and damage and to have “brought the Internet
organized group of attackers, and attempts to down”?
subvert insiders or to plant individuals inside a A. Melissa
potential target in advance of a planned attack?
B. The “Love Bug”
A. Unstructured threats
C. The Morris worm
B. Structured threats
D. Code Red
C. Highly structured threats
6. Which of the following individuals was
D. Nation-state information warfare threats convicted of various computer crimes and was
2. Which of the following is an attempt to find and known for his ability to conduct successful social
attack a site that has hardware or software that is engineering attacks?
vulnerable to a specific exploit? A. Kevin Mitnick
A. Target of opportunity attack B. Vladimir Levin
B. Targeted attack C. Timothy Lloyd
C. Vulnerability scan attack D. David Smith
D. Information warfare attack 7. According to the CSI/FBI survey, which of the
3. Which of the following threats has not grown following statistics decreased in 2003?
over the last decade as a result of increasing A. The number of organizations reporting the
numbers of Internet users? Internet as a point of attack
A. Viruses B. The number of organizations that have
B. Hackers reported unauthorized use of their systems
C. Denial-of-service attacks C. The average loss as a result of theft of
D. All of these have seen an increase over the proprietary information
last decade. D. Both B and C
4. The rise of which of the following has greatly 8. Which virus/worm was credited with reaching
increased the number of individuals who probe global proportions in less than ten minutes?
organizations looking for vulnerabilities to A. Code Red
exploit?
B. The Morris worm
A. Virus writers
C. Melissa
B. Script kiddies
D. Slammer
C. Hackers
D. Elite hackers

17
Chapter 1: Introduction and Security Trends

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Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
deux grands médecins, Masséna, Augereau, le remontent à
Castiglione (4 août 96).
Paris crut que c’était la fin de la guerre. Mais non l’Europe,
puisque en octobre, l’envoyé anglais Malmesbury dit à Paris que « la
France ne pouvait espérer de paix, à moins de rendre tout : l’Italie,
les Pays-Bas, le Rhin. »
Donc ces grandes victoires de Bonaparte ont eu peu d’effet. Tout
lui reste à recommencer. Le déluge barbare qui sans cesse fond sur
lui des Alpes ne peut être arrêté. A peine il vient à bout des
Allemands de Wurmser, qu’il a sur les bras le torrent des Slaves et
Hongrois d’Alvinzi. Ces brillants coups n’expliquent rien, si l’on ne se
rend pas bien compte de la force lointaine qui, par des canaux peu
connus, leur opposait sans cesse la vaillante barbarie du Danube.
Cette roue épouvantable avait son grand moteur à Londres, où
Pitt, assis sur la masse docile des créanciers de l’État, professait,
faisait croire l’axiome de Price : « Plus on emprunte et plus on est
riche. »
Obscur et poétique mystère de richesse insondable !
L’or qu’on y puisait sans mesure allait fasciner ce monde
héroïque et sauvage. Et tout n’arrivait pas : beaucoup restait à Bâle,
chez un agent anglais qui, de là à Strasbourg, à Lyon, et surtout à
Paris, soldait les traîtres et les espions, des Fauche et des Pichegru,
etc.
Mais Pitt avait deux poches. De la seconde (étrange abîme) nous
avons vu sortir à flots le torrent des faux assignats, chefs-d’œuvre
de gravure, que Puisaye fabriquait, et qui, le jour, la nuit, lancés en
France sur des barques légères, animaient, ravivaient
incessamment l’incendie vendéen. En vain éteint par Hoche, il
gagnait sous la terre. A Paris, à Lyon, et dans tout le Midi.
Combien de temps durerait ce grand mensonge en deux parties :
l’emprunt illimité sans base, et le faux assignat ? C’est ce qu’il fallait
voir. Était-ce au loin, par des succès en Italie, qu’on pourrait espérer
d’arrêter la machine ? C’était l’idée de Bonaparte. Ou, par un coup
hardi, traversant le détroit et secondant les Irlandais ? Ce fut l’idée
de Hoche, sa tentative audacieuse.

Voilà le fait très simple et nu qui se passait à la fin de 96.

Mais on comprendrait peu, on serait même injuste sous tel
rapport, si l’on ne remontait plus haut dans le dix-huitième siècle, si
l’on n’expliquait bien ce que l’Angleterre, dans sa lutte contre la
France et la Révolution, apportait de spécieux, et même de solide, à
ce combat.

Sa haute légitimité remonte à 1688, où, pour l’avantage commun

de l’Europe et du genre humain, elle combattit Louis XIV, la
proscription des protestants, la révocation de l’édit de Nantes. Lutte
si inégale qui réussit par la Hollande et par nos réfugiés. Les
Anglais, fatigués, mêlés d’éléments étrangers, n’osèrent revenir à
leur glorieuse république de 1649. Ils refirent une royauté, mais au
minimum, et prise dans des petits princes étrangers, une race de
basse Allemagne.
L’Angleterre, avec Georges Ier, Georges II, avec Walpole, tomba
fort bas, sous le rapport moral. En 1750, elle croyait elle-même que,
même au point de vue matériel, elle avait baissé. C’était l’opinion,
après Walpole. En 1750, son successeur, le duc de Newcastle,
adresse cette question à un médecin, le docteur Russell : « Pourquoi
le sang anglais est-il si pâle et appauvri ? Quel remède ? » Russell,
dans un beau livre que j’ai cité ailleurs [7] , indiqua le remède : « La
mer et l’action. »
[7] Dans mon livre de la Mer.

