Internet security is one of the important factors that have to be known in the world of computing, especially when connected to the Internet and the World Wide Web.

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Introduction

Internet security is one of the important factors that have to be known in the world of computing, especially when connected to the Internet and the World Wide Web. Here are lists and explanations of the security goals and vulnerabilities, areas of vulnerability and the methods of defense.

Security Goals and Vulnerabilities

Computer security consists of maintaining three characteristics: confidentiality, integrity and availability.

Confidentiality means that the assets of a computing system are accessible only by authorized parties. The type of access is read-type access: reading, viewing, printing, or even just knowing the existence of an object. Confidentiality is sometimes called secrecy or privacy.

Integrity means that assets can be modified only by authorized parties or only in authorized ways. In this context, modification includes writing, changing, changing status, deleting and creating.

Availability means that assets are accessible to authorized parties. An authorized party should not be prevented from accessing objects to which he, she or it has legitimate access. For example, a security system could preserve perfect confidentiality by preventing everyone from reading a particular object. However, this system does not meet the requirement of availability for proper access. Availability is sometimes known by its opposite, denial of service.

Areas of Vulnerability

Software. It is an integral part of the computing system. Without the operating system, utility programs, and application programs, the hardware would be just machinery. Attacks on software occur in three ways: piracy, deletion, and alteration of software.

Software piracy – the illegal copying and distribution of software – is a serious problem. Although most people think nothing of making a copy of software and giving it to a friend or making extra copies for personal use, these actions violate copyright laws and are punishable by law. The creator of the software should be compensated for his work.

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Deletion of software is a common occurrence. This mishap can be controlled by a process called configuration management. With configuration management, every change made to a program is controlled and recorded. The goal of this process is to ensure the availability of the correct version of the program. With uncontrolled modifications by numerous individuals, the original version of a program will most likely be lost.

Software alteration is another form of sabotage that is difficult to detect. Changing a few line of code in a program that is thousands of lines long are difficult to detect. Nevertheless, these few lines can ...

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