In today's world it is impossible to run a large organisation without the aid of computers. Businesses hold massive amounts of important data, hospitals hold large amounts of confidential patient information and large scientific research projects hold important codes, formulae, and equations. The bottom line is that loss or corruption of this information is sure to result in bankruptcy, a substantial loss of customers, and even world-wide financial meltdown.

A dependency on technology is impossible to avoid - even with its fatal consequences. Companies face the worry of information lost through hacking, virus corruption, and even physical threats such as fire and flood. Viruses are the most common threat to companies they can corrupt large amounts of files and data both kinds of virus, biological and electronic, take over the host cell/program and clone their carrier genetic codes by instructing the hosts to make replicas of the viruses. Neither kind of virus, however, can replicate themselves independently; they are pieces of code that attach t

One major bug that threatened to destroy all of our data was the Millennium bug. It pursued the media for months; it was difficult not to have heard of it. The problem was that many electrical items - not just computers held a chip that kept track of the date, it was feared that after 1999 the date would switch to 0000 or 1900 and stop working all together. Millions of pounds were spent trying to outsmart the bug; no computers were sold in the years running up to 2000 without being "millennium compliant". Fortunately the bug did not strike, and now many anti-virus companies are being accused of conning industries into buying new software to tackle a non-existent bug.

It is rather scary to think that we risk so much money and even lives over the loss of simple data. Space travel, vital medical care, stock markets, air traffic control, and transport all rely heavily on I.T to keep them going. It is fearful to think of the price we might pay if the I.T that we count on, failed.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Dr Solomon's, Steps Minimise, Meanwhile BT, Santa Clara, Pentagon's ARPAnet, Fleming BT, Christopher Pile, Robert Morris, backup files, Cornell University, fire flood, anti-virus software, files building, anti-virus package, computer misuse, backup files building,
Approximate Word count = 901
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)