System Break-Ins–Gaining access

There are generally two possible goals for an attacker.

1. 1. To break into a system
2. 2. To deny services to a system

• or a combination of both

The attacker breaks into a system to control it. In the “hacker” community this is known as “owning a system” or p0wn’ing it.

Vandalism

Electronic vandalism is similar to graffiti. The idea is to “tag” a page, replacing it with one of the attackers design. This is often used by “Hacktivists” to transmit their message.

Attack Chaining

Often when a site has been compromised, attackers will continue to use the system in order to attack other systems without leaving logs of their location. This is known as attack chaining. It may be difficult to find the original source of the attack as the intervening systems have likely had their logs destroyed by the attacker.