L’action n’avait jamais cessé. Sous l’apparente paix de Walpole,

un être inquiet avait toujours agi, erré, coureur de mers. Je
l’appellerai Robinson (nom d’un livre immortel de 1719). Ce
Robinson, vers le pôle Nord, pour son commerce d’huile, faisait
l’immense massacre des cétacés qui, pendant tout ce siècle, a rougi
la mer de sang. Au midi, à la faveur du traité de l’Assiento, il
fournissait de nègres les Espagnols, et chez eux, malgré eux, le
pistolet au poing, il commerçait, hardi contrebandier. En 1738, les
Espagnols excédés mutilèrent un de ces drôles. De là une scène
dramatique au Parlement, et une fureur d’autant plus grande que la
vengeance promettait de beaux bénéfices.
J’ai déjà parlé de l’homme qui plaida cette cause avec un talent
admirable et une vraie fureur, le premier des deux Pitt (lord
Chatham) [8] . Après Walpole, le grand acheteur de consciences,
l’Angleterre ouvrit fort les yeux en voyant tout à coup ce magique et
sublime acteur, sincère et désintéressé, d’une passion réelle,
comme l’acteur d’Athènes qui, jouant Électre, apporta sur la scène,
non pas l’urne d’Oreste, mais l’urne de son propre fils. Ce grand
Chatham, si naturellement furieux, avait l’élan colérique des Gallois,
dont venait sa famille. De plus, il était né malade, toute sa vie, il eut
un bourreau, la goutte. A chaque accès, ses cris étaient des accès
d’éloquence.
[8] J’en ai parlé dans mon Histoire de France.
Aujourd’hui, je dois parler surtout du second, mort en
1806 ; je citerai plus loin les sources de son histoire.

Une vieille dame, Sarah Marlborough, qui haïssait la France, fut

charmée d’un jeune homme qui paraissait si enragé. Elle crut y
reconnaître son fils et elle le fit son héritier.
Mais il n’avait qu’une passion, la colère. Et, de haut, méprisait
l’argent. Quel spectacle pour les Anglais après Walpole ! Ils ont des
moments de grandeur. Ils trouvèrent cela beau, furent charmés de
lui voir rendre une grosse place qu’on lui avait donnée, charmés de
l’entendre parler contre ceux qui toujours prêchaient pour le
Hanovre, le patrimoine du Roi. En cela, il semblait tourner le dos au
ministère. C’est ce qui l’y porta. A reculons, il n’y alla pas moins. Les
Anglais étaient furieux de quelques succès de la France. Il fallut par
deux fois que le roi, malgré lui, nommât et renommât ministre celui
qui représentait le mieux la colère nationale.
L’ennemi de Pitt, Fox Holland, le fit lui-même rappeler. En 1757, il
fut premier ministre, malgré le Roi et l’aristocratie. L’engouement des
Anglais pour leur grand avocat fut tel, que l’insuccès qu’il eut
d’abord, loin de les décourager, les piqua, les attacha à lui. Il est vrai
que ce furieux avait de très nobles éclairs qui lui illuminaient l’esprit.
Il en eut un très beau, de haute et ferme raison, quand, mettant sous
ses pieds la vieille antipathie des Anglais pour les Écossais, il dit
magnanimement que ces belliqueux montagnards n’étaient point des
ennemis. Ils ne voulaient que guerre ; eh ! bien, il fallait leur donner
des armes, les employer en Amérique. Dès ce moment, en effet, ils
changent, et combattent pour l’Angleterre, même contre leurs
anciens amis les Français.
Il dit ensuite une chose qui réussit : « Il faut conquérir l’Amérique
en Allemagne. » A force d’argent, soutenir Frédéric, ce petit roi qui, à
travers sa meute d’ennemis, pourrait peut-être l’emporter sur la
France de la Pompadour. Hasardeuse pensée que l’événement
justifia. Seulement ce fut la porte par où l’Angleterre se lança dans la
voie des guerres par subsides, dans la voie des emprunts,
chargeant toujours la dette, et d’avance écrasant la génération à
venir. Plusieurs ne croyaient pas au succès. « Le crédit, disaient-ils,
ne pourra pas se soutenir sans des succès constants et des victoires
sans fin. A cela quelle solution ? Faire banqueroute, ou conquérir le
monde ! »
C’est ce qui arriva. La France, en 1763, par le traité de Paris,
laissa d’une part les Indes, de l’autre l’Amérique.
C’étaient deux mondes. Et pourtant Pitt n’était pas encore
content d’un tel traité. Quand il apprit le Pacte de famille, notre traité
avec l’Espagne, il voulut recommencer la guerre, la faire aux
Espagnols.
Cette fureur d’aller de guerre en guerre en employant l’épée des
autres, et s’obérant de plus en plus, fut punie lorsque l’Amérique
refusa de s’épuiser en fournissant toujours. L’avis de Pitt était qu’on
la calmât à tout prix. Mais ses conseils ne purent empêcher la
séparation.
Il la vit s’accomplir, ce qui l’acheva. Depuis deux ans, il était
maniaque, et il avait cent caprices bizarres. Il s’était laissé faire pair
et comte de Chatham, ce qui lui ôta (suprême douleur) le cœur du
public, confondit dès lors ce grand citoyen avec un groupe fort peu
populaire, ceux qu’on appelait ironiquement les amis du roi. Parti
intéressé qui avilissait l’Angleterre, ne connaissait ni communes, ni
Pairs, ni Whigs, ni Tories, mais uniquement le roi.
Tout à coup, à la fin, Chatham remonta. Ce grand acteur, d’autant
meilleur acteur qu’il était à la fois calculé et sincère, s’arrangea pour
avoir devant le parlement une scène de colère héroïque, où peut-
être il espérait mourir en défendant l’honneur national, et détournant
l’Angleterre de reconnaître l’indépendance américaine. La mise en
scène fut superbe. Il s’avança, la mort sur le visage, soutenu par son
second fils de dix-neuf ans (William Pitt), s’emporta, parla
longuement, retomba dans les bras de son fils. Ce fut la fortune de
celui-ci, plein de mérite au reste. Si différent qu’il fût du grand
Chatham, il fut consacré par cette scène, et on le vit toujours dans
l’ombre du héros.
La bienveillance fut extrême pour lui. Ses futurs adversaires, Fox,
Burke, l’accueillirent, le vantèrent, l’exaltèrent. Il était fort précoce, et,
sous de tels auspices, il put impunément montrer une fierté où l’on
crut reconnaître la grande âme de son père. A vingt-deux ans, il
déclarait qu’il n’accepterait de place que dans le ministère, et déjà, à
vingt-cinq, il fait autorité dans le parlement.
Il fallut bien du temps pour voir que, sous plusieurs rapports, il
différait fort de Chatham ; souvent il fut son contraire. Cela ne
choqua pas, et parut naturel. L’Angleterre avait changé elle-même ;
une autre génération avait succédé.
CHAPITRE II
UNE NOUVELLE ANGLETERRE. — LE MÉTHODISME. — LA

