Computer Security & Best Practices

Title: Computer Security

The Internet has changed our lives in many ways. Unfortunately, this vast network and related technologies have also led to an increase in security threats. The most effective way to protect yourself from these threats and attacks is to know standard cybersecurity practices.

Computer security is the most important branch of computer science and plays a critical role in protecting information stored on a computer from security threats and hackers by providing easy access to information for authorized users. Security refers to ensuring that a computer system such as the processor, memory, software, and data stored on the system is securely protected. A computer compromised by unauthorized users can compromise organizations' confidential data. It is very important to protect your system from malware, unauthorized users, worms, viruses, and Trojans by taking the right security measures.

What is Computer Security?

Computer security is basically the protection of computer systems and information from harm, theft and unauthorized use. It is the process of preventing and detecting unauthorized use of your computer system.

There are various types of computer security that are widely used to protect an organization's valuable information.

What is Computer Security and Its Types?

One way to figure out the similarities and differences between computer securities is to ask what exactly is being protected. For example,
• Information security is securing information from unauthorized access, modification & deletion
• Application Security is securing an application by building security features to prevent from Cyber Threats such as SQL injection, DoS attacks, data breaches and etc.
• Computer Security means securing a standalone machine by keeping it updated and patched
• Network Security is by securing both the software and hardware technologies
• Cybersecurity is defined as protecting computer systems, which communicate over the computer networks

It is important to understand the difference between these words, although there is not necessarily a clear consensus on the meanings and the extent to which they overlap or are interchangeable.

Thus, computer security can be defined as the controls that are used to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all components of computer systems. Let's refine the definition.

The CIA Triad

Computer security is mainly concerned with three main areas:

• Confidentiality is ensuring that information is available only to the intended audience
• Integrity is protecting information from being modified by unauthorized parties
• Availability is protecting information from being modified by unauthorized parties
In simple terms, computer security ensures that information and computer components can be used, but are protected from people or software that should not access or modify them.

Computer Security Threats

Computer security threats are potential dangers that can interfere with the normal operation of your computer. In the current era, cyber threats are constantly on the rise as the world becomes digital. The most dangerous types of computer security are:

Viruses

A computer virus is a malicious program that is downloaded onto a user's computer without their knowledge. It copies itself and infects files and programs on the user's computer. The ultimate goal of the virus is to ensure that the victim's computer can never work properly or can't work at all.

Computer Worm

A computer worm is a program that can copy itself from one computer to another without human intervention. The potential risk here is that it will take up space on your computer's hard drive, because the worm can replicate at a larger scale and at a faster rate.

Phishing

Disguising as a trusted person or company, phishers try to steal sensitive financial or personal information through fraudulent email or instant messaging. Phishing, unfortunately, is very easy to pull off. You are deluded into thinking that this is a legitimate mail and you can enter your personal information.

Ransomware

Ransomware is malware designed to deny a user or organization access to files on their computer. By encrypting these files and demanding a ransom for the decryption key, cyber attackers put organizations in a position where paying the ransom is the easiest and cheapest way to regain access to their files.

Botnet

A botnet is a group of computers connected to the Internet that have been compromised by a hacker using a computer virus. A single computer is called a "zombie computer". The result of this threat is the victim's computer, which the bot will use for malicious activities and for a larger attack such as DDoS.

Rootkit

A rootkit is a computer program designed to provide continued privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence. Once a rootkit has been installed, the controller of the rootkit will be able to remotely execute files and change system configurations on the host machine.

Key logger

Key loggers, also known as keystroke loggers, can track user activity on their computer in real time. It keeps a record of all keystrokes made by the user on the keyboard. A key logger is also a very powerful threat to steal people's credentials such as username and password.
These are perhaps the most common security threats you will encounter. Apart from this, there are others such as spyware, wabbits, scareware, bluesnarfing and many more. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself from these attacks.

Why is Computer Security Important?

In this digital era, we all want to keep our computers and our personal information secure and hence computer security is important to keep our personal information protected. It is also important to maintain our computer security and its overall health by preventing viruses and malware which would impact on the system performance.

Computer Security Best Practices

These days, computer security threats are getting more and more inventive. It is imperative for a person to be armed with information and resources to protect against these complex and growing computer security threats and stay safe online. Some preventive measures you can take include:
• Secure your computer physically by:
o Installing reliable, reputable security and anti-virus software
o Activating your firewall, because a firewall acts as a security guard between the internet and your local area network
• Stay up-to-date on the latest software and news surrounding your devices and perform software updates as soon as they become available
• Avoid clicking on email attachments unless you know the source
• Change passwords regularly, using a unique combination of numbers, letters and case types
• Use the internet with caution and ignore pop-ups, drive-by downloads while surfing
• Taking the time to research the basic aspects of computer security and educate yourself on evolving cyber-threats
• Perform daily full system scans and create a periodic system backup schedule to ensure your data is retrievable should something happen to your computer.

Other than that, there are many ways to protect your computer system. Aspects such as encryption and computer cleaners can help protect your computers and their files.

Today, due to the high level of cyber-attacks, cyber security is one of the biggest needs in the world as cyber security threats are very dangerous for the security of the country. Not only the government, but also the citizens should spread the word to the people to always keep your system and network security settings up to date and use the proper antivirus to keep your system and network security settings free from viruses and malware.

Unfortunately, the number of cyber threats is growing at a rapid pace, and more and more sophisticated attacks are emerging. Thus, having a good foundation in cybersecurity concepts will allow you to protect your computer from ever-evolving cyber threats.