The safe use of Internet
I CAME across a news item (Oct 17) about the US plan to review an Australian programme to increase computer safety while it is connected to the Internet.
We are living in the computer age. The computer occupies a major space in every home today in developed countries. Computers without the Internet are a thing of the past now.
One can make bank transactions, carry out business, order food, pay utility bills and talk to friends who live miles away.
But how many of us consider security while using the Internet? Security is very broad term: it is not only restricted to passwords but also deals with fraudulent sites which look like genuine sites.
They take your credentials which are then misused on other legitimate sites, while viruses, cryptography, media reuse and destruction, privacy, laws and regulations, software licensing, network, eavesdropping, fishing, identity theft and many more of such activities take place that an ordinary computer user has hardily any awareness of.
Books can be written on such security threat, its ramification and cure but miscreants will always come up with new ways to break security. It is a never-ending cat and mouse game.
IT-related security threats are growing day by day and don’t seem to be coming to an end in the near future.
While in most cases the victim belongs to different countries which practise different laws altogether and sometimes some attacks are state-funded. In these situations, proving guilty becomes more difficult.
Nowadays, most organisations depend on information systems to conduct penetration tests to check the vulnerability of computer systems before they are exploited by hackers.
The IT ministry is also suggested to take some measures by conducting awareness programmes throughout the country to make people aware about these threats, its consequences and remedies.
ADEEL NAZEER YOUSFANI
Tando Allahyar
Source: Dawn
Date:10/20/2010
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