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

The threat of online security
Nowadays, individuals and organizations can easily access the internet with a computer and network connection. Along with the involvement of network and easy access to information, the threat of online security is increasing. Online threat include the risks that valuable or confidential information will be lost, stolen, corrupted, or misused and that particular computer systems will be corrupted also. The information is more vulnerable to record electronically and is available on network.

Types of Threats and Attacks
(i)Denial-of-service (Dos) attack or Distributed denial-of-services (DDos) is an attack that attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users.

(ii)Phishing is a technique used to obtain personal information such as user's id, password, and etc for purpose of identity theft. An email may be send to unsuspecting customers to trick them into providing their personal information in fate website.

Malware is software used to infiltrate or damage a computer system. It takes a variety of forms-both pure and hybrid such as:

(iii)Virus: A program that can copy itself and infect a computer by insert itself into a host to propagate without the permission or knowledge of the owner. A virus can simply infect and spread over the operating system and cause the collapse in the server system. Today's viruses can spread via the network services such as e-mail, Instant Messaging, and file sharing systems.




(iv)Worm: A self-replicating program and consume the resources of its host and is capable of propagating a complete working version of itself into another machine by network. No human intervention is required to spread a worm across a network.
(v)Trojan Horse: A program that seem to have a useful function but have a hidden function that having a security risk. Trojan horses require interaction with a hacker to propagate. Trojan Horse will be installed when the unsuspected user runs the program. It enable the perpetrator to capture user's id and passwords, display messages on the affected computer, delete and upload files, modify existing operating system software and so on.

(vi)Macro virus and marco worm: A virus or worm that is executed when the application object that contains the macro is opened or a particular procedur is executed. Eg: Melissa and I Love U.





Nowadays, cybercrimes like to take advantage via some popular website such as Facebook, myspace and etc. The factor that cause the success of those attacks is the users are always caught off the guard while they receive a threat from their friends. Althought many users have affected by the threats, there are still many users that not so understand about the dangerous of messages received. The network forecast to be bleak in future.