Basic Computer Concepts
Education
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Children are outpacing adults on the
technology track.
Education plays a major role in guiding the
children to make use of the best of the
computer technology.
Current education systems must undergo
significant reform to serve the needs of the
younger generations.
Computers and the Internet can help in making
lessons customized and student-centered.
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Careers and Professional
Outlook
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Change that involves new and complex
technologies are stressful to older and less
educated workers.
Computer literacy is an advantage on most
jobs nowadays.
Management supports the use of technology to
improve productivity which in many instances
mean the elimination of jobs.
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Security
Computer Crimes
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could reasonably include a wide variety of
criminal offenses, activities, or issues
can be separated into two (2) categories:
• crimes facilitated by a computer
• crimes where the computer is the
target
Computer Security Issues
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Bugs or misconfiguration problems that allow
unauthorized remote users to:
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steal confidential documents
execute commands on the host machine,
allowing them to modify the system
gain information about the host machine,
allowing them to break into the system
launch denial-of-service attacks rendering
the machine temporarily unusable
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Security
Computer Security Issues
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Browser-side risks including:
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active content that crashes the browser,
damages the user’s system, breaches the
user’s privacy, or merely creates an
annoyance
the misuse of personal information
knowingly or unknowingly provided by the
end-user
Interception of network data sent from
browser to server or vice versa via network
eavesdropping
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Security
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Aspects of Computer Security
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Physical Security
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Viruses
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Malicious Logic
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Hacking
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Internal Misuse
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Spoofing
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Security
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Ethics
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the rules and standards governing the
conduct of an individual with others
• copyright - a form of protection
provided by law to authors of original
works, otherwise known as their
intellectual property
• a copyright owner has the sole right to:
– reproduce the material
– prepare derivative works based on
the material
– distribute the copies of the
material to the public
– perform the work publicly (if
applicable)
– display the work publicly
• privacy
• censorship
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Security Incidents
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There are many different ways to attack
computers and networks to take advantage of
what has made shopping, banking, investment,
and leisure pursuits a simple matter of
“dragging and clicking” for many people.
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Different types of electronic crime fall into
two main categories:
v Crimes in which the computer was the
target of the attack
v Incidents in which the computer was a
means of perpetrating a criminal act
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Security Incidents
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The Morris Worm (November, 1988)
Citibank and Vladimir Levin (June-October,
1994)
Kevin Mitnick (February, 1995)
Omega Engineering and Timothy Lloyd (July,
1996)
Jester and the Worcester Airport (March, 1997)
Solar Sunrise (February, 1998)
The Melissa Virus (March, 1999)
The Love Letter Worm (May, 2000)
The Code-Red Worm (2001)
Adil Yahya Zakaria Shakour (August, 2001-May,
2002)
The Slammer Worm (2003)
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Threats to Security
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Viruses and Worms
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Intruders
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Insiders
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Criminal Organizations
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Terrorists and Information Warfare
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Security Basics
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In some sense, security is concerned with
preventing undesired behavior.
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An enemy/opponent/hacker/adversary
may be actively and maliciously trying to
circumvent any protective measures you
put in place.
Computer vs. Network Security
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Computer security focuses on security
aspects of systems in isolation. (e.g.
viruses, secure data storage, OS security)
Network security focuses on security of
data as it is transmitted between
networked systems. (e.g. authentication
protocols, encryption of