  In a brave new age of global connectivity and e-commerce, interconnections
via networks have heightened, creating for both individuals and organizations,
a state of complete dependence upon vulnerable systems for storage and transfer
of information. Never before, have so many people had power in their own hands.
The power to deface websites, access personal mail accounts, and worse more the
potential to bring down entire governments, and financial corporations through
openly documented software codes. This paper discusses the possible exploits on
typical network components, it will cite real life scenarios, and propose
practical measures that can be taken as safeguard. Then, it describes some of
the key efforts done by the research community to prevent such attacks, mainly
by using Firewall and Intrusion Detection Systems.
