Technical Implementation: Security Risks National 4 viruses, worms, trojans hacking National 5 phishing, keylogging (hardware and software), virus, online fraud, identity theft anti-virus software good password settings Biometrics firewalls Security Precautions

What is a secure computer system? A computer system is secure if it: cannot be accessed by unauthorised person not infected by malicious software malware is software that disrupts the operation of a computer system allows illegal access to a computer system

Why are these security risks a problem? We use computers for everything: private email messages online shopping – card details on your computer organisations store your personal and private details on computers

Virus copies (replicates) itself to infect other programs or computers needs human activity to spread – file must be run or opened in order to infect a computer system viruses attach themselves to other programs to ensure this happens

Worm does not need to attach itself to another program transmits copies of itself to other computers using networks some worms only spread and do nothing else – they disrupt by consuming network bandwidth and storage space

Trojan a program that appears safe but has a virus or worm hidden inside disguises itself as another type of file, even as an anti-virus program! e.g. download a game, program or picture and when you run the file the virus or worm infects your computer

When does a virus strike? malware may not affect your computer system straight away may wait for a specific date before activating – time bomb a specific action to take place – logic bomb why wait? more systems can be affected before discovery

How viruses spread sharing infected optical discs (CD or DVD) or flash memory between computers creating optical discs or using flash memory on an infected computer email attachments across networks downloads

Virus effects (what a virus can do) corrupted or lost files and data displaying unwanted messages unusual images or sounds played rebooting/restarting unexpectedly generation of spam emails denial of service attacks

Hacking hacking is gaining unauthorised access to a computer system – usually illegal a crime under the Computer Misuse Act Black Hat Hacker who uses their skills illegally – often for money, respect or for a political cause White Hat Hacker who uses their skills to break into computer systems for legal purposes such as testing security of computer systems

Keylogging recording every key that is pressed without the user knowing may be software or hardware used illegally by criminals to get sensitive data like account numbers and PINs used legally to help test programs, monitor employee’s productivity

Phishing an attempt to get you to give away personal information criminals pretend to be a well known company or bank how: email, text message, telephone calls, social engineering

What was wrong with that email? no username ‘account will terminated’ – an attempt to get you to do it asap bad grammar and missing full stops click here – cannot see hyperlink address Go to the official website by typing it into the address bar or doing a search for it. Avoid clicking on links through e-Mail.

Online fraud online fraud (internet fraud) is the use of internet services to defraud people of money or to carry out identity theft lots of different types including: paying for goods which never arrive supplying bank or personal details to a stranger e.g. ‘I am a prince from <country>, please send your bank account details so I can send you £50 million …’

Anti-virus Software a software application which protects against infection by viruses and other malware detects and removes viruses before they spread further or do damage needs a connection to the internet to download updates to help protect against new viruses

Anti-virus Software always running so has an impact on system performance checking: files from the internet programs and data you are using optical discs and flash memory email attachments

Passwords a user identity and password allow controlled access to computer systems passwords should be strong

Passwords strong password: at least 8 characters long contain at least: 1 upper-case (A-Z) AND 1 lower-case character (a-z) 1 number (0-9) 1 special character (‘!@*&%$£ etc) no more than three repeating characters (111) or ordered characters (567)

Passwords to prevent a keylogger stealing passwords, some websites now ask you to select random characters from your password you don’t type so the keylogger cannot record it

Biometrics biometrics use your physical characteristics or behaviour to identify you to a computer physical characteristics: finger prints palm prints face recognition eye scans – retina or iris

Biometrics behavioural characteristics: how you walk voice recognition signature

Biometrics Advantages more secure than a password or card which can be lost or stolen difficult to forge some biometrics (e.g. fingerprints)

Biometrics Disadvantages physical danger e.g. cut hand/finger off you cannot get new data if stolen or tampered with

Firewalls a system to prevent unauthorised access to or from a private network rules and conditions specify what information is blocked and what is allowed to pass through

Firewalls hardware firewall software firewall can be built into a router has no effect on computer performance protects the whole network software firewall always running so may impact computer performance if on your PC protects only that PC