Computer Security and Privacy
☞ Computer security and privacy deals with the measures used to prevent loss of data.
☞ Computer security and privacy is about measures we can take to restrict access to personal data stored in a computer.
Reasons for Security Break
☞ Security break is leakage of information stored in a computer.
☞ Information can be lost or leaked in two ways:
- When we share our account details and password on unsecure sites.
- When we leave our computer without logging out, then anyone can get unauthorized access.
Threats to Computer
☞ There are different types of threats such as :
-
Theft :
☞ It means stealing of information or hardware.
☞ These are of three types:
-
Physical : when someone steals our device.
- Identity : When someone access our account information.
- Software piracy : When someone steals our software and distributes unlicensed and unauthorized copies of software.
-
Virus :
☞ It is computer program that can damage the data and software programs or steals the information.
☞ These are of different types:
-
Worms : It replicate themselves and spread to all files once they attack a computer.
- Trojan Horse : It appears to be useful software but once it reaches a computer, it starts behaving like virus and destroying data.
- Online predator : These are the peoples who traps us or bullying us into illegal activities online.
- Internet Scams : These are the scams which take place when we receive some attractive offer that we won huge money in lottery and can claim the prize but when we click on that our account information may be misused later.
Protecting your Data
☞ To protect data from theft and virus:
- Use passwords to login to your computer.
- Install Anti – Virus and Firewall.
- Encrypt data.
- Secure sites.
