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

Do you truly believe that your data is well protected? If your answer is a yes, now you should be aware that as we continue to derive countless of benefits from the Internet, the main issue that continue to concern us is online security, which once compromised could prove to be extensively disastrous and damaging. In fact, online and data security threats continue to grow in number and sophistication, therefore it is an enormous concern which bears the potential harm of collapsed computer system, lost confidential data and so forth.

One of the most common types of online fraud involves identity theft, which simply means the private information of victims such as credit card number is being intercepted illegally when it is transferred over the network due to the vulnerabilities of computer security. As a result, the thief can do whatever that they desire using the stolen number. Another category of online fraud takes place in the form of data theft which encompasses the theft, perusal and manipulation of private data. In order to illustrate the startling adverse impact of this fraud, we look at a case in U.S back in 2001. What happened was two employees working in the accounting division of Cisco Systems managed to broke into the company’s system which handled stock distributions and successfully transferred shares worth US$6.3 millions to their private portfolio.

Next, we shall discuss some of the underlying threats to online security. First, Malware, is a software designed to penetrate and damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent. Generally, Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, spyware and so forth. Specifically, computer viruses are small software programs which intent to interfere with computer operations and they may corrupt and damage your data or even erase everything on your hard disk! On the other hand, worms are self-replicating programs which do not required to be attached to other programs as it spread by exploiting security loopholes of operating system. For instance, Windows ExploreZip worm, is a destructive software with malicious purposes of crippling the file system by writing invalid data and destroying files on hard disk.

To know more about the devastating impact of Malware and to get information on Trojan horses, these are some helpful links:

Malware: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10257277-83.html

Trojan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_(computing)

Today’s viruses spread and are created at a faster rate as they capitalize on the increased network services such as Word Wide Web and e-mail. For instance, the statistics below (Microsoft Security Intelligence Report April 2009) shows the startling total number of new unique samples of virus detected in the second half of 2008.

Hence, preventive measures are definitely needed to be in place. The following are some suggestions:

1) Firewall- Firewall is a part of computes system useful in preventing unauthorized access to networks especially private network such as company’s Intranet. All messages going into the network must first be screened by the established firewall and meet its security criteria.


2) Anti virus software is capable of detecting and eliminating known viruses, hence it is vital to install a good package with comprehensive protection and ensure that it is always updated.

3) Data encryption- Encryption involves transfoming text into some unreadable form of codes and only the intended recipient posseses the key to decode the document back into a readable format. Thus, encryption should be widely used especially when the transmission of documents entail top security data.

4) Never open an e-mail attachment from someone you don't know.

5) Avoid opening an e-mail attachment from someone you know, unless you know exactly what the attachment is. The sender may be unaware that it contains a virus.