Reverse TCP and Social Engineering Attacks in the Era of Big Data

TCP is a connection-oriented protocol used for the transport of information across the Internet. The very nature of this powerful medium attracts cyber criminals who are continuously searching for new vulnerabilities within the TCP protocol to exploit for nefarious means. Reverse TCP attacks are a relatively new approach to exploit this connection process. The attacker is able to seize remote access to the victim end user's network. Success in this attack largely depends on skillful social engineering techniques to target specific end users in order to open the connection. In the era of Big Data, social engineering are expected to be more feasible. This paper examines various methods that adversaries may use to implement their attacks. Our work implements a reverse TCP attack via a virtualized environment, detailing the process used to gain unauthorized access to victim's machine. This paper also discusses the key threats that the reverse TCP attack may pose to end users and will provide a testbed to determine how effective computer systems are able to defend against this attack.