Internet Security - Privacy in Context - Essay Example

Internet Security Executive summary Technological advancement in the field of communications has resulted to massive increase in the use of internet services for various purposes across the world. This has exposed the internet users both individuals and organizations to insecurity due to cybercriminals who use personal details of various individuals for their own benefit. Many people are being defrauded of their resources and others have their images tainted by such malicious people. This study explores the security measure that individuals and organizations are putting in place to protect their clients. These measures are applied to protect both software and software elements of the computer. Internet security involves both moral and legal issues which must be observed before such measure are put in place. The study also provides an overview of current and future situation of the internet security to the users and the extent to which it offers protection to the privacy of the users. As the world moves to digital era, more people will turn to use of internet for work, businesses and to interact with their friends and relatives. Safety measures should be put in place to ensure those who have access to the internet are protected against fraudsters in order to promote economic advancement and globalization. Introduction The advance of innovations in telecommunication has resulted to increase in sharing of information via the internet (Nunziato, 2009). This exchange of information involves clients, internet providers, and website owners at different levels. Internet use has enhanced learning in the community, expanded trade and banking services. Internet has become an integral part of our lives hence increasing concern on how to use it effectively. However, lack of safety on personal details as a result of internet use has resulted to ineffective delivery of services to the clients. This also has affected businesses either as some people loses their money through fraudsters while others avoid engaging in such businesses (Nunziato, 2009). It is also hard for the government and organizations to achieve their goals due to hacking which slows down their performances. SWOT Analysis Regulations are underway to control the usage and protect the users of internet in order to reduce threat it poses to the world wide community (Andrea & Deborah, 2011). Internet security refers to the safety of the internet users and the information being transmitted from the source to users during the transmission process. The purpose is to provide regulations and approaches to protect the internet information against hacking. Internet security is enhanced through enforcing various safety measures such as encryption (Nunziato, 2009). There are various approaches for transmitting data through the internet hence they require different protection approaches to ensure the data being exchanged is safe and reliable (Theda & Mary, 2010). Some of the means of protecting information during transmission via the internet includes SSL, TSL, PGP and IPsec. The companies provide their internet users with antivirus to get rid of unwanted programs which may interfere with personal information or cause blockage of such information Strength Many companies allow their clients to use multiple accounts in different occasions. Some do not require use of actual information and in case they are one time transactions, the client may discard the account after completion of the transaction (Theda & Mary, 2010). Have to struggle before they get a handful of victims. This can also be reinforced by use of internet service providers to offer protection to their clients. The internet providers should also use multiple techniques to protect their clients against cyber criminals. Most of the internet service providers offer protection to the details of the clients using their services (Theda & Mary, 2010). They code the data before transmission and then decode it after it has reached the recipient. For example, the users of MasterCard and Automatic Teller machines (ATM) have their personal details converted in a form that cannot be easily trapped by intruders hence increasing reliability and safety of the services. Most companies have internal regulations to control employees from disclosing details about their clients (Elgstrom & Jonsson, 2005). This has helped to protect the client’s information against abuse and disclosure by the employees in the companies dealing with such information. Weakness There are huge companies such as Google and Face-book which offer to secure the clients information against abuse by unauthorized users (Duquenoy, Jones & Blundell, 2008). However, the same companies are using client’s information for other reasons other than for the purpose of which the information was acquired. For example, they use such information to promote companies products for their own gain. This also amounts to insecurity because they do not seek authority of the clients before using their details for personal gains (Paul & Michelle, 2011). New innovations are resulting to ease of retrieving personal details from the internet. Innovators are easily gaining access into other peoples details by identifying their passwords of changing the data being transmitted. This will continue to pose a challenge to internet users since they can never be certain of their information safety. Increasing use of mobile phone devices to explore different internet sources has increased chances for leakage of private information (Andrea & Deborah, 2011). Mobile phones and other communication devices contain full details about those gadgets owners Most of the security threats are caused by the employees of the companies handling details about the clients (Helen, 2010). Some of the employees either use that information for personal gain or share it with third parties who end up misusing that information. This still remains a major threat to the companies offering internet services because they cannot effectively restrict their employees from accessing the clients’ personal details. Opportunities Innovations aimed at strengthening security should be stepped up to counter the emerging security threats (Paul & Michelle, 2011). One the most crucial