Internet Service as a Major Tool for Information Access - Essay Example

Internet Security

Introduction

The growth and development of the information generation has increased the demand for internet service as a major tool for information access and exchange. The internet has, therefore been a major breakthrough of the information age and has brought forth many advantages to the consumers. However, it has come with major challenges on board with security being at the top of that list. Due to the thought by internet users that their identity is not disclosed and that they are anonymous when online, most of them do not care about where they go and what they do when on net. This can pose a great security challenge especially if private information is shared. The top priority information to hackers that they hack to get from your personal information is bank accounts and credit card (Weisman, 2012). There is a tremendous growth of the digital age. The power of information is gaining influence and new technologies are being invented daily thus opening new possibilities. The new technologies are also gaining drastic penetrance and acceptance in the market, but by using them you expose not only yourself but other. But how do you protect yourself, your friends, or your sources? What are the safe steps to take? How do you even secure your private personal information? We are going to address these issues to help you choose the level of personal security that suits you.

Personal Security

Personal security is the greatest is the greatest internet security issue because it discloses personal privacy to unknown identities whose motives are unclear but most destructive. Just like me and you, most of the email users use free emails to communicate with family, friends, and colleagues. Most of us also use different emails from different email service providers. Despite their repeated improvements and tall claims to their functionality, the free email services fail to protect our email accounts (Phillips, 2012). You will always get unwanted and spamming emails in your inbox. The most worrying thing is how easy hackers and spammers are able to access the emails and what is it that makes email accounts a cheap target? The internet is designed in that its access is enhanced by websites. A website can decode on such information as the type of server used to access internet and its location, type of computer used, and even the internet browser that you used to get on net. If such information can be taken, it is right to assume that even more data can be recorded to trace your identity and even what you do when on net. I am going to discuss how you unintentionally disclose your personal information when you are on the net without even knowing it (Phillips, 2012). This method of disclosing your identity unknowingly is called direct closure.

Direct Closure

Direct disclosure is one of the method that can be use to disclose personal data without knowledge. The method is very common in the internet as most websites request the user to disclose such information as their phone number, real address, and email address (Weisman, 2012). The user usually gives this information to enjoy some benefits such as getting access to “member only sites” and registering to get a better version of software. Any carrier that touches the email can read the messages in the e-mail; hackers can electronically intercept the email and read it as well (Weisman, 2012). E-mails are full of important private information that range from credit card numbers to secret corporate information and this makes them the most intriguing thing to hackers. However, there are a few measures we can take and here are some of the most effective steps you take to protect your email accounts.

Steps To Promote Internet Security

The different email service providers such as yahoo, Gmail, and hotmail have taken stringent measures to promote email security in that they send an email to notify you when your email is being accessed from a different IP address. That explains why you always get warnings and alerts in your inbox from the service providers telling you that your email was accessed from a different location. But how many of you take note of such alerts? Most of you rub it off and never take it as a threat. However, it is advisable that you set your security level to the highest standard. You should, therefore, add an alternate email address and a phone number to your email profile through which you can be contacted in case of such a compromising attempt on your email (Baghla & Soni, 2015). Having a secure password can also help to improve your email security. As such, you can use a complicated password and avoid using your first or last name as your password because hackers will possibly guess your password based on your name.

Although it is not necessary to keep a long password, it should contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, with numbers and special characters alternating and replacing each other to make it hard for hackers and spammers to guess (Baghla & Soni, 2015).. In ensuring that our passwords are safe, we should also change them frequently and avoid repeating passwords that we have used in other accounts. Let me emphasize on the rule of the thumb; that passwords should be kept private and should not be shared with anyone. Am sure most of us are tempted to keep our passwords in phones and wallets; this is very wrong as doing so increases vulnerabilities in case the phone or the wallet is stolen.

Frankly speaking, it is hard to keep your email extremely free of hackers, spam, viruses, and worms. We know that all these are potential threats to our emails and our systems and we need to take extra caution and protection measures to avoid them and to keep our emails protected. We also know that emails can be a source of many threats to our computers. For this purpose, we should use antivirus software to protect our systems from infections (Baghla & Soni, 2015). We should also refrain from using wireless internet like Wi-Fi as doing so means giving an open access to your privacy which is an open invitation to hackers who can use network sniffers. Though it is hard to resist the temptation, make sure you use a WPA key on the Wi-Fi connectivity (Baghla & Soni, 2015).

All the same, you can be sure to receive numerous emails from hackers though the frequency may vary. In case you receive an email with such a subject line that you know you did not participate, automatically delete it as no doubt it is from a hacker (Weisman, 2012). They want to get access to your account and use it to fraudulently asking for money from your contact list pretending it’s you. Having addressed personal security, we should also be concerned about our business security.

