Saturday, August 6, 2016

BUS 188: Chapter 10 Outline

Matthew Mercado
08/06/16
BUS 188 (11:00am-3:00pm)
Chapter 10 Outline (2 page minimum)
Aggarwal

Chapter 10 Outline: Information Systems Security 

            With everything nowadays being accessible via the Internet and Social Media, does this mean that the world is secure because of the openness or has become even more vulnerable than before? Security, unfortunately, has become a major issue as threats are common and there’s always a loss whenever there’s no protection guaranteed. Much like safes/vaults, it’s considered valuable and closed from the public, but eventually there’ll be those who like to sneak around and butt into other people’s business. That is why security measures have been made to safeguard whatever needs protection. Such targets like personal belongings, files, and even money are the main 3 that often is up for the taking for thieves. The important thing to do is to create a safeguard (like a wall) to prevent any sort of threat from becoming too big. This minimizes threats and creates a more secure place. A prime example is our debit/credit cards. Whenever we use them, it’s very paramount that you never give out the ID number to strangers. Without our knowledge, those strangers could have access to your cards and could buy anything without your consent. Hackers can crack codes, break through databases, or even access personal records – you do not want any of those to be jeopardized by any means.

            Security nowadays often is breached and comprised due to a variety of sources. One such source is us – humans. Whether its accidental by employees or nonemployees, mistakes do happen and sometimes it may be costly. This is due to poor exercise of judgment, misunderstood direction on applications, and or even physical accidents. For example, a physical threat is if a construction worker were to accidentally drive a forklift into a wall. Not only is his life in danger, but the expenses for the damage forklift and property would always be threatening as well. Mistakes are common amongst everyone, but there are times when those errors, accidents, and misfires that often lead to disastrous results. Another example of a security breach that is common is bank robberies. Armed robbers carrying their weapons endanger the lives of the people as well as take advantage of people’s money, trust, and above all else – security. Even being at an ATM has become scary that security guards are often placed outside the facility in case a theft were to happen. Whether its theft, hacking, hijacking, or usurping power – our security has to improve or else attacks can be just about anywhere without there being someone to stop it.

            A very serious security breach also is a person impersonating someone else in order to gain data maliciously. Credit Card theft is a example of someone using your card without your consensus and ends up purchasing items that could accumulate to debt. Thankfully, there are ways to cancel your card in case something like happens, but what if pretexting takes place? When pretending to be someone else, everyone is under the assumption that everything is going well, but in reality that person is acquiring data that he/she can use to endanger lives and blackmail. Terms like spoofing, sniffling, and phishing are common when impersonating someone or even a company in order to access data in more ways that anyone can even imagine. Say, for example, I was receiving spam from companies that want to acquire my assistances or saying that I owe them money…that is an example of pretexting. When people give into these, its easy to manipulate people into thinking that they’re in the wrong. With technology advancing every year, accessing data is the norm and that’s why people have to be very careful while on the Internet. We have to be weary that anything can happen and in doing so, changing passwords, changing usernames, and hacking backup info is enough to take countermeasures just in case.

            Even with the progression of technology, threats can be stopped. As long as there are safeguards, then bypassing them could prove to be problematic for the attacker. The tighter the safeguard, the harder it’ll be for others. When implementing safeguards, another thing to note is that they are quite expense to create and maintain. Safeguards often reduce work efficiency and make daily tasks difficult to complete. The overall objective of information security is to find a trade-off between the risk of loss and cost of safeguard implementation. In other words, you want to make sure the risks outweigh the costs. For example, web-based attacks, malicious codes, and denial of services are just a few computer crimes that breach safeguards. There’s a lot of stress and irritation when it comes to our data being accessed because it just comes to show how easy it is to have info on the Internet be jeopardized due to safeguards being torn down. There are ways to respond to these security threats and in doing so, can keep us a little safe from harm.

            As said previously above, some ways to tighten security are to do the following: Take security seriously, create stronger passwords, use multiple passwords, send no valuable data by email or IM, use https at trust vendors, remove high-valuable assets from computers, clear browsing history (these include files and cookies), regularly update antivirus software, demonstrate security concern to fellow workers, follow organizational security directives and guidelines, and lastly consider security for all business initiatives. In just following these measures, we are enduring that information security is secured and we are taking the initiative to respond when anything happens            

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