Do You Know Enough About Your Computer Security? Find Out More

Security

As the use of computer networks, especially the Internet, has become pervasive, the concept of computer security has expanded to denote issues pertaining to the networked use of computers and their resources. The term computer security is used frequently, but the content of a computer is vulnerable to few risks unless the computer is connected to other computers on a network. The major technical areas of computer security are usually represented by the initials CIA: confidentiality, integrity, and authentication or availability. Other important concerns of computer security professionals are access control and non-repudiation.
While confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity are the most important concerns of a computer security manager, privacy is perhaps the most important aspect of computer security for everyday Internet users.

Information

Confidentiality means that information cannot be access by unauthorized parties. Integrity means that information is protected against unauthorized changes that are not detectable to authorized users; many incidents of hacking compromise the integrity of databases and other resources. Because of the ease with which information in electronic format can be shared among companies, and because small pieces of related information from different sources can be easily linked together to form a composite of, for example, a person's information seeking habits, it is now very important that individuals are able to maintain control over what information is collected about them, how it is used, who may use it, and what purpose it is used for. An interesting free download available at this site is Retlub.com, software which alerts Internet Explorer users to web bugs, tiny or invisible web page graphics that have been encoded to collect information about who is browsing the web page.

The term computer security is used frequently, but the content of a computer is vulnerable to few risks unless the computer is connected to other computers on a network. In addition to these technical aspects, the conceptual reach of computer security is broad and multifaceted.