Monday, December 6, 2010

" IT104Quinniemae

1.Why has been a dramatic increase in the number of computer related security incident in recent years?
                          





2.What are some characteristics of common computer criminals including their objectives.        




1. Speed
The computer is a very high speed electronic device. The operations on the data inside the computer are performed through electronic circuits according to the given instructions. The data and instructions flow along these circuits with high speed that is close to the speed of light. Computer can perform million of billion of operations on the data in one second. The computer generates signals during the operation process therefore the speed of computer is usually measure in mega hertz (MHz) or gega hertz (GHz). It means million cycles units of frequency is hertz per second. Different computers have different speed.
2. Arithmetical and Logical Operations
A computer can perform arithmetical and logical operations. In arithmetic operations, it performs the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on the numeric data. In logical operation it compares the numerical data as well as alphabetical data.
3. Accuracy
In addition to being very fast, computer is also very accurate device. it gives accurate output result provided that the correct input data and set of instructions are given to the computer. It means that output is totally depended on the given instructions and input data. If input data is in-correct then the resulting output will be in-correct. In computer terminology it is known as garbage-in garbage-out.
4. Reliability
The electronic components in modern computer have very low failure rate. The modern computer can perform very complicated calculations without creating any problem and produces consistent (reliable) results. In general, computers are very reliable. Many personal computers have never needed a service call. Communications are also very reliable and generally available whenever needed.
5. Storage
A computer has internal storage (memory) as well as external or secondary storage. In secondary storage, a large amount of data and programs (set of instructions) can be stored for future use. The stored data and programs are available any time for processing. Similarly information downloaded from the internet can be saved on the storage media.

6. Retrieving data and programs
The data and program stored on the storage media can be retrieved very quickly for further processing. It is also very important feature of a computer.
7. Automation
A computer can automatically perform operations without interfering the user during the operations. It controls automatically different devices attached with the computer. It executes automatically the program instructions one by one.
8. Versatility
Versatile means flexible. Modern computer can perform different kind of tasks one by one of simultaneously. It is the most important feature of computer. At one moment your are playing game on computer, the next moment you are composing and sending emails etc. In colleges and universities computers are use to deliver lectures to the students. The talent of computer is dependent on the software.
9. Communications
Today computer is mostly used to exchange messages or data through computer networks all over the world. For example the information can be received or send throug the internet with the help of computer. It is most important feature of the modern information technology.
10. Diligence
A computer can continually work for hours without creating any error. It does not get tired while working after hours of work it performs the operations with the same accuracy as well as speed as the first one.
11. No Feelings
Computer is an electronic machine. It has no feelings. It detects objects on the basis of instructions given to it. Based on our feelings, taste, knowledge and experience: we can make certain decisions and judgments in our daily life. On the other hand, computer can not make such judgments on their own. Their judgments are totally based on instructions given to them.
12. Consistency
People often have difficulty to repeat their instructions again and again. For example, a lecturer feels difficulty to repeat a same lecture in a class room again and again. Computer can repeat actions consistently (again and again) without loosing its concentration:
  • To run a spell checker (built into a word processor) for checking spellings in a document.
  • To play multimedia animations for training purposes.
  • To deliver a lecture through computer in a class room etc.
A computer will carry out the activity with the same way every time. You can listen a lecture or perform any action again and again.
13. Precision
Computers are not only fast and consistent but they also perform operations very accurately and precisely. For example, in manual calculations and rounding fractional values (That is value with decimal point can change the actual result). In computer however, you can keep the accuracy and precision upto the level, you desire. The length calculations remain always accurate.


3.What actions must be taken in response  to a security incidents.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts agencies and organizations that reside within the security perimeter managed by the Information Technology Division (ITD), comprise the wide area network community known as MAGNet: the Massachusetts Access to Government Network. To optimize a secure community, MAGNet participants must be able to identify, report, and resolve cybercrime & security incidents in a manner that mitigates current and future risk to themselves and other potentially affected agencies or organizations. Cybercrime & Security Incidents are defined as internally or externally initiated events, intentional or accidental, that threaten or exploit an unauthorized and/or illegal use of Commonwealth electronic information systems and/or services. Such events include, but are not limited to, a criminal use of Commonwealth systems and/or services (e.g., cyber-stalking, identity theft, child pornography, etc.) as well as disclosure, destruction, and/or alteration of state managed systems or data.

"Fire Wall"


firewall is a part of a computer system or network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized communications. It is a device or set of devices that is configured to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and other criteria.
Firewalls can be implemented in either hardware or software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which inspects each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.
There are several types of firewall techniques:
  1. Packet filter: Packet filtering inspects each packet passing through the network and accepts or rejects it based on user-defined rules. Although difficult to configure, it is fairly effective and mostly transparent to its users. It is susceptible to IP spoofing.
  2. Application gateway: Applies security mechanisms to specific applications, such as FTP and Telnet servers. This is very effective, but can impose a performance degradation.
  3. Circuit-level gateway: Applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDPconnection is established. Once the connection has been made, packets can flow between the hosts without further checking.
  4. Proxy server: Intercepts all messages entering and leaving the network. The proxy server effectively hides the true network addresses.

"Computer Information"


Information technology (IT) is "the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications".[1] The term in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review, in which authors Leavitt and Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology."[2]