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HOME COMPUTER LAPTOP SECURITY RISKS

Computer Security Risks to Home Users

  1. What is at risk?
  2. Information security is concerned with three main areas:

    • Confidentiality - information should be available only to those who rightfully have access to it
    • Integrity -- information should be modified only by those who are authorized to do so
    • Availability -- information should be accessible to those who need it when they need it

    These concepts apply to home Internet users just as much as they would to any corporate or government network. You probably wouldn't let a stranger look through your important documents. In the same way, you may want to keep the tasks you perform on your computer confidential, whether it's tracking your investments or sending email messages to family and friends. Also, you should have some assurance that the information you enter into your computer remains intact and is available when you need it.

    Some security risks arise from the possibility of intentional misuse of your computer by intruders via the Internet. Others are risks that you would face even if you weren't connected to the Internet (e.g. hard disk failures, theft, power outages). The bad news is that you probably cannot plan for every possible risk. The good news is that you can take some simple steps to reduce the chance that you'll be affected by the most common threats -- and some of those steps help with both the intentional and accidental risks you're likely to face.

    Before we get to what you can do to protect your computer or home network, let’s take a closer look at some of these risks.

  3. Intentional misuse of your computer
  4. The most common methods used by intruders to gain control of home computers are briefly described below. More detailed information is available in thesection below.

    1. Trojan horse programs
    2. Back door and remote administration programs
    3. Denial of service
    4. Being an intermediary for another attack
    5. Unprotected Windows shares
    6. Mobile code (Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX)
    7. Cross-site scripting
    8. Email spoofing
    9. Email-borne viruses
    10. Hidden file extensions
    11. Chat clients
    12. Packet sniffing
    Security Risks3

     

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