Internet Security 2
As we head into the next millennium many people are beginning to question the computer systems that so many of us depend on. This is not the first time that people have become scared at the end of a century, let alone a millennium. People have always had on thing or another to be worried about at these turning points in time. When people first heard of the Y2K problem they began to realize just how big of a problem security is on these systems. Not only do we depend on these systems for information; our entire lives are on computers. The nation began to acquire a sense of urgency to fix this problem because they thought about just how vulnerable we are; from bank records and accounts to their driving history and insurance information. There have been countless cases of breaches in security, including theft of money, because of the lack of security on the Internet. I feel that the need for greater security measures on the net is increasing as we move towards the millennium and bigger security problems are created as we depend on computers more and more everyday.Computer Systems these days are protected in one of two ways, or both. The first is through passwords. Passwords work only to a certain extent.
Although I found many great cases of Internet crimes I have found the following quite interesting. There was a case in 1993 in which investigators in New York City found that three city Employees had found a flaw in city's real estate tax computer system and erased 20,000,000 dollars in overdue property taxes (Intranet Security XVII). Now, the implications of this crime are endless. If this break-in would have gone unnoticed it would have set off a whole domino affect on the tax system. These taxes that were erased go to the state and in turn the state pays the government part of the taxes. This undoubtedly would have continued if they went without getting caught and eventually would have driven up taxes for everyone else. In this instance the company and many other people were lucky to have caught the criminals, but just imagine how many of these crimes go unnoticed. Hackers usually do not affect a normal person on the Internet. If a person does not run any programs that would allow others to access information on their computers, then they do not have to worry about their data being compromised on the Internet. The people that run the computer systems at corporations connected to the Internet usually make back-ups of all their files at least once a day. This back up copies all changeable data from the computer to a removable storage device such as a tape back-up drive. These back-ups are the only true way to ensure that you will not be missing anything in the future. If a hacker changed something on a company's computers, the systems administrator would be able to restore the information from the back- up the computer automatically created earlier. Software companies have made extensive research into security issues on networks, the Internet being one colossal network. These companies specialize in security software for Internet servers. They hire hackers to program and test their software. Although they go through such great attempts at security we are lacking that one great breakthrough that sends us into the next millennium with confidence of our security. Another case is when the corporation Citibank had an incident in 1995 in which Russian "hackers" (a term on the Internet and computer world meaning breaking into another person's computer) stole over 10,000,000 dollars in fraudulent wire transfers by exploiting a hole in its systems provision for money transfers (Intranet S
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1623
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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