Recently, internet security has deteriorated markedly as there are massive computer attacks and threats on the internet. Most security threats are made by attackers using a relatively small number of vulnerabilities. Attackers, being relatively opportunistic, take the path of least resistance, and continue to take advantage of these most common failures, rather than seeking out new exploits or taking advantage of more difficult ones.
Internet threats fall under several general categories: (1) accidental actions and (2) malicious attacks. Within this latter category there are numerous subgroups, including computer viruses, denial of service attacks and distributed denial of service attacks. A third area of cyber vulnerability, online fraud, comprises issues such as identity theft and data theft.
I. Accidental Actions
Accidental actions contribute to a large number of computer security risks. This category encompasses problems arising from basic lack of knowledge about online security concepts and includes issues such as poor password choices, accidental or erroneous business transactions, accidental disclosure, and erroneous or outdated software.
II. Malicious Attacks
Attacks that specifically aim to do harm are known as premeditated or malicious attacks. They can be further broken down into attacks caused by malicious code and those caused by intentional misrepresentation.
The most common form of malicious code is a computer virus -- a program or a fragment of code that replicates by attaching copies of itself to other programs.
Denial of service attacks, another form of malicious code, are carefully crafted and executed.
III. Online Fraud
Online fraud is a broad term covering Internet transactions that involve falsified information. Some of the most common forms of online fraud are the sale via Internet of counterfeit documents, offers of easy money and prank calls, in which dial-up connections lead to expensive long distance charges.
Identity theft is a major form of online fraud, or misrepresentation. Personal identity theft on the Internet is the newest form of fraud that has been witnessed in traditional settings for many years.
Data theft is the term used to describe not only the theft of information but also unauthorized perusal or manipulation of private data.
Furthermore, the damaging threats such as viruses, spyware and adware are common occurrence.
A virus is a program or programming code that replicates by being copied or initiating its copying to another program, computer
On the Internet, spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a software virus.
Adware is similar to spyware, which is software that installed on the computer ents. Adware can slow down user's personal computer and even increase the instability of user's system because many adware applications are not well-programmed. Adware has been criticized because it usually includes code that tracks a user's personal information and passes it on to third parties, without the user's authorization or knowledge.
Therefore, keep in mind that we need to safeguard our date carefully and properly. This is very important because there are now more and more online threats continuously occurred.
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