SAINTE BANQUE. — L’ÉGLISE. — LE JEUNE PITT.

Ce qu’il y eut d’original dans l’Angleterre du XVIIIe siècle, c’est

que, vers 1750, au moment où elle allait prendre sa grande
expansion dans le monde qu’abandonnait la France, au moment où
l’impulsion de Chatham la lançait, pour ainsi dire, dans l’infini, à ce
moment, elle éprouva en elle un mouvement tout contraire à cette
expansion, une sorte de contraction. Par un contraste admirable,
tout en embrassant le monde du dehors, elle fit effort pour
concentrer sa force propre, sa native énergie.
Cela fut instinctif sans doute. Mais la volonté ajouta beaucoup à
l’instinct. Qu’un peuple ait fait si à propos de telles modifications sur
lui-même, c’est une chose singulière qu’on voit rarement dans
l’existence libre et bien plus calculée d’un individu.
Il faut dire que, si l’Angleterre présenta ce miracle d’une certaine
réforme morale, accomplie au moment de sa grande action
extérieure, ce miracle s’explique non seulement, par ce qui restait de
l’élément puritain toujours subsistant en dessous, mais encore et
surtout par le retour au principe qui est le fonds même de
l’Angleterre. Ce principe qui avec tant de force fut manifesté dans
Cromwell et la révolution de 1648 était bien antérieur. Nous le
trouvons, même avant le protestantisme, en 1400 chez les
Lancastre et chez leur héros, Henri V. — Les Tudors, en 1500, les
Stuarts en 1600, apportèrent des éléments tout contraires à ce
fonds. Il reparut avec l’exaltation fanatique des covenantaires et de
la république vers 1650, et obstinément encore, vers 1750, moins
violent, mais austère d’apparence (même de fonds, en grande
partie) dans les disciples de Wesley et dans les méthodistes, moins
farouches que leurs pères les puritains, et beaucoup plus mêlés aux
affaires, au commerce, à tous les intérêts du monde.
En face de la grande propriété territoriale, s’était élevé, sous
Guillaume le Hollandais, le parti de l’argent, de la bourse, la banque,
qui de plus en plus pesa dans les affaires, et, dans sa rivalité avec
les lords, les grands évêques, eût bien voulu aussi arriver aux places
de l’Église et à son budget monstrueux. Les puritains s’étaient tenus
écartés de cette mine d’or, en refusant la condition qu’on leur faisait
de jurer les 39 articles de l’Église Anglicane. Les fils des puritains
furent moins sévères. Vers 1733, commença la prédication de ce
saint plus avisé, le célèbre Wesley. Il réfléchit au tort que ce scrupule
faisait à l’Église, qu’il fermait aux plus dignes, aux hommes de Dieu.
Lui-même fort désintéressé, il permit aux siens les affaires, les
richesses, qui pouvaient tellement augmenter l’influence du bon
parti. Il ne leur fit pas reproche de jurer les 39 articles, et par là
d’avoir place au grand banquet de l’Église établie. La Bible nous dit
elle-même que les patriarches se faisaient peu de scrupules
d’emprunter et de prendre aux impies leurs idoles d’or, qu’ils
savaient faire servir à un meilleur usage. Ainsi le monde des affaires,
de l’argent, de la banque, eut de plus un accès aux richesses de la
grande Église. Mais pour montrer que c’était malgré eux et pour
Dieu seul qu’ils franchissaient ce pas, ils suivirent autant que
possible les habitudes sévères de leurs familles en tout le reste,
firent hautement la grimace à l’argent, montrant que, quoique riche,
on pouvait être pauvre d’intention, tenir l’argent au coffre, mais
éloigné de l’âme.
L’argent venait à flots. Les saints banquiers inspiraient confiance.
L’Europe, effrayée par les guerres, attirée par les emprunts de
Chatham, et charmée de placer son or dans la sûreté de la grande
île, l’entassait dans les mains respectables de la pieuse banque,
obligeait celle-ci de recevoir et d’encoffrer.
Tout affluant aux mains de cette classe bien aimée de Dieu, son
puritanisme de forme (voulu et calculé, mais non pas faux) fut imité,
compté parmi les moyens de parvenir, et devint le ton général. De là
les beaux et singuliers romans de Richardson, tant admirés, si peu
compris. Les jeunes miss, qui jusque-là (dit Walter Scott), lisaient à
l’aventure les pièces scabreuses du temps de Charles II, non moins
naïvement, crurent ne pas pouvoir s’établir si elles ne parlaient le
jargon dévot de Paméla.
Ce qui montre le bon sens de l’Angleterre et la raison parfaite
qu’elle gardait, c’est qu’avec ces tendances et ces apparences
spirituelles, elle fit une réforme qui paraissait contraire, fort
matérielle, en ses habitudes. Un peuple, alors de dix ou douze
millions d’âmes, à qui Dieu mettait tout à coup le monde sur les bras,
et l’Amérique, et l’Inde, et l’immensité de la mer, sentit vivement le
besoin d’être fort pour recevoir cette manne énorme qui lui venait.
C’est pour répondre à ce besoin que Bakewell vers 1750 inventa la
viande. Jusque là les bestiaux étaient élevés surtout pour le laitage.
Le régime de la viande obtient faveur, remplace le lait fade dont les
pâles Pamélas s’alimentaient au détriment de leur enfant. Ce fut une
révolution rapide. Toute la jeunesse nourrie de viande désormais,
par une éducation nouvelle est lancée dans la vie. L’écolier peu
captif des écoles, qu’il quitte à quatorze ans (moins les nobles
enfants d’Oxford), entre de bonne heure dans l’action, par le
commerce, la mer, les Indes.
Voilà donc, au milieu du siècle, deux changements à la fois dans
les mœurs et les habitudes. La Bible domine tout. Mais la situation
commande. Pour y suffire, pour recueillir tant de bienfaits de Dieu, il
faut à tout prix que l’Angleterre se fortifie.
Que fera l’Église établie ? Ses évêques grands seigneurs,
jusque-là si bouffis, en présence des bénéficiers inférieurs d’une
apparence si pieuse, ne purent rester, comme ils étaient, de purs
lords ; ils prirent, à contre-cœur, des formes plus ecclésiastiques. De
là cet étonnant mélange de vertus fausses et vraies, de sainteté
doublée de mondanité et d’orgueil, de douceur irritée, amère.
Mélange singulier, d’autant plus équivoque que le bien est tellement
incorporé au mal qu’on ne peut jamais dire, que tout soit faux.
Le grand Chatham, the great commoner, l’homme des
Communes, sous sa colérique éloquence, savait tout aussi bien que
le rusé Walpole que l’Angleterre, avec sa triplicité idéale, vantée par
Blackstone et par Montesquieu, l’Angleterre était simple : la
Couronne, l’Église et les Lords, — les Lords, l’Église et la Couronne.
On déguise plus ou moins la prédominance du roi ou de la reine,
mais la royauté donne les hautes places, la pairie, les plus gras
évêchés du monde. De plus, la Couronne est un mythe ; cela ne se
discute pas. Le roi est le roi, l’oint du Seigneur ; il est l’Église même
en son principe. Ce qu’il y a de plus ferme, c’est le roi, l’Église
établie.
En 1755, quand Chatham eut son second fils (le célèbre Pitt), il
était au plus haut, bien loin encore de l’état d’enfance maladive où il
tomba dans ses deux dernières années, et où il devint l’homme du
roi. Mais déjà pour ce fils, où il mettait ses espérances plus qu’en
l’aîné, il voulut qu’il fût élevé par l’Église établie, solide et plus royale
que la royauté même. Il confia l’enfant à un prêtre, le docteur
Tomline, que plus tard il fit évêque de Winchester. Ce révérend a
écrit la vie de M. Pitt, que j’ai constamment sous les yeux [9] . Il fut
son précepteur, son secrétaire et son exécuteur testamentaire. Il ne
quitta point son élève et put témoigner de tout son mérite. Point de
légende plus sûre et plus suivie de la naissance à la mort.
[9] G. Tomline, Memoirs of the life of W. Pitt. 1822.

Certaines vertus coûtèrent peu à Pitt sans doute ; fils d’un

malade, et malade souvent lui-même. Il ne résistait aux affaires, aux
nuits si fatigantes du parlement qu’en buvant un peu, sans excès.
Du reste, admirablement pur, il a passé toute sa vie entre son
précepteur l’évêque Tomline, et vers la fin, une demoiselle, sa nièce
Esther Stanhope, qui lui servait de secrétaire.
Dans le beau portrait de Lawrence, dont le musée de Versailles a
une copie excellente, il a quarante ans, c’est-à-dire qu’il est assez
près de sa mort. Il est rouge, et, pour l’ennoblir, le peintre habile lui a
mis un fort bel habit mordoré. Il est un peu commun ; on dirait de
race marchande, et l’on se souvient involontairement que son
bisaïeul, le premier Pitt connu, ne l’est que pour avoir vendu un
diamant au roi de France. Il y a dans l’ensemble de cette figure je ne
sais quelle fausse enfance. Enfance colérique et bouffie. On
l’appelait volontiers angry boy.
Gallois par ses aïeux paternels, il était par sa mère fin Anglais, et
parent des Temple. Il eut l’éducation classique, pesante, des
docteurs anglicans. Beaucoup de grec. Et les historiens écossais.
Mais point Gibbon, qui sans doute ne plaisait pas à son évêque.