Business Security

Business security is another important aspect of internet security. Threats to business security are usually executed through, computer-related break-ins, computer viruses, and unauthorized systems use. These are electronic business security attacks that are executed through data break-ins, mostly involving the management (Weisman, 2012). Information espionage in a business is very dangerous as it exposes the business to great threats if its trade secrets are disposed. But all is not lost as businesses can improve their internet security by use of such techniques as encryption and firewalls.

Steps to Improve our Business Security

Firewalls are the most popular security techniques. They are placed at the entrance of a network and are aimed at keeping-out the unauthorized users from accessing the network. To protect your business data, firewalls need to be installed at every point the network comes into contact with another network such as the internet (William, Cheswick, Steven, Bellovin, & Aviel, 2003). One challenge with firewalls is that they use passwords to keep intruders off. The use of password as an identification tool to access the network is subject to espionage if unauthorized user gets access to the password. These cyber attacks go hand in hand with data loss and we should always consider using backups to secure our data.

To create security backup, all the systems’ data should be encrypted. Encryption is a cost-effective security measure and helps to protect data from being stolen, and read. You can use an encryption scheme either within the browser or stand-alone package bought for the system. Encryption packages utilize a public-private key concept with a private encryption that is used to unlock the codes for data (William, et al., 2003).

The use of internet is developing at an alarming rate and so is the increase in internet related crimes, there is, therefore, a need to address the security issues that come with the increased number of internet users.

Conclusion

Your habit is all it takes to make the difference in protecting you emails from potential hazards and vulnerabilities. It only calls for a little care to protect your privacy. You should never open awkward and suspicious emails instead, automatically delete them. Also observe the greatest commandment of privacy and refrain from sharing your passwords; it should be private. Having said that, you now know how to improve internet security. But the greatest concern for any internet user is, how vulnerable is personal and business data in the internet and how much can we trust the available security measures put in place to protect our information?

Steps To Promote Internet Security

The different email service providers such as yahoo, Gmail, and hotmail have taken stringent measures to promote email security in that they send an email to notify you when your email is being accessed from a different IP address. That explains why you always get warnings and alerts in your inbox from the service providers telling you that your email was accessed from a different location. But how many of you take note of such alerts? Most of you rub it off and never take it as a threat. However, it is advisable that you set your security level to the highest standard. You should, therefore, add an alternate email address and a phone number to your email profile through which you can be contacted in case of such a compromising attempt on your email (Baghla & Soni, 2015). Having a secure password can also help to improve your email security. As such, you can use a complicated password and avoid using your first or last name as your password because hackers will possibly guess your password based on your name.

Although it is not necessary to keep a long password, it should contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, with numbers and special characters alternating and replacing each other to make it hard for hackers and spammers to guess (Baghla & Soni, 2015).. In ensuring that our passwords are safe, we should also change them frequently and avoid repeating passwords that we have used in other accounts. Let me emphasize on the rule of the thumb; that passwords should be kept private and should not be shared with anyone. Am sure most of us are tempted to keep our passwords in phones and wallets; this is very wrong as doing so increases vulnerabilities in case the phone or the wallet is stolen.

Frankly speaking, it is hard to keep your email extremely free of hackers, spam, viruses, and worms. We know that all these are potential threats to our emails and our systems and we need to take extra caution and protection measures to avoid them and to keep our emails protected. We also know that emails can be a source of many threats to our computers. For this purpose, we should use antivirus software to protect our systems from infections (Baghla & Soni, 2015). We should also refrain from using wireless internet like Wi-Fi as doing so means giving an open access to your privacy which is an open invitation to hackers who can use network sniffers. Though it is hard to resist the temptation, make sure you use a WPA key on the Wi-Fi connectivity (Baghla & Soni, 2015).

All the same, you can be sure to receive numerous emails from hackers though the frequency may vary. In case you receive an email with such a subject line that you know you did not participate, automatically delete it as no doubt it is from a hacker (Weisman, 2012). They want to get access to your account and use it to fraudulently asking for money from your contact list pretending it’s you. Having addressed personal security, we should also be concerned about our business security.

Business Security

Business security is another important aspect of internet security. Threats to business security are usually executed through, computer-related break-ins, computer viruses, and unauthorized systems use. These are electronic business security attacks that are executed through data break-ins, mostly involving the management (Weisman, 2012). Information espionage in a business is very dangerous as it exposes the business to great threats if its trade secrets are disposed. But all is not lost as businesses can improve their internet security by use of such techniques as encryption and firewalls.

Steps to Improve our Business Security

Firewalls are the most popular security techniques. They are placed at the entrance of a network and are aimed at keeping-out the unauthorized users from accessing the network. Read More