COMPUTER SECURITY ISSUES :: Essays Papers

COMPUTER SECURITY ISSUES Computer Security Issues Facing Alsager Ltd. In upgrading the Alsager Ltd IT facilities, despite numerous advantages that the new systems brings one has to be made aware of the possible threats posing. Virus can effect the system. They are pieces of codes created by hacker to create a nuisances and to another extreme corrupt valuable data. Examples of these can be animated icons flying pass the computer screen and to another extreme can be programmes designed to delete the hard drive. The Computer Virus can be caught through a number of ways. The most highly publicised way, is through the Internet, other ways are through removable storage media, such as floppy disks and zip drives. They can also be caught through computer networks, where a third party from another machine in the network introduces the virus (accidental or otherwise) which then spread throughout the network. The most unlikely way of virus contaminating the system is through malicious employees creating them on the system but this will be discussed later on. There are a number of precautions that can be taken to help prevent this. By simply making employees not to use mobile storage media unless they know where it has been, making them aware that pirated media , shareware/freeware programmes may be potentially dangerous. A talk and leaflet distribution to employees could be useful. If the Alsager decides to connect to the Internet, this would be another potential source for virus and such like. A firewall could be placed on the system to help prevent infection. A more immediate way of preventing virus is to subscribe to a antivirus programmes, although this will not give you 100% percent protection it will help prevent the majority of known virus. An important note to this point, is the importance of getting regular virus updates from the software manufacturer. With the introduction of the IT facilities, the amount of room information takes up is drastically reduced from a whole filing cabinet to a small hard drive. Information can be easily copied and since the advent of the Internet, information does not even have to be on a psychical media to leave the building. This therefore makes it much more easier to copy and take out valuable information. All the companies details, there accounts and their customers account are prone to the risk. A single person can take out all the information on a zip disk or even a floppy disk depending on the size of the file.