approach for increasing security is to use different password to login in different websites. This will reduce the probability for introducers from gaining full access individuals private information. Another approach to ensure internet safety is to set up new laws that will mitigate the effects of internet crimes. Those organizations which reveal the details of their clients careless are either denied the license for using internet for marketing trading or any other internet services. This will improve the security of the clients at the firm level. Internet security has enabled people from across the world to share information and establish relationships without infringing privacy rules (Elgstrom & Jonsson, 2005). Still many people are not able to access the details of others hence making it a bit secure. Furthermore, businesses have grown tremendously by accessing global clients. This has also favored global banking without many complications. The users of the internet have numerous options to use for their varying internet needs (Helen, 2010). This ensures that all internet users are not affected by a single cyber crime. Therefore, this makes it hard for the hackers to steal from many clients at a time. Threats The enactment of Freedom of Information Act 2000 which requires that all public institutions provide information to the public when requested to so becomes a weakness in the effort to protect the privacy of private information (Nunziato, 2009). According to this Act, public institutions are required to avail information to the people who need it for their personal legal use. This requirement undermines the authority to maintain personal data private and out public reach. This is because once such information is released to the public; some people may use it with ill motives. Legal and ethical issues There are both legal and ethical concerns regarding the use of internet and information sharing. There should be protection to ensure that whatever information they share is free of any intrusion, is credible and acceptable (Andrea & Deborah, 2011). The users need an assurance that the data they send will not be altered during transmission. There are regulations set by the state and other governing bodies to ensure that the information shared by different internet users does not infringe the rights of other people or cause compromise to the states security. Implementation of regulations to protect internet users is facing numerous challenges. For example, internet usage is multicultural activity and some of the government policies may be applicable in one country, but may not apply to another country (Duquenoy, Jones & Blundell, 2008). Therefore, it is not easy to establish uniform rule that can apply to all nations. Protection of personal information All internet users are required to provide private information at one point or another. For example, when a person applies for internet service connection, they are required to furnish the internet service providers (ISP) with personal details in order to get connected to the rest of the world (Helen, 2010). The issuers of Internet Protocol (IP) maintain personal information of their clients hence creating a weakness where those details can easily be accessed by third party for their own use. Since internet service providers do not provide details on how long they keep the data of the clients and therefore, it is not easy for clients to determine less risky internet provider. The use of emails also involves personal information sharing through internet hence the users should be aware of the risk associated with such approaches and take due precautions to mitigate possible risks (Paul & Michelle, 2011). The other mean through which personal information is transmitted through the internet is by browsing, use of instant messaging social networks and blogging among other means. Internet has led to increased use of learning since most of the information and learning materials are available in the internet (Helen, 2010). Therefore, rules should be enhanced to protect the learners against fraudsters, misleading contents and so on. As many young people in the current generation engage in internet use, there is an increasing need to set rules and policies to safeguard them against accessing adult contents and pornographic materials. Also businesses and online banking services have expanded through internet (Duquenoy, Jones & Blundell, 2008). There is need for such businesses and internet users to be protected against illegal businesses, disclosure of information to the competitor, fraudsters and so on. Those who collect other people’s personal details should ensure they use it for the purpose it was intended for. They should not share it with third parties without the consent of the owner. The employees in various companies are the major hazards to the safety of the clients’ data maintained by those companies (Gackenbach, 2007). Sometimes employees may be used by the opponents of the companies to retrieve critical information which they may use to infringe the rights of the company. Selected ethical issue There is an increasing concern over disclosure of personal information among the internet users. The companies are required to allow their clients to view the information they gather from the internet about them. Due to increased security threat in the internet, clients are unwilling to disclose their true identity to the internet because they are not certain who will gain access to their confidential information (Duquenoy, Jones & Blundell, 2008). To cub this problem, internet providers should offer their clients with an opportunity to access the internet with virtual details about them. This will help to protect the internet users against fraudsters who may pretend to know the users or may use their details for evil purposes. However, this requirement may result to inefficiency of the internet services. This is so because when people are not required to disclose their identity, there is a tendency of providing wrong information. This freedom of communication without disclosure of identity may lower the credibility of the internet information hence making it less reliable. When people are required to give their true identity, there is high potential for them to give