On voit que, de bonne heure, son éducation ecclésiastique porta

ses fruits ; il sut parfaitement le manège des prêtres et pratiqua leurs
adresses politiques. Il se garda d’entrer dans l’opposition, mais il
glissa parfois des propositions populaires, modérées, innocentes,
qui ne pouvaient déplaire au roi. Il parlait vaguement de réforme
parlementaire, sans pousser dans ce sens contre l’aristocratie.
D’autre part, il refusa de s’allier à lord North et aux Amis du Roi, ce
qui lui eût ôté pour l’avenir toute popularité ; il avait vu son père
baisser dans l’opinion dès qu’il inclina dans ce sens.
Je ne donne pas la vie de M. Pitt. C’est là qu’à travers mille
longueurs on peut étudier les finesses du menuet parlementaire qu’il
dansa parfaitement. Toujours un peu raide d’attitude, mais habile
pour sauver tels mouvements obliques dans un ingénieux
balancement qui trompe l’œil, semble incliner vers la gauche sans
quitter la droite, et reste souple en paraissant raide, ne singe point
les caricatures doctrinaires imitées de la cravate de Saint-Just, du
col empesé de Calvin.
En M. Pitt l’homme politique avait mille mérites de détails, et
l’homme privé toutes les vertus. Je ne suis pas de l’avis de Joseph
de Maistre qui dans ses Lettres le juge médiocre. Mais, comme
l’indique le portrait de Lawrence, il avait un masque de tartufe rose
et bigarré.
Un homme grave et hautement estimé, lord Grey, dans sa
jeunesse, peut-être emporté au delà des bornes, a dit un mot
terrible : « M. Pitt n’a jamais proposé une mesure que dans
l’intention de tromper la Chambre. Dès son début, il fut apostat
complet, déclaré. »
CHAPITRE III
LE BILL DE L’INDE, 1783. — PITT RÈGNE MALGRÉ LE

PARLEMENT.

