Free Essays on Internet Security

, images, sounds, and video. The Internet is continuing to grow at 40% a year, with about 20 million users, mainly in USA, Canada, and Australia, but still many all over the world. You can do many things on the Internet, such as shop for just about anything, bank and manage money, watch and listen to live cable televison and radio broadcasts, talk to other users with voice like a telephone, conduct international meetings, and access all kinds of information on any subject imaginable. As mentioned earlier, the WWW consists of pages and pages of text, images, sounds, and video. Unlike pages in a book, there is no maximum size for a page, and there is HyperText Links. If you click on any one of these links, the computer will automatically go to the page specified by the link. The WWW is programmed in a computer language called Hyper Text Markup Language, or HTML. Searching the Web can be a difficult thing to do, or if you use a search engine, it can be really easy. Since so many new web pages are added to the Web a day, a very good index is hard to keep, and an alphabetical listing of millions of web pages would be almost impossible to navigate through. To help this problem, people developed search engines that search the Web for you. Some search engines, like Yahoo, search in a big web directory they have made of hundreds of thousands of web ... Free Essays on Internet Security Free Essays on Internet Security He doesn't wear a stocking mask over his face, and he doesn't break a window to get into your house. He doesn't hold a gun to your head, nor does he ransack your personal possessions. Just the same he's a thief. Although this thief is one you'll not only never see,but you may not even realize right away that he's robbed you. The thief is a computer hacker and he "enters" your home via your computer, accessing personal information such as credit card numbers which he could then use without your knowledge at least until you get that next credit card statement. RichardBernes, supervisor of the FBI's Hi-Tech squad in San Jose, California, calls the Internet "the unlocked window in cyberspace through which thieves crawl" (Erickson 1). There seems to be an unlimited potential for theft of credit card numbers, bank statements and other financial and personal information transmitted over the Internet. It's hard to imagine that anyone in today's technologically oriented world could function without computers. Personal computers are linked to business computers and financial networks, and all are linked together via the Internet or other networks. More than a hundred million electronic messages travel through cyberspace every day, and every piece of information stored in a computer is vulnerable to attack (Icove-Seger-VonStorch 1). Yesterday's bank robbers have become today's computer hackers. They can walk away from a computer crime with millions of virtual dollars (in the form of information they can use or sell for an enormous profit). Walking away is precisely what they do. The National Computer Crimes Squad estimates that 85-97 % of the time, theft of information from computers is not even detected (Icove-Seger-VonStorch 1). Home computer users are vulnerable, not only for credit card information and login IDs, but also their files, disks, and other computer equipment and dat a, which are subject to attack. Even if this information i... Free Essays on Internet Security The Internet, or ?net, is a vast network of computers that connects many of the world's businesses, institutions, and individuals. The Internet is composed of many parts, including the World Wide Web, FTP, IRC, Newsgroups, Gopher, WAIS, Archie, and of course Electronic Mail (Email). The Internet is mainly used for communication. Email is the most heavily used resource of the Internet- over 40 million email messages are sent through the Internet a day. The second most used resource, called the World Wide Web, or WWW, consists of pages of words, images, sounds, and video. The Internet is continuing to grow at 40% a year, with about 20 million users, mainly in USA, Canada, and Australia, but still many all over the world. You can do many things on the Internet, such as shop for just about anything, bank and manage money, watch and listen to live cable televison and radio broadcasts, talk to other users with voice like a telephone, conduct international meetings, and access all kinds of information on any subject imaginable. As mentioned earlier, the WWW consists of pages and pages of text, images, sounds, and video. Unlike pages in a book, there is no maximum size for a page, and there is HyperText Links. If you click on any one of these links, the computer will automatically go to the page specified by the link. The WWW is programmed in a computer language called Hyper Text Markup Language, or HTML. Searching the Web can be a difficult thing to do, or if you use a search engine, it can be really easy. Since so many new web pages are added to the Web a day, a very good index is hard to keep, and an alphabetical listing of millions of web pages would be almost impossible to navigate through. To help this problem, people developed search engines that search the Web for you. Some search engines, like Yahoo, search in a big web directory they have made of hundreds of thousands of web ... Free Essays on Internet Security Internet security in one of the hottest topics in the e-commerce industry today. Industry experts predict security issues on the Internet are the primary reasons many companies and consumers are hesitant to do business online. The Internet is a large-scale network of systems that is highly unbounded. This means it has no system of administrative control and no security policies. If there are security policies or laws they constantly need to be altered because of the changing technology. You are always up for an attack or an intrusion of your own privacy. Survivability is the key. Just the simple task of checking email, browsing, chatrooms, or even shopping can be harmful. You can be safe in this environment but you must always be on the alert for problems. Three kinds of Internet security issues that are the topic of conversation; Unauthorized access, back doors and loopholes and, the potential threat of confidential information sent over the internet can be viewed (Scott, 1998). There are several ways you can become a victim of these issues. Email, browsing, shopping or banking and chat rooms are a potential threat for your security. Email can be a type of security issue. America Online, Inc. was forced to admit that hackers had accessed member accounts recently through an email virus. Sending and receiving email from unknown people can cause a hazard. You can make common mistakes by revealing your identity from digital signatures and sending personal pictures of yourself. Although, it is highly unlikely for someone to capture your mail while it is in route to its destination, you should always think about whom you are sending this mail to. Encrypting also is a valuable key is you are mailing confidential information. Mostly email comes from a person or a group listed in the email. Sometimes people deliberately provide the wrong information in the listing. A security conscious user last year noticed five new email me...