The threat of online security: How safe is our date?

Nowadays, computers are everywhere. They are a primary means of communication for billions of people. Many people believe that computer literacy is vital to success. Computer literacy involves having a knowledge and understanding of computer and their users. Through computers, society has instant access to information from around the globe.

We can get news, weather reports, airline schedules and many others information through computer. Company used the internet to do their business transaction. Since the Internet is a public system in which every transaction can be tracked, logged, monitored and stored in many locations, it is important for businesses to understand possible security threats to their business.


Type of threats:

1. Virus
Computer viruses is a piece of software code that inserts itself into a host which including the operating systems to spread over and harm the users computer. Virus can spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the target computer. Viruses can increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer.


2. Worm
Worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike viruses, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms can destroy data and programs as well as disrupt or even halt the operation of computer network.

3. Trojan horse
Trojan horse is a program in which malicious or harmful code is contained inside apparently harmless programming or data in such a way that it can get control and do its chosen form of damage, such as ruining the file allocation table on your hard disk.Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive.

4. Computer hacking
Computer hacking always involves some degree of infringement on the privacy of others or damage to computer-based property such as files, web pages or software. The impact of computer hacking varies from simply being simply invasive and annoying to illegal. In either case, they may steal your money and open bank accounts in your name, Make purchases, sell your information to other parties who will use it for illicit or illegal purposes and etc.


The way to prevent the threats is install and update antivirus software. You have to update your antivirus software constantly so that your computer is protected from the latest threats available in the internet. Furthermore, you are advised to install the latest version of anti-virus software whenever it is available such as Kaspersky Antivirus, AVG Antivirus software and so on. Besides that, turning on your firewall application also is one of the ways to prevent threats.

References:

1. http://www.webroot.com/En_US/csc/computer-security-threats-hackers.html

2. http://www.secureworks.com/research/articles/firewall-security/