M. Pitt resta dans un douteux nuage jusqu’à la fin de la guerre

d’Amérique, brillant au parlement d’un doux éclat, comme un jeune
homme sage et de grande espérance, dans une position non
tranchée qui le laissait disponible pour tout. On pouvait croire encore
qu’il suivrait la voie de son père, la grande voie populaire. Mais alors
des circonstances violentes, imprévues, déchirent le voile et percent
le nuage. Pitt paraît ce qu’il est, le contraire de Chatham. Il est resté
tel, sans retour.
C’était le moment décisif où le roi, dont l’obstination avait retardé
si longtemps la paix d’Amérique, se vit abandonné de tous, même
de son ami et ministre lord North qu’il avait si longtemps traîné
malgré lui dans la voie de la guerre. North, en péril, quitta le roi et se
réfugia près de Fox dans l’opposition [10] . C’était la victoire des
Communes, la défaite de la Couronne, si, par un coup hardi, le roi
ne mettait la constitution au grenier avec les vieux meubles. Un
homme sensé ne l’eût pas fait. Il aurait respecté la religion politique
de l’Angleterre, n’eût pas sorti la royauté du nuage protecteur dont
jusque-là tous les partis étaient d’accord pour la couvrir. Fox ne
devinait pas que ce sacrilège le roi même le ferait contre le roi. Fox,
faisant la paix, voyait toute la chambre pour lui, et crut que le pays
tout entier était derrière, tout prêt à soutenir la chambre et la
constitution.
[10] Voy. la Correspondance de Fox et l’analyse qu’en
a faite M. Ch. de Rémusat.
Cela parut douteux au petit Pitt, qui jugea l’Angleterre au vrai,
comme elle était, beaucoup plus royaliste qu’elle ne le savait elle-
même. Quand Fox lui offrit une place dans ce ministère odieux à la
Couronne, il se garda bien d’accepter. Il eut raison. Ce ministère
dura neuf mois à peine (1783, 2 avril 12 décembre). Fox se coula lui-
même par une tentative hardie et honorable.
La conquête de l’Inde, où l’audacieux Clive avait si aisément
remplacé notre Dupleix, fut un mal pour l’Angleterre autant qu’un
bien. Ce pays magnifique, une vraie partie du monde, vaste comme
l’Europe, était riche en art, en or et en diamants, en luxe délicat,
mais aussi (il faut le dire) en maladies contagieuses. Et c’était peu
de chose, comparé à l’infect chaos d’une administration livrée au
désordre, aux hasards confus d’une grande Compagnie de
marchands. La barbarie carthaginoise, celle des Gênois en Corse,
etc. était sans doute fort éloignée du caractère anglais ; mais on a
souvent remarqué que les Anglais, gênés chez eux et se respectant
fort, sont d’autant plus sujets à s’abandonner en voyage et sans
doute bien autrement dans un pays si lointain, si peu surveillé. Le
vaillant Clive, déjà, avait eu un procès monstrueux, où l’Angleterre
(embarrassée entre l’honneur et le profit, entre ses mœurs et sa
conquête) s’était vue au moment de pendre le héros qui lui donnait
un monde. Clive satisfit à l’honneur. A la fin de son long procès, objet
de l’universelle réprobation publique, qui lui attribuait les crimes de
tous, il fut absous, mais se jugea lui-même, mourut, en quelque
sorte se tua (1763).
Malgré l’absolution, ce procès fit honneur à l’Angleterre, qui,
n’osant se montrer juste, fut sensible du moins, et embarrassée de
la chose. Mais, ensuite, la peste morale redoubla étrangement. Ce
fut comme aux Indes dans les années où le déluge des moussons
n’a pas balayé le pays, les jongles immenses, qui reçoivent tous les
tributs infects des torrents, surtout le bas Gange, une mer, comble
d’ordures et de cadavres, tout cela exhale le choléra avec une
terrible odeur de mort. Il en fut ainsi vers 1784, lorsque Warren
Hastings, le premier gouverneur royal, revint des Indes. Malgré son
adresse et ses mérites administratifs, la Compagnie elle-même,
sans parler des pauvres Indiens, le poursuivait d’accusations
terribles, d’avoir, sans autorisation, fait la guerre, exterminé un
peuple, et de plus, par un affreux procès qui ne fut qu’un assassinat,
rendu les Anglais exécrables à ce monde de cent millions
d’hommes.
Cette odieuse odeur de mort qui venait des Indes émut
terriblement.
Fox, avec l’intrépidité d’une âme chevaleresque, osa, au moment
de son triomphe, entreprendre ce grand balayage, et crut être suivi.
A la tête d’une majorité énorme, il entreprit de soumettre ce chaos
de l’Inde à la loi. Il avait avec lui Francis, l’auteur des lettres de
