Network Security (POST 6)

 As we know, in our society information and system security are very important for individuals and organizations. The reason why is because so many of these individuals and organizations can be victims of things like cyber threats or computer viruses. This is why it is important to have things put in place such as computer security. Computer Security can be defined as the prevention of unauthorized computer access, including viewing, changing, or destroying a computer or data. In week 3, we were tasked with using ping commands to become more familiar with networking. In some cases, using ping commands or traceroutes can be useful to a lot of individuals. Although, there have been instances of attacks just from using ping commands alone. Some of these attacks include “Ping of Death” which involves sending malformed or oversized packets to crash, destabilize, or freeze the target computer or service. Another attack of ping commands is called “Ping flood” which involves sending many ping requests to overwhelm the target network with reply packets.  

There are many security concerns the world has to deal with in this day and age. Two security incidents that I wanted to talk about in detail are “computer viruses” and “phishing”. Computer viruses are a type of malicious software and malware that spreads between computers and causes damage to data and software. Phishing can be known as a form of social engineering and scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware. Both threats can cause computer systems to be vulnerable by spreading external devices such as USB’s, floppy disks, HDDs, and even emails.  

As far as causing massive symptoms and damage to computer systems, computer viruses and phishing can also be dangerous to certain devices when they affect the computer’s speed. They also can cause multiple pop-up windows to show out of the blue. Viruses can also cause computer systems to crash. For phishing, it can cause your personal or professional email account to send mass spam emails to other users. 

Although these two security threats can cause massive harm to computer systems, there are resolutions to stop them in their tracks even before they start. There are two ways you can protect your computer system or network from these breaches. The first being making sure you have a reliable anti-virus software protection system like McAfee, Norton, and Aura to name a few. Another way you can protect your devices is by avoiding clicking pop-ups on different websites and sometimes scanning emails to make sure they aren’t spam.  

If you follow these precautions, you have a much better chance of avoiding these security breaches. Network Security is very prevalent today because there can be many vulnerabilities to networks and computer systems. We just need to make sure to take careful measures when dealing with these problems. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References 

• Vahid, F. (2019). Computing Technology for All. ZyBooks. 

• What are computer viruses?: Definition & types of viruses. Fortinet. (n.d.). https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/computer-virus