Web Security Research Paper

This article was written by Christopher Benson, with help of other IT engineers and it was published in 2014. The article commences by a definition of computer security and it is postulated that it means to protect information. In the broad perspective, computer security deals with detection of unauthorized actions and prevention of any malicious acts that are likely to cause information loss. According the author’s definition, it means that a person knows the information and its value so that he/she may come up with protective measure against losses. This also means that the person needs to know the specific individuals with relevant identities that need to access the information in a restricted way and how much information can be shared to other parties. This article appears to be so comprehensive by outlining all the steps of security and the need for one to secure their information before outlining the real security threats this is the best way to capture the minds of any reader because they will have known what computer security is and why it is necessary before understanding the potential threats to loss of information and this means that readers will be keen in reading this threats as they will want to make sure that they do not fall victim of such threats. The article then describes in great details the techniques, methods and tools that information intruders use to exploit the chances in any information system with the aim of accomplishing their cybercrime goal. According to the author of this article, the core objective of security is to make sure that all the valuable information is protected while at the same time it should be readily availed for organizational plans and progress. This is because information is an important and special asset to any organization and losing it will be a great deal of harm to the organization’s core objectives and goals.

One of the threats outlined by the author is the natural disasters. Actually it is very hard to stop a natural disaster from occurring and entirely no one can do that. These natural disasters include hurricanes, Earthquakes, lightning, floods and fire and they do cause an adverse effect on the systems of the computers. The best approach in such situations is to formulate a disaster recovery plan to equip the workers on how to recover data in case a disaster occurs. In such a case, some other threats should also be included, like wars, riots and attacks of terrorists, which are disastrous acts although they are human-caused. The article also outlines other threats caused by human beings intentionally and purposefully to obtain the information from the system. It is important to notify the readers of such acts because it is true that not all employees within an organization have good intentions. Some are ill motivated and they can bring the organization down in minutes when they breach the data. It is amazing to realize that employees are the only individuals who are familiar with all the applications and computers in an organization and they probably know the actions that can cause the worst damage to the information of an organization. One thing I know and support the author is that an employee might have been demoted or he may have conflicted with the management over some issues and this will prompt him to hack the information system of the organization in revenge, which is too true to be ignored. Therefore, as the author asserts, they can plant the type of virus that they know it causes harm to the computers and then browse through the sensitive files and thus end up breaching the information of the organization.

It is important in this article to use diagrammatic emphasis on how the malicious viruses affect the computer systems and ultimately the information of an organization. This makes the article more detailed and appealing while at the same time easy to understand even to those who have less knowledge on cybercrime acts. The author opens up individuals mind by stipulating all the actions that the outside attackers are likely to do in order to access the information systems of the organization right from their various places. One of them is planting ads on some sites or even suggesting some online games and other stuffs that may tempt an employee to click and he/she may find himself/herself giving out some details in order to access the online staff only to find out in the end that he/she has leaked the information of the organization. Another amazing aspect about the article is that it is citing every instance with real life examples with respective years and respective companies. This supports the arguments and points that the author posts in this article and I find it more relevant to use in any context when educating someone about cybercrimes. This article is also peer reviewed and this makes it even more valid for further researches on threats to computer information system.

Reference

Christopher Benson (2014). Security Threats. Best Practices for Enterprise Security. Microsoft Solutions Framework. Retrieved from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/cc723507.aspx