Junius. Cet ancien pamphlétaire revenait de l’Inde, malade
d’indignation. Fox, d’après son avis, proposa un bill qui aurait jeté du
jour dans ces étables d’Augias, jusque-là si obscures. Le parlement
s’y serait ouvert une fenêtre pour y mettre l’air et la lumière. Il y eût
mis sept curateurs pour surveiller la Compagnie ; curateurs que le roi
n’aurait pu révoquer que sur une adresse du parlement.
On aurait tranquillisé l’Inde, en renonçant à s’agrandir, c’est-à-
dire à spolier les princes indiens.
Fox, ministre de la Couronne, propose cela. Mais, spectacle
inattendu ! c’est la Couronne, le roi qui travaille contre, se déclare
contre son ministre. Le roi écrit aux pairs, sans détours ni ambages,
que quiconque votera pour son ministre est son ennemi personnel.
Les pairs rejettent le bill.
Ainsi ce voile religieux qui mettait le roi derrière un nuage, le
rendait invisible, impeccable (n’agissant que par son ministère), c’est
le roi même qui le déchire, et brutalement, comme un fou, s’expose
en chemise.
Tout est permis aux fous. Celui-ci se moque de la chambre, ne
s’informe pas de la majorité qui est pour Fox et pour la loi. Et il
risque cela dans l’affaire la moins excusable, la plus scabreuse de
profit et d’argent, qui lui ouvre une foule de places à donner, de sorte
que désormais la Couronne apparaît cyniquement appuyée sur ces
deux corruptions électorales : le grand budget des places de l’Église
et celui des places de l’Inde.
Audace qui épouvante au moment où la Couronne, vaincue par
la chambre, paraissait au plus bas !
Trouvera-t-on un homme assez désespéré pour suivre ce fou qui
marche sur les toits ? Il y faut quelqu’un de leste. La jeunesse
intrépide en est seule capable sans doute, si la prudence, les
scrupules ne l’arrêtent pas. M. Pitt, si jeune, avec son teint de rose,
d’enfant, de vierge, suit le roi par ce chemin cynique et dangereux,
dont plus qu’un autre il aurait dû, ce semble, avoir horreur. C’est
justement la voie contraire à celle de son père. Où est-elle la belle
séance, si glorieuse pour lui, la grande scène patriotique où il soutint
Chatham mourant dans ses bras, où l’on augura tant du jeune
homme ? démentir à ce point Chatham et toute sa tradition de
famille, cela rappelle l’ambitieuse Tullie qui, pour aller au trône,
n’arrêta pas son char, le fit passer sur le corps de son père.
Il faut croire que le maître de Pitt, Tomline, avait bien cuirassé
son cœur. L’évêque conte la chose simplement, sans être
embarrassé : « Ce fut, dit-il, le seul événement qui, à ma
connaissance, ait jamais troublé le repos de M. Pitt, bien qu’il fût en
bonne santé. »
« En effet, dit M. Lewis [11] , il se croyait noyé, enfermé par les
eaux » d’une inondation, quand, devenu ministre, sa réélection à la
chambre fut proposée et qu’il y eut un immense et unanime éclat de
rire.
[11] Cornewall Lewis, Histoire gouvernementale de
l’Angleterre, bon ouvrage, traduit. 1867.)

Tout autre se fût découragé, eût reculé devant la majesté simple

de la constitution. A toutes ces voix ironiques qui lui disaient :
« Retirez-vous ! » il répondit : « Je reste, pour défendre le privilège
du roi, qui seul peut nommer les ministres. »
Quoi ! gouverner sans les Communes et sans la nation !… C’était
enfiler le chemin des précipices, celui de Charles Ier, de Jacques II.
Voilà ce que tout le monde eût dit, ce qu’il ne se dit pas. Chose
incroyable ! comment cet homme si jeune avait-il déjà ce secret
honteux, savait-il la profonde corruption du cœur de l’homme, ses
étranges et soudains retours ?
Georges, tout fou qu’il était, fut fort effrayé ; il songeait à se retirer
en Hanovre, disait peut-être comme son aïeul Georges Ier : « J’en
serai quitte pour mes ministres, dont ils couperont la tête. »
Pitt, bien plus corrompu, jugea qu’on s’arrangerait, qu’une
nouvelle élection amènerait des hommes plus souples, — un peu
fâchés d’abord, mais réconciliables. — Cette question de l’Inde qui
semblait un péril, il jugea froidement que c’était un appât [12] .
[12] Tout cela est très obscur, adroitement gazé par
les Anglais. Notre compatriote, M. Barchou de Penhoën
si prolixe, dans son grand ouvrage (Histoire de l’Inde),
suit de plus près les pièces originales. C’est en lisant son
récit qu’on voit Pitt bien à nu dans ce moment solennel, et
l’immense intérêt électoral qu’il avait dans cette affaire,
qui changea le gouvernement anglais pour un demi-
siècle.

