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Computer Security
Computer security is the prevention/detection of, and response to, any unauthorized actions by users of a computer system. Questions about security practices and principles belong here.
1,022 Questions
Internet Filtering Software - Does It Really Work?In recent years as the Internet has grownas a medium for entertainment, online pornography and related pornographic materials has exploded.
Understandably, parents are in a bit of a sticky dilemma. They want their children to reap the benefits all of the vast amounts of educational and experiential material found on the Internet, but on the other hand they know that they need to shield them from unsavory, undesirable and pornographic material
As a result, parents have turned to various types of parental control software.
one type of parental control software gaining popularity, is the so-called Internet filtering type of Parental control software.
Ideally, Internet filtering software works by attempting to block or filter out unacceptable content based on certain preprogramed parameters built-in to the filtering software.
Most Parental control filtering software focuses on web site filtering.
The goal is to prevent various web sites from being accessed by the user based on the type of content the site features.
Common filtering criteria might be pornography, hate sites, or a legal or violent content.
Internet filtering software can also be set by the parent to restrict or block individual web site addresses, as well as certain keywords or key phrases used in search engines.
But the reality is, that is a impossible task. with over one million plus new pornographic websites coming online daily, not to mention the pornography now found running rampant through social networking and bookmarking sites many software companies are finding it increasingly difficult to correctly filter out the sort of objectionable material.
One tactic taken by some parental control software companies is to have staff continually search for adult sites and other objectionable content in order to update their software's database to assure that your child is protected against the latest threats.
Some Internet filtering software even allows parents to submit questionable web sites that are not already contained in the database for possible inclusion.
Then the web site is reviewed and either added to the and sites list or they may allow it.
The overall problem to the "list of bad sites" approach is that these software program databases become so large, that surfing the web while using this sort of Internet filtering software causes the web browser to run slowly as the software tries to filter and check against its internal database.
To get around this sort of web slowdown, many Internet filtering software companies tried to develop proprietary algorithms that use fuzzy logic to anticipate content that would be objectionable.
While these programs can be successful, even the best can only filter out at most about 80% of the pornographic material your child may stumble across.
And while a 80% success rate is pretty strong, it still leaves your child woefully unprotected and therefore defeats the purpose of the reason that will parents would buy an Internet filter in the first place.
Another common problem with Internet filtering software is that it is very common for its to block legitimate content accidentally.
Here's what we mean: let's say that your child was doing a report for school about breast cancer awareness month.
Depending upon the threshold set for the Internet filter, it's very likely that the Internet filtering software would block the word breast. As a result, the child would not be able to go to legitimate medical content sites in order to gather information for a report.
Internet filtering software such as this is usually a good choice for parents wishing to protect the innocence of children 12 and under. However as children become older and more computer savvy, this type of software becomes less effective in many cases.
Parental control software companies like PC tattletale.com have recognized the traditional limitations found in content limiting and/or Internet filtering software and have taken a different approach to how filtering and content limiting are done.
Rather than trying to block every site or every instance of a pornographic or undesirable keyword, PC title to all caters to parents with more realistic expectations.
The PC tattletale program allows parents to enter in specific URLs or Web addresses that they want their child prohibited from visiting.
For example if a parent wanted to prevent their child from visiting my space.com, it would be a simple matter for the parent to type in the URL of my space.com into the PC tattletale program thereby restricting the child's access to that particular website.
Keyword blocking in PC tell tale works much the same way. The parent might enter into a list of words that they found objectionable and did not want their child to view.
Then, should the child try to go to a website that contained one of those locked keywords, the PC tattletale software would reread the page before loading it in the browser and then redirect the child to another webpage such as yahoo.com.
Basically, you have many ways to backup your data... but all are not equal.
If your backup strategy is 'copy my files to a CD or a USB key once a month, and leave the CD next to the laptop', this probably isn't a great backup strategy - the time between backups is too long, and if there's a fire, you lose the data, AND the backup.
