Scanty Security

Essay by albouUniversity, Bachelor'sA, March 2004

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It's 3:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon, and an urgent phone call is received by the bank manager advising him that the network is 'acting-up' again. Frozen systems, blue screens, and data losses are occurring on workstations around the entire bank. Employees sit at their cubicles dumbfounded, as they no longer have control over their computers. An incoming fax is received, and the sender is anonymous; "Your network is a f__ing mess." The message goes on to inform the bank of the critical attack that was just performed on their system, along with details of holes and bugs in their computer network. Just another electronic-vandal playing games on his computer? Possibly, but for what reason. For personal gain or financial growth? The question of 'why did he do it' is no longer important in this day of age; rather we should be asking, 'how could it be done.' Privacy, personal information, and financial transactions on networks, the Internet and the WWW will never and can never be 100% secure.

With a growing global itch for e-commerce and Internet transactions, security of systems has become a hot topic around the world. With the number of Internet users almost exponentially growing every year, there is more and more information and personal data online and vulnerable to cyber terrorists or hackers. The situation has gotten so serious that the President of the United States, possibly one of the most powerful men in the world, has taken charge and began acting out against cyber terrorism. He has recently endorsed a $9-million proposal to build a high-tech security institute. "We know we have to keep cyberspace open and free," Clinton said. "At the same time, computer networks (must be) more secure and resilient and we have to do more to protect privacy and civil liberties."...