COMPUTER PRIVACY

Computer Security Ethics and Privacy

Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it's important for the information to be stored and kept properly. It's also extremely important to protect computers from data loss, misuse and abuse. For example, businesses need to keep their information secure and shielded from hackers. Home users also need to ensure their credit card numbers are secure when participating in online transactions. A computer security risk is any action that could cause loss of information to software, data, processing incompatibilities or damage to computer hardware.

An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime, which is slightly different from a cybercrimes. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the Internet and is one of the FBI's top priorities. There are several distinct categories for people that perpetrate cybercrimes, and they are: hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully. They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network.

The term cracker refers to someone intentionally accessing a computer or computer network with malice in mind. They access computers with the intention of destroying or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are have advanced network skills.

A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy computer systems for political reasons. It’s similar to a terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement and years of planning.

Source:www.webreference.com