A better backup strategy is 'once per day copy my files to an external hard drive, and then take it to work. The next day, use another hard drive, and keep swapping them, with one hard drive always at home, and the other at work'. It's a good system, you'll always have a copy of your data onsite (at home) and another copy offsite (at work). The only problem with this way of backing up is that you have to remember to do the copying every day. Plus, you only keep one 'old' version of your files, and it'll be erased after 1 day.
Automated, cloud backup software is a much better way of backing your data up. Cloud software will automatically backup the data you specify, within a specified time frame, directly to the secure servers. Every time you modify a file, a new version of it will be stored in your backup - the old versions are kept for as long as you specify.
What are people doing to prevent computer hacking?
You can install a reliable firewall.
The best and only way to avoid hacking is don't connect to the Internet or any other type of network. Which is nearly impossible these days. As long as your computer's hooked up to a network or the Internet, you're vulnerable and at risk.
Keeping your anti-virus and your computer's software updated will help but will not fully protect you. Good luck.
Switching from a windows operated computer to a Apple/Mac computer has helped me out quite a bit as far as "safe net surfing" goes. But it's a costly/pricey switch.
The weakest link in computer security?
register
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more so the user and my oppinion below that would be the kernel. if you can edit the kernel you can do pretty much anything you want and its also less protected than the register.
When you look up things and it leaves what you looked up in your computer how do i get rid of it?
It's difficult. Even a reformat doesn't necessarily do it.
About the only way to guarantee it is to take the hard drive out, take the cover off, put it in a bucket of sea water, then launch it into the sun.
Do not open it. Do not click on any links if you did open it. Delete the email.
More thoughts
you ignore the email as if you did not enter the competition then the people are not who they said they are and are trying to hack your computer or find out personal information
How can intrusion-detection systems combat computer crime?
Passwords help to combat computer crime by placing another layer of protection against immediate access. Depending on the complexity of the password, a password may prevent access to a computer thereby preventing a crime for days or even weeks while attempts are made to crack the password.
What are the advantages of touchscreen?
Touchscreens are becoming widely popular in phones and computers. They have many advantages such as playing games that are meant for touchscreens, touching something is quicker than guiding a mouse to it and it can reduce the size of a device.
Disadvantages to using long passwords?
One of the disadvantages of the user name and password combination is that people often forget their log-in information. Also, many people use a password that is too obvious, such as 'password.' This can be a security issue for some people.
Why is it necessary to have a password?
The whole point of password is to protect the private content of the persons account.
There is absolutely no point in them being published in the open domain.
This would constitute a serious breach of the Data protection act.
What are some important considerations for data backups?
When you are trying to create a backup system you should consider the following:
- What needs to be backed up
- How often it needs to be backed up
- How much space is necessary to back it up
- Where the backup should be stored
- How the backed up data should be encrypted and lastly;
- Who should have access to the backup.
Answer
An illegal download is a download that conflicts with the license. What I mean by this is if someone let's say makes a song and they make a license that states any sharing must be authorized by him or her. Then this means that anyone who shares it must ask the creator before they share the song and anyone who receives thesong can only view it. The problem is that people don't know if there is a license to obey. Sometimes people download songs from websites and then share them. Today record producers are suing many people for copyright enfringment. My golden rule is to never download songs or other media from websites. The problem is that there are so many websites and many of the media is malware infected. Even free popular media sharing programs like limewire are infected by malware.
Answer
an illegal download is where something such as a song is put on the internet without the composers consent. Then someone downloads the music and it is illegal.
What kind of backup site would have no or very limited equipment?
This would be one that is completely online. You would just need the computer or the server for it to work.
What is the role of computers in cybersecurity?
high security areas use a) fingerprint scanners
B)feet recognition systems
C) iris recognition systems
d)signature verification system
its one of these answers and im not understanding which
Reasons why information systems need to be replaced?
