Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful
information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored
and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their
computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse. For example, it is crucial for businesses to
keep information they have secure so that hackers can’t access the information. Home
users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when
they are participating in online transactions. A computer security risk is any action that
could cause lost of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause
damage to computer hardware, a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional
breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different
from a cypercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is
one of the FBI’s top priorities. There are several distinct categories for people that cause
cybercrimes, and they are refereed as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist,
unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy.
The term hacker was actually
known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as
someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully. They often claim
that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network. The term cracker has never
been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a
computer or computer network for evil reasons. It’s basically an evil hacker. They access
it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are
very advanced with network skills. A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer
network or the internet to destroy computers for political reasons. It’s just like a regular
terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to
implement, and years of planning. The term cyperextortionist is someone who uses
emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening
email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak,
or launch an attack that will harm a company’s network. They will request a paid amount
to not proceed sort of like black mailing in a since. An unethical employee is an
employee that illegally accesses their company’s network for numerous reasons. One
could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be
bitter and want revenge. A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they
may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are
usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. A corporate
spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific
computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information. Shady companies
hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an
advantage over their competition an illegal practice. Business and home users must do
their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this
article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must
remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so
becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days. When you
transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information
transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme
measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful
administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is
vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security
service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet
vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these
vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a
place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes
viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks. Every unprotected
computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer
program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates
without the user’s consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread throughout
infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It’s similar to a
bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings
and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is,
the best way to avoid is preparation. A computer worm is a program that repeatedly
copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a
virus needs o attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm
doesn’t need to do that I seems copies to itself and to other networks and eats up a lot of
bandwidth. A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe
a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake. A
certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms they don’t
replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classifies as
malicious-logic programs which are just programs that deliberately harms a computer.
Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be
almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm,
or Trojan horse if one or more of these acts happen:
Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.
You have less available memory then you expected
Music or sounds plays randomly.
Files get corrupted
Programs are files don’t work properly
Unknown files or programs randomly appear
System properties fluctuate
Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through
four common ways. One, when an individual runs an infected program so if you
download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially
executable files. Second, is when an individual runs an infected program. Third, is when
an individual bots a computer with an infected drive, so that’s why it’s important to not
leave media files in your computer when you shut it down. Fourth is when it connects an
unprotected computer to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a
computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an
email attachment. There are literally thousands of computer malicious logic programs and
new one comes out by the numbers so that’s why it’s important to keep up to date with
new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this. There is no known
method for completely protecting a computer or computer network from computer
viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to
significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs.
Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in he drives. This
goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a bot
sector on the drives and even if it’s unsuccessful any given various on the bot sector can
infect the computer’s hard disk. If you must start the computer for a particular reason,
such as the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk
is not infected.
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