CHAPTER 1. THREATS TO
COMPUTER SECURITY
As information technology has rapidly developed and penetrated many aspects
of human existence, so the number and range of crimes aimed at breaching
information security has grown.
Cyber criminals have shown great interest in the activities of both state structures
and commercial enterprises. They attempt to steal or disclose confidential
information, which damages business reputations, disrupts business continuity,
and may impair an organization's information resources. These acts can do
extensive damage to assets, both tangible and intangible.
It is not only big companies who are at risk, individual users can also be
attacked. Criminals can gain access to personal data (for instance, bank account
and credit card numbers and passwords), or cause a computer to malfunction.
Some types of attacks can give hackers complete access to a computer, which
can then be used as part of a “zombie network” of infected computers to attack
servers, send out spam, harvest confidential information, and spread new viruses
and Trojans.
In today’s world, it is widely acknowledged that information is a valuable asset
which should be protected. At the same time, information must be accessible to
those who legitimately require it (for instance, employees, clients and partners of
a business). Hence the need to create a comprehensive information security
system, which must take account of all possible sources of threats, whether
human, man-made, or natural disasters, and use a complete array of defensive
measures, at the physical, administrative and software levels.
1.1. Sources of Threats
A person, a group of people, or phenomena unrelated to human activity can
threaten information security. Following from this, all threat sources can be put
into one of three groups:
•
The human factor
. This group of threats concerns the actions of people
with authorized or unauthorized access to information. Threats in this
group can be divided into:
•
External
, including cyber criminals, hackers, internet scams,
unprincipled partners, and criminal organizations.
