Welcome
At Fields Associates, we specialise in the recovery of the digital “fingerprints” left by the routine use of computers. Even erased files can be recovered and examined, ensuring that you have all the evidence available to support your investigation.
Established in 1999, we have earned an impressive reputation in the detection, analysis and presentation of computer evidence in the broadest range of criminal activities. These include fraud, extortion, data theft, child pornography and Internet abuse.
Our clients include legal firms, international banks, blue chip companies, law enforcement and military organisations.
Gaining and Maintaining Access
This phase is where the ethical hacker will attempt to actually gain access to the target systems or network. The exploit could occur over a LAN, the internet, offline or as deception or theft.
After the scanning phase where the ethical hacker has established all necessary information about target network, he will try to exploit possible system vulnerability to get into the actual network. Additional vulnerabilities could also be created using backdoor Trojans or dialers. The penetration tester might need to use ‘sniffer’ techniques in order to capture data packets from the target network.
This is the most important stage of penetration testing in terms of establishing the potential damage to the target systems. During a real security breach it would be this stage where the hacker can utilize simple techniques to cause irreparable damage to the target system.
What a hacker could and could not do would primarily depend on four influencing factors:
- Architecture
- Configuration of the target system
- Individual skill of the hacker
- Initial level of access obtained
Step 4 – Covering Tracks »