reliable information to the users hence resulting to credibility of the information which they provide. Recent Developments in Internet Security Due to the increasing use for the internet services across the globe, there is a need for organizations to shield their clients and property against cybercriminals. This will ensure that their data and clients are all safe in order to increase credibility of internet services and improve business operations. There is an increase in innovations regarding the internet attack as more criminals employ more recent skills to launch their attacks. The increase in internet threats is now targeting mobile devices since they are not protected and computer clouds. The other area of target is social media since most people are now using social sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter. This has resulted to complexity of combating the cybercrime since most users do not take precaution to protect their data against cybercriminals. However, the attack on the usual websites is decreasing tremendously as a company continues to increase security for their clients. The software developers patched off most of the susceptible software hence making it hard for the cybercriminals to succeed in their mission. According to Andrea & Deborah (2011) organizations and individuals are taking precaution to safeguard their hardware and software against criminals. They are also increasing their skills in discovering the occurrence of the crime once it has been committed. For example, one of the recent advances is the adoption of adaptive security for detection of the internet threats (Duquenoy, Jones & Blundell, 2008). Another one is the adoption of secure electronic transactions (SET) standard to shield both internet users and the companies offering online transactions using credit cards and so on. Future of Internet security The future strategies for the information technologists in protecting cyber crimes is to ensure that all devices such as mobile phones among others have their software protected for each device (Gackenbach, 2007). They will also require updating security measures more often in order to ensure they are able to counter all the harmful effects of the criminal activities. In regard to the cloud computing, service-level agreements should ensure absolute control over the possession and extinction of computer services over the period of cloud arrangement. Therefore, apart from intensification of software and hardware protection, there is a great need for the technicians to provide thorough scrutiny of the internet in order to detect and prevent threats before it occurs of before causing massive damage to the internet users. The organizations should also come up with means to provide online services without linking them with personal details. This will limit the accessibility of customer’s personal information by crooks. Future role of internet security With increase in innovations and usage for internet services, there is a great need to intensify security measures to regulate the internet use (Elgstrom & Jonsson, 2005). They should set standards to regulate the accessibility of the internet and authority to make changes to the websites. This will also offer freedom of expression to the users without fear of their identity being revealed to unintended people. Internet security will also provide protection to the online businesses through protection of personal details and ensuring secure completion of transactions. Internet security diagram Antivirus Passwords /security codes Legal Standards Software updates File backups Data encryption Source: authors’ composition From the diagram, those who access the internet from public sources should set firewalls to limit the amount those who can gain access into their contents. The clients should also put in place other security measures either to get rid of the unwanted programs from the computer or to prevent their accessibility in their online connected machines (Gackenbach, 2007). Conclusion Internet use poses enormous security threats to both users and organizations around the world. It results to damages of both software and hardware hence causing a serious loss of data and interference of service delivery. There are various strategies to prevent these damages such as use of firewall, antivirus, information backups, deciphering, passwords and legal as well as ethical standards to mitigate the harmful effects of the cyber attacks. Innovations are leading to complicated skills of accessing details of the clients who use internet across the world. This also requires the internet service providers to take action and improve their technology by employing most recent strategies to protect their clients. The safety of the internet users will be determined by the ability of software developers to identify potential threats when they occur or before they occur and remove them before they cause massive damage to the users. This will also be determined by the legal standards that will be put in place to protect the sharing of information across the internet. Internet security will promote advancement of online learning, trading and social interactions. References Andrea, C. & Deborah, B. (2011). Helping People to Manage and Share Their Digital Information: A Role for Public Libraries, Library Trends, Vol. 59(4) Duquenoy, P., Jones, S. & Blundell, B. (2008). Ethical, Legal and Professional Issues in Computing, Cengage Learning, EMEA Elgstrom, O. & Jonsson, C. (2005). European Union Negotiations: Processes, Networks and Institutions, Routledge, London. Gackenbach, J. (2007). Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Transpersonal Implications. Elsevier/Academic Press, Boston. Helen, N. (2010). Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life. Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press Nunziato, D. (2009). Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age, Stanford, CAStanford University Press. Paul, M. & Michelle, M. (2011). An Introduction to Information Security Involving Users, Library Trends, Vol. 59(4) Theda, T. & Mary, A. (2010). Can We Help Information Systems Students Improve Their Ethical Decision Making? Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge and Management, Vol. 5 Read More