Computer Security

Computer Security

                        Computer security is often defined as security on “the technical and managerial measures designed to ensure the confidentiality, possession or control, integrity, authenticity, availability, and utility of information and information systems.” This information may be in storage, processing, or transit and the threats to it can be accidental or intentional.

Computer security has been a great deal in the today’s world. Protecting information resources is not easy. Network technology advances so quickly that IT experts are constantly challenged to keep up. The plethora of valuable information stored on computers and sent through the Web provides great potential for hackers and scammers to infiltrate computer security.

There are two main types of hackers. Some hackers use their computers to break into companies' or other people's computers to steal information, such as credit card numbers. This type of computer criminal uses increasingly sophisticated methods to obtain personal information. Other types of hackers are more interested in damaging the receivers' computers and do this by sending viruses through Web sites or e-mail.

  A research between 2005 and the beginning of 2008,said that more than 215 million records of U.S. residents had been compromised because of a security breach. A study conducted by the Pokémon Institute showed that the total average costs for lost or exposed data was $197 for each compromised record. This represents an 8 percent increase in the two years since 2006, and a 43 percent increase since 2005. Together, the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center formed the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The Center has received reports of more than 200,000 Internet crimes. These crimes cost nearly $700 per complaint, or $200 million in 2006 and $240 million in 2007.

Some of these crimes are online fraud and phishing scams, which increased 57 percent from 2007 to 2008. In that year, more than 3.5 million Americans were victims of online identity theft and phishing schemes, costing $3.2 billion dollars. The United States hosts the world's greatest number of fraudulent sites, with more than 25 percent.

So it is most important to keep our record safe in today’s global networked world.