Netw 240

Netw 240

Case Study

Week 4

Jigar Patel

Prof: Patrick Coyle

When dealing with computer security, it is quite an hassel to stay updated as technology keeps on changing. There are tons of security threats outside your network that want to enter and make you life miserable. The most common threats are: viruses, spyware, phishing, and spam. You always want to keep you computer and netwrok up to date to avoid these threats.

A computer virus is defined as a "small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interfere with computer operation" (Microsoft). These types of virusus can allow hackers to delete files from your computer, mess with the registry, wipe out your hard drive, and even get into another computer in the network and exploit that as well. They can also "Others simply replicate themselves or flood a network with traffic, making it impossible to perform any internet activity. Even less harmful computer viruses can significantly disrupt your system’s performance, sapping computer memory and causing frequent computer crashes" (Webroot). You can tell the effect of it right away by realizing the computers performance, missing files, and crashing more often. Spams are another common security threat to a computer. They are mainly found in your emails. Spammers use fake websites and instant messagers to lure you into giving up confidential information. Using McFee site advisor is an great assest because it tells you if the website is safe to open or not.

Hackers have many techniques to access information from your computer. They can create fake websites and make them look similiar to real legit websites to con you. Hackers can find you by using "phishing scams, spam email or instant messages and bogus Web sites to deliver dangerous malware to your computer and compromise your computer security. Computer hackers can also try to access your computer and private information...