Internet Security

Internet security is the prevention of unauthorized access and/or damage to computer systems via internet access. Most security measures involve data encryption and passwords. Data encryption is the translation of data into a form that is unintelligible without a deciphering mechanism. A password is a secret word or phrase that gives a user access to a particular program or system.

There are many different types of computers that fill these two categories: mainframes, minicomputers, PCs, Macintosh, Unix and others. Despite the many varieties of computers that combine to form the Internet, every computer connected to the Internet needs to be able to communicate with every other computer — without this ability, there is no Internet.

Basic Security Concepts

Three basic security concepts important to information on the Internet are confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Concepts relating to the people who use that information are authentication, authorization, and nonrepudiation.

How would you like to get a call from your local police telling you that there’s been a virus attack that has been traced back to your computer?

No, even if your computer isn’t used for anything critical you need to run security software such as an antivirus and a firewall.

Why Care About Security?

It is remarkably easy to gain unauthorized access to information in an insecure networked environment, and it is hard to catch the intruders. Even if users have nothing stored on their computer that they consider important, that computer can be a “weak link”, allowing unauthorized access to the organization’s systems and information.