Net Security- The Fear Within

The Background

Last time, I had mentioned about the security aspects of the Internet. Later reading the article myself, I realised that I could have almost scared a new comer. I did not mention any particular security threat but mentioned that "Beware Of The Net". So today, I will try to classify the threats posed to an individual, rather to an uninformed individual by the net.

One can find himself in trouble in many ways, if not careful. Firstly, you may receive a virus via e-mail. The from address may be of someone you know, so you don't hesitate in clicking on the attachment. From then onwards, hell breaks loose. You may find irritating messages, lost data, unknown files, etc. Funny part is that you may unintentionally spread the virus, thus sharing your newly found troubles with your friends. The examples of this type of viruses are Worm, explore.zip, melissa, bubbleboy, etc.

Secondly, you may receive a trojan via mail or ICQ. Now what the hell does the trojan mean? The trojan, in refined language can be mentioned as Remote Administration Tool. In layman terms, it allows a remote user to control your PC. Now you may not want anyone to do that. The destructive nature of human mind is again, a good object of psychological study. One can never predict the length, a frustrated individual with a destructive mind can go. Similarly, you cannot predict the losses you may incur from a trojan-infected PC. It depends on the soul who has done this not-so-noble deed. And the power some trojans nowadays impart is just unimaginable.

The above ways are by which majority of users are troubled. Another way of disturbing net security is one in which not majority of users are affected but those who are, suffer severe damages. This community, affected by this breach of net regulations is the "E-Business" community.

Funny thing about the Internet is the amount of time it takes to grossly popularize a word or a technology. Words like e-mail, WWW, chat, voicemail, etc became household names a day or two after their arrival on the Internet. Similarly, the word on everyone's lips currently is E-Commerce. This involves serious money transactions on the Net. So you can imagine that the extent of losses due to lack of security measures in this regards are not only mental but also financial. People are known to have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars earlier. So, if you are thinking of developing an E-Commerce site, security must the first priority.

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