Some reasons why information systems might need to be replaced are:
- Changes in the business environment in which the organization operates(for example a new computer enters the market
- Technological Changes can lead to new production processes or use alternative materials in the manufacturing process
- Downsizing from centralized decision making and information systems- to decentralized decision making and information systems to make the organization more responsive to customer needs
- Re-engineering the organization's processes whereby an organization completely redesigns all its business processes to improve the performance of the business
- Changes in activities of an organization or in the nature of the organization.
- Maintaining a competitive advantage by Manufacturing a unique product line
- Increasing productivity A move away from mass production to more quality based methods of production.
What encryption algorithm is fips 140-2 complaint?
Federal Information Processing Standards, generally set the standards for compliancy for cryptography modules . There are 4 security levels defined
Which is the single factor which can make oe break a security plan?
A single factor that can make or break a security plan are people.
How do you block traffic attempting to exit a LAN?
Generally traffic exiting a LAN is controlled at the router or firewall by setting rules in the configuration files for the router or firewall restricting what IP addresses traffic can be sent to, what devices outbound traffic can be sent from. You can also set rules controlling what outbound ports, protocols, and services will be blocked or allowed. Generally the best way to configure is "deny all and allow by exception" where all traffic is blocked by default and then rules are inserted to allow exceptions for specific traffic. You would also insert settings into the Access Control List.
Principle measures used to protect computer security?
The principle measures to be used to protect your computer security is not leaving your computer vunderable. Leaving it open for the world to see by not using anti-viruses programs or having a easy password to use.
Salami attack- This financial crime works by taking small amounts of money over an extended period. For the attacker to be successful, he must remove an amount so small that it will go unnoticed.
Security normally refers to Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability.
Briefly, your files must be:
- accessible: only to the persons and applications you authorize, and with the minimum privilege required (if a user has only the need to read a file, he/she MUST NOT have the right to modify or delete it);
- modifiable: only by users or applications authorized to do so;
- available: when the authorized users need to access them: a file is useless if it not available when you need it.
Additionally, there are a couple of additional related aspects that are:
- authenticity: the files must be attributable without doubts to the creator;
- non-repudiation: the creator of the file must not be able to disavow the files he/she has created.
What should you do if you have forgotten your password?
- You click on the "forgot my password" section, fill it in and the new password will appear in your hotmail inbox.
- You forgot to tell us what password. Is it windows password? If you forgot that,you can try some reset password tools, just like "Windows Password Recovery 6.0" I used last week.
- If you have a password reset disk you can easily reset your lost password with it, Windows Password Breaker can help you create such a password reset bootable CD/DVD or USB flash drive. No need to reinstall your system.
A strong and upgraded firewall protection acts as a virtual barrier that defends external and internal damages from cyber attacks. Installing a powerful firewall protection on your system or network, provides you low-level protection against malware, identity theft or other cyber attacks along with the login and auditing procedures.
There are several forms of firewall, each having their own specific functions to perform. Broadly, firewalls are of two types- host-based and network based. A host-based firewall protection is installed on the user's computer or server to monitor the incoming and outgoing signals. On the other hand, a network-based firewall is installed over a network or cloud's infrastructure to control and protect the data being transmitted from one host to another on a network. A network-based firewall is also referred as a virtual firewall service.
How is computer information protected?
It heavily depends on software installed on them.
For example, computers with Windows installed aren't very secure, unless they have a firewall and antivirus installed.
Linux is secure, unless somebody configures it to not be secure.
BSD is security-oriented, so it's very secure.
As for hardware - not very much, since one can take out a hard disk and read it elsewhere, boot a LiveCD/DVD and crack local password, etc.
The security risks involved in allowing cookies to be stored on your computer?
Thankfully any sort of malicious cookie can and will be detected by your Antimalware or Antivirus software - it's generally one of the first areas that are checked! Cookies are just small bits of information used by websites to enhance your browsing experience and it is often considered a very small risk. It should also be noted that there are browser options to ensure that you don't receive tracking cookies if you are very privacy-focused.
