1. Computer and Internet Security (How to protect your computer from Threats) By: Steven Siggers Instructor: Dr. Marko Puljic

2. Introduction I choose this project to discover how to protect computers from viruses and other threats that may harm computers. Explain my objectives for computer security. The background information will include information about all threats that affects computers.

3. Objectives Explain the background information on the threats that cause security problems on the Internet. Explain what kind of damage the threats does. Discover how to keep computers safe from hacker’s, viruses, and all other threats.

4. Background Info on Threat’s Threats include the issues that causes computer security problems. Examples of threats include computer hacker’s, viruses, worms, and many other threats that will harm a computer. As of day, many of these threats can and will occur, so all user’s must be cautious at all times.

5. What is a Computer Hacker ? A Hacker is a programmer who breaks into computer systems in order to steal or change information as a form of cyber-terrorism. Case: In 1999 a 19 year old Russian hacker named Maxim broke into an e-commerce (Amazon.com) web site and stole 300,000 credit card numbers, demanding $100,000 from the site owners, and threatened to post all the credit card numbers on the Internet if he did not get the money.

6. What is a Computer Virus? A computer virus is a computer program that copy’s itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the user. Case: In 1974, the Rabbit virus infected computers, as a result, it reduced the system’s performance just before the computers crashed. Viruses can be avoided, and reinstalling a computer’s operating system is a known approach of removing viruses.

7. What are Computer Worms ? A computer worm is a program that copies itself across a network. A computer worm can run itself, but a virus needs a host (computer connected to the Internet) program to run. small piece of software designed to fix problems with a computer program) A computer worm can also spread through network services, but users can protect their computers by installing patches (a small piece of software designed to fix problems with a computer program) provided by the operating system up to date.

8. What Kind of Damage these Threats Make? Viruses cause damage to users by causing computers to loose memory and eventually leads the computer to crash. Hackers can cause damage to many others if they obtain their personal information, or display false information on the Internet causing problems. Worms cause damage through emails, because it tries to persuade a user to open an infected email attachment.

9. How to Keep Computers Safe from Threats Avoid downloading and running unknown programs that may cause harm to your computer. Always have some kind of Antivirus Software on your computer that protects you from viruses daily. Avoid websites that has a warning that looks like the photo below.

10. References Tanenbaum, Andrew, S. (2007) Computer Networks: Fourth Edition. http://www.google.com/ http://www.tech-faq.com/malware.shtml