Computer security is a topic that recently has been given a lot to talk about. A lot of people usually thinks that computer security is something that should concerned only geeks or people in the technology industry but computer security is actually a matter that should be taken very seriously by everyone including corporations and the governement. 

But why should we be concerned about computer security? We should be concerned about it because of the big amount of data that is uploaded to the internet everyday. Some examples of sensitive information that we upload the internnet are our SSNs, bank accounts, telephone numbers, our location, IDs, etc. If for some reason, this information gets into the wrong hands people can use our bank accounts or use our identities and misuse it. 

PCMag defines computer security as "The protection of data, networks and computing power. The protection of data (information security) is the most important. The protection of networks is important to prevent loss of server resources as well as to protect the network from being used for illegal purposes. The protection of computing power is relevant only to expensive machines such as large supercomputers." 

The definition written above can give us a basic idea of the big effort that is put into the task of securing computer systems. Is a process that goes from protecting the data itself (with encryption for example) to protecting the data packets that flow through a network and assuring the availabity of the systems that store ifnormations. 

Sadly, hackers can exploit computer systems and get access to data they should not have to. Hackers accesing to private information and realeasing on the internet has been a common situation discussed on the news during the last few years. One example of this, Continue reading "Why Should We Study Computer Security." →