In this age of technology and communication convergence, we are constantly impacted by technologies and innovations that center on computers, cell phones and the Internet, just to name a few. How safe is our technology from threats that abound around us? That is what cyber security is all about. It is protecting our personal information or any form of digital asset stored in our computer or in any digital memory device.
There are different forms of threats and each one has their own levels of seriousness which require their own levels of solutions. The higher degree of importance, the more advanced the approach is to enforce safety measures to protect ourselves.
From simple malevolent codes (malware) and spyware to serious viruses that can erase the whole contents of your computer and hackers that can access and use your personal data for their own personal gain, these are the dangers that we will need to address.
Frequently, malevolent codes (malware) pass through our security system when we access a particular website or even when we open an email. These codes, take advantage of the loopholes in our computer applications. hey insert themselves within our computer system enabling them to copy and infect additional computers by attaching themselves to the emails that we send or through our local network. These malevolent codes can be quite tricky by pretending to do one thing, and then instead go on an altogether different path to infect our system. These malevolent codes are not isolated to malware and spyware, but as well refer to virus and worms which are deadlier and cause a lot of harm.
Even though those malicious codes are harmful, other dangers to our systems are hackers or attackers. Regardless how you consider it, virus and worms can merely do what the original programmer has designated it to do. But hackers are people and they can get the information they want and use it for their own benefit.
It's both of these types of situations that we need to avoid. That is why we have to understand what cyber security is all about and understand how to address the various threats. We''ll need to know how vulnerable our computers are by routinely checking our firewall and virus protection. Updating our virus protection software and using and changing passwords will help to prevent attacks. By using the proper protection our records and files will be kept safe.
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