Write down 10 different learnings or takeaways that you were able to glean from the content.

My 10 different learning or takeaways that I was able to glean from the content are:

1. The current state of cybersecurity

- Cybercriminals have the ability to take small to large infrastructures using
different hacking tools.
- Maintaining a secure network ensures the safety of network users and protects
commercial interests. There are six security terms (assets, vulnerability, threat,
exploit, mitigation, and risk) which user should be aware.
2. Threat actors
- A threat actor is anyone who is either is a key driver of, or participates in, a
malicious action that targets an organization’s IT security. A threat actor can be a
single person carrying out a security incident, as well as a group, an organization,
or even a country involved in carrying out a cyberattack.
3. Malwares
- A malware is a name for a number of malicious software variants, this includes
viruses, ransomwares, and spywares. A malware is a shorthand for malicious
software.
4. Common network attacks
- Networks are susceptible to different malwares like reconnaissance attack, access
attack, and DoS attack.
5. IP vulnerabilities and threats
- IP do not validate whether the source IP address contained in a packet, threat
actors take advantage of this and send packets using a spoofed source IP address.
Some of the common IP related attacks are: ICMP attacks, amplification and
reflection attacks, address spoofing attacks, man-in-the-middle attack, and session
hijacking.
6. TCP and UDP vulnerabilities
- A TCP segment information appears immediately after the IP header
- There are six control bits of the TCP segment:
o URG – Urgent pointer field significant
o ACK – Acknowledgement field significant
o PSH – Push function
o RST – Reset the connection
o SYN – Synchronize sequence numbers
o FIN – No more data from sender
- TCP provides different services:
o Reliable delivery
o Flow control
o Stateful communication
- UDP is commonly used by DNS, TFTP, NFS, and SNMP. UDP is a
connectionless transport layer protocol. UDP is not encrypted though you can add
encryption to UDP. The lack of encryption means that anyone can see the traffic,
change it, and send it on to its destination.
7. IP services
 - ARP Vulnerabilities
o The ARP protocol vulnerability is one of the most common vulnerabilities
in the TCP / IP four-layer architecture. The network protocol
vulnerabilities can lead to the intrusion and attack of the information
system, and disable or disable the normal defense function of the system
- ARP Cache Poisoning
o a technique by which an attacker sends (spoofed) Address Resolution
Protocol (ARP) messages onto a local area network. a technique by which
an attacker sends (spoofed) Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages
onto a local area network.
- DNS attacks
o an exploit in which an attacker takes advantage of vulnerabilities in the
domain name system (DNS).
- DNS Tunneling
o a method of cyber-attack that encodes the data of other programs or
protocols in DNS queries and responses.
- DHCP
o DHCP servers dynamically provide IP configuration information to
clients.
- DHCP Attacks
o A DHCP spoofing attack occurs when a rogue DHCP server is connected
to the network and provides false IP configuration parameters to legitimate
clients. A rogue server can provide a variety of misleading information:
Wrong default gateway, wrong DNS server, wrong IP address.

8. Network security best practices

- Confidentiality, Availability, and Integrity
o Confidentiality - Only authorized individuals, entities, or processes can
access sensitive information. It may require using cryptographic
encryption algorithms such as AES to encrypt and decrypt data.
o Integrity - Refers to protecting data from unauthorized alteration. It
requires the use of cryptographic hashing algorithms such as SHA.
o Availability - Authorized users must have uninterrupted access to
important resources and data. It requires implementing redundant services,
gateways, and links
- To ensure secure communications across both public and private networks, you
must secure devices including routers, switches, servers, and hosts. VPN, ASA
Firewall, IPS, ESA/WSA, AAA Server are several security devices and services.
9. Cryptography
- Cryptography is the study of secure communications techniques that allow only
the sender and intended recipient of a message to view its contents. Cryptography
provides for secure communication in the presence of malicious third-parties
known as adversaries. Encryption uses an algorithm and a key to transform an
input (i.e., plaintext) into an encrypted output (i.e., ciphertext).
10. Ethical hacking
- Ethical hacking is a process of detecting vulnerabilities in an application, system,
or organization's infrastructure that an attacker can use to exploit an individual or
organization. They use this process to prevent cyberattacks and security breaches
by lawfully hacking into the systems and looking for weak points.