Ce fait bizarre et singulier d’un roi, vaincu en Amérique, vaincu

dans le parlement, qui se moquait du parlement, le renvoyait chez
lui, et semblait mettre à néant la fameuse constitution, était une
témérité pire que toutes celles des Stuarts. L’Europe crut au
naufrage, à la submersion de ce pays paisible, lorsqu’elle le vit
mettre l’Inde aux pieds du roi, et celui-ci nommer pour vice-roi son
aide de camp Cornwallis.
Personne alors ne savait que l’Angleterre est un vaisseau vivant
qui, en cas de besoin, se dirige et échappe. Une foule d’intérêts
privés sont là pour venir au secours, pour sauver du moins les
apparences et faire que le vaisseau, avec telle avarie, n’enfonce pas
et même marche fièrement.
C’est ce qui arriva. Dès le moment qu’on vit la Couronne
péricliter et le grand mât du navire menacer, une foule d’hommes
intelligents vinrent à la rescousse, et, dans leur propre intérêt,
aidèrent à la manœuvre. Là, les Anglo-Indiens, les nababs, comme
on disait, furent admirables, travaillèrent vigoureusement pour M. Pitt
et pour le roi. La Cité s’émut fort, et tous les gros capitalistes. De
sorte que Pitt put dire à Fox qui avait le parlement, la loi et la
constitution : « Moi, j’ai la tête de la nation, la plus respectable
Angleterre, la Cité, le Roi et les Lords. »
CHAPITRE IV
LE ROI BRISE LE PARLEMENT. — PROCÈS ET ABSOLUTION

D’HASTINGS. — 1785-95.

