- Definition: protection of hardware, software and data against unintentional and malicious damage, evaluating the design, development and use of the system.
- Functions: to guarantee confidentiality, integrity and availability through management, maintenance, penetration testing and recovery from failures.
- Common threats: viruses, worms, logic bombs, intruders, DoS/DDoS; economic impact and loss of privacy for companies and users.
Computer security is the protection of computer systems from unintentional and malicious damage. It covers all aspects of a computer system, including hardware and software, as well as the procedures for their management, maintenance and evaluation. Learn all about it below.
Computer security: Basics and functions
What is computer security?
Information security studies the design, development, operation, and use of computer systems to assess their security level. As part of information security studies, threats to computer resources are examined, along with potential solutions to these threats. The most common threats to computer systems include viruses, worms, logic bombs, malicious intruders, DoS attacks, DDoS attacks, and other forms of malware.
Computer security is a subfield of computer science that deals with protecting computer systems against unintentional and malicious damage. Computer security includes software and hardware systems, as well as procedures for their management, maintenance, and evaluation.
What's included?
Computer security includes software and hardware systems, as well as the procedures for their management, maintenance and evaluation. It also includes the assessment of risks inherent to computer systems using tools such as penetration testing.
The design, development, operation and use of a computer system can be taken into account when assessing its level of security.
Computer security is not only about hardware, but also about software. The most common threats to computer systems are viruses, worms, logic bombs and malicious intruders.
Computer security is an important aspect of IT management, as it ensures the confidentiality and integrity of data stored on computers:
- Protects against unauthorized access or changes to data
- Ensures the correct functioning of applications
- Prevents system crashes due to failures or crashes (also known as fault tolerance)
- Helps maintain availability through preventative maintenance procedures (e.g. backups)
- Helps recover from failures that occur by isolating them from affecting other parts of the system
- It provides <strong>economic data</strong> on the business environment. protection against use malicious by users or external agents, such as hackers
What do you study?
As part of computer security studies, threats against computer resources are studied, as well as possible solutions to these threats.
Information security is a field of study that deals with threats to computer resources. These threats can be physical, computer-related, or human in nature.
In this context, threat means any circumstance that has the potential to exploit weaknesses in the system and cause damage to it. Threats can be unintentional or malicious; external or internal; natural or man-made; accidental or intentional; affecting hardware (computers), software (programs), data (information) or people who work with computers.
Most common threats
The most common threats to computer systems are viruses, worms, logic bombs and malicious intruders.
Viruses are programs that can replicate and spread to other computers by infecting files or programs on a network. They can be transmitted through file-sharing networks or email attachments sent by an infected user.
Worms also spread through networks , but they don't require human intervention to do so; they often replicate rapidly across the internet by exploiting security vulnerabilities in operating systems (OS). In this sense, they are similar to viruses, but they differ in that they don't need additional software installed on your PC to take effect: they will simply use the software already present on your computer system once it's activated! For example, if you have an older version of Windows XP, there's a greater chance than ever that this will happen.
featured examples
Other prominent examples of security threats include denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. These types involve a hacker using malware to infect computers in order to overwhelm them with requests for information or services. This can result in legitimate users being denied access and their data being compromised.
Computer security is an important part of information technology.
It is an important part of information technology . Computer security is a subfield of computer science that encompasses all aspects of protecting computers, networks, and data from damage or unauthorized access.
Cybersecurity is important for both businesses and individuals. For businesses, it means protecting themselves against cyberattacks that could lead to financial losses or the theft of trade secrets; for consumers, it means safeguarding private information while using the internet (e-commerce sites like Amazon) or other multimedia devices such as smartphones or tablets—devices that are also increasingly used in corporate environments because they are convenient and portable enough to take anywhere with ease.
Conclusion
Information security, or cybersecurity, is an important part of information technology . The design, development, operation, and use of a computer system can all be considered when assessing its level of security. Information security studies threats to computer resources and potential solutions to these threats. The most common threats include viruses, worms, and malicious intruders who can cause damage by stealing information from the computer or destroying it completely. Other prominent examples include denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.