Derrière ce grand procès, entre le roi et le parlement, entre le roi

et la constitution un autre allait venir dont on ne parlait pas encore,
mais qu’on voyait à l’horizon, et qui, je crois, intéressait autant,
partageait en deux armées contraires toute la banque de Londres et
Calcutta, le procès d’Hastings, le gouverneur des Indes. Cet homme
adroit, malgré les charges graves qui pesaient sur lui, avait plu
extrêmement à Georges III et à beaucoup de gens intéressés à ce
que toutes ces affaires mal odorantes de l’Inde fussent traitées avec
des ménagements convenables par une nouvelle chambre, plus
discrète, et non pas ventilées indécemment par les bruyants amis de
Fox.
Il y avait à Londres un banquier anglais de Calcutta, certain
Benfield, qui, jadis simple petit commis, avait si bien fait ses affaires,
qu’il avait pu (disait-il) prêter à la Compagnie quarante ou cinquante
millions. Cet homme, avec ses amis, travailla habilement,
vaillamment l’élection du nouveau parlement et se mit si bien près
de Pitt, que la Compagnie des Indes prit peur et n’osa plus nier cette
dette honteuse de cinquante millions. Dès qu’on la reconnut, cette
dette, elle grossit de maintes et maintes choses. On en ajourna
l’examen. Il était fort essentiel qu’il ne se fît jamais que par des gens
amis, un peu myopes, qui ne regardassent pas de près. Cette
myopie dura d’abord pendant vingt ans jusqu’à la mort de M. Pitt,
jusqu’en 1806. Mais alors, au milieu du grand combat européen, on
avait autre chose à faire. On ne s’en avisa qu’après Waterloo, en
1815, lorsqu’on eut du loisir. Et alors, au bout de trente ans, on
s’aperçut que la fameuse dette était fausse, ou du moins
étonnamment surfaite, ne montant qu’au vingtième de la somme
réclamée et payée !
Ce grand mystère était-il un mystère ? Il avait dû être connu de
l’administration et de beaucoup de personnes. Mais, pendant trente
ans, on avait jugé qu’il était prudent de se taire, d’ajourner cette
révélation peu agréable à tant de gens considérés.
L’habile électeur, ce Paul Benfield, l’élection faite et une chambre
passable installée, retourna tranquillement à Calcutta, comptant sur
Pitt et sur l’empressement qu’il mettrait à donner aux Indes une
administration discrète, toute royale, toute ministérielle, qui ferait les
choses sans bruit, perpétuerait la nuit et le silence.
En effet, M. Pitt reçut avec confiance et fit accepter à la nouvelle
chambre le plan que lui fournit un ami de Benfield, Richard Atkinson.
Ce plan remettait l’Inde au roi en toute chose politique, et à un
bureau de contrôle qui siégerait à Londres de par le roi. Aux Indes,
le gouverneur du roi aurait un grand pouvoir, une grande liberté
d’action. Le roi passa ce grand pouvoir à son aide de camp
Cornwallis.
Cette nomination étonnait d’autant plus qu’à ce moment venait
de débarquer à Londres la preuve vivante du danger qu’il y avait à
constituer aux Indes cette espèce de roi. Le dernier gouverneur,
Warren Hastings, débarquait tout chargé des accusations de la
Compagnie et de celle des cent nations de l’Inde. De sorte qu’on
proposait d’épaissir les ténèbres au moment où l’on apercevait les
maux, les ulcères effroyables qu’elles n’avaient pu cacher tout à fait.
On croyait que sous Georges l’honnête roi, sous la morale
dynastie de Hanovre, Hastings, mettant le pied en Angleterre,
pourrait fort bien être arrêté. Il le fut, mais seulement, par un
charmant accueil du roi qui, ravi de voir un homme si fin, dit : « Ce
drôle est bien adroit ! que de gens me parlent pour lui ! Si je le faisais
ministre ? »
Ce n’était pas l’avis de M. Pitt. Cette turpitude royale le fit rougir.
Et alors, chose inattendue, il joua supérieurement le menuet
parlementaire dont j’ai parlé, se rapprocha de Fox, de ceux qui
accusaient Hastings, mais fort modérément, voulant bien qu’il fût
accusé, écarté des affaires, mais qu’il le fût faiblement et que le
procès avortât.
Avortement peu vraisemblable. Hastings, arrivait remarqué, et on
peut dire, traîné, happé, par ce terrible dogue Francis, qui ne lâchait
pas prise, le tenant par mille preuves. L’éloquence colérique de
Burke allait en profiter et donner au procès un éclat effroyable dans
toute l’Europe. Fox, précipité du pouvoir, trouvait dans ce procès une
revanche, et, de plus, un triomphe d’humanité. Son grand cœur avait
entendu les soupirs et les pleurs du pauvre monde indien, et le
voyait venir, les mains jointes devant l’Angleterre.
Le jeune Pitt aimait l’ordre, et, sans son intérêt électoral et son
rôle obligé de serviteur du roi, il eût suivi la voie de son illustre père
qui, sur cette question, se décida magnanimement contre ses
intérêts. Quand le conquérant Clive vint voir Chatham à Londres et
proposa que la Couronne et les ministres prissent le gouvernement
de la conquête, Chatham répondit, non en ministre, mais en grand
citoyen : « Si la Couronne avait un revenu si considérable, cet
agrandissement du pouvoir royal serait contraire aux libertés
publiques. »
M. Pitt, tout au rebours de son père, accepta cet agrandissement
et le pouvoir immense qu’eut dès lors la Couronne de donner les
emplois dans l’Inde. Il devait, par pudeur, se détourner d’Hastings ;
mais il ne pouvait que favoriser en dessous un homme si utile qui
avait fait dans l’Inde la révolution la plus avantageuse aux natifs
anglais contre les indigènes, en donnant toutes les places aux
premiers et ouvrant cette riche mine à la corruption électorale.
Avant Hastings, l’Inde était déjà une ressource pour les familles,
pour les cadets qu’on y envoyait de bonne heure. L’enfant, parti tout
jeune, pouvait, sous l’abri de la Compagnie, faire un peu de
commerce, en s’associant un homme du pays, un adroit Banian.
Mais cela ne menait pas loin. Au contraire, Hastings réservant aux
Anglais toute place lucrative dans l’administration, dans l’armée et la
judicature, donnait des postes fixes et une assiette aux jeunes
émigrants. Le cadet bien placé n’avait qu’un tour à faire en
Angleterre pour se marier convenablement dans une bonne famille,
qui l’épaulait et le portait plus haut. Toute maison qui avait des
cadets et des filles, se sentait fortement liée par le patronage
d’Hastings qui leur rendait possible leur établissement.
M. Macaulay, un homme très fin, ne justifie pas Hastings, mais il
montre combien de personnes aimables et respectables faisaient
des vœux pour lui. Il montre, au début du procès, la foule de dames
vertueuses et charmantes, qui s’intéressant à cette cause, vinrent à
l’ouverture du procès, et même pour ce jour mirent leurs plus beaux
diamants. L’accusé, visiblement homme d’esprit et distingué, par son
extérieur favorable réfutait, même sans parler, tant d’accusations
monstrueuses. Mais l’impression devint tout à fait bonne quand il
raconta l’histoire, si bien imaginée, vraisemblable après tout, de son
premier point de départ : « Fils d’une famille ruinée, il avait vu le
modeste château de ses pères passer par adjudication à l’étranger.
Il s’en éloignait lentement, quand parvenu à une colline, il se
retourna, et vit, les yeux humides, la maison et son pleasure ground
dans les teintes suaves, le sourire du couchant ; il fut touché au
cœur, et il se jura à lui-même de revenir et de racheter à tout prix le
manoir paternel. »
Que de beaux yeux pleurèrent en entendant cela ! Et combien
d’hommes mêmes cachaient leur émotion ! Il avait touché la vraie
fibre anglaise. Et l’on comprit très bien qu’il avait dû faire l’impossible
pour atteindre ce but. Plus d’un, dans cette grande foule, put se
dire : « Moi, je ne vaux pas mieux. Et pour cela, qui sait ? j’aurais pu
faire autant, et pis ! »
On se souvient du mot de Henri de Lancastre (Henri IV), quand
de l’exil il revint en Angleterre. — A Richard II qui dit : « Que voulez-
vous avec tant d’hommes d’armes ? — Moi, rien, répond Lancastre,
sinon reprendre le manoir et la terre de mes pères. » Ce mot frappe
tout le monde, toute l’Angleterre suit Lancastre, et il est forcé d’être
roi.
De même Hastings, en appelant ainsi aux sentiments les plus
forts des Anglais : la propriété, le manoir, les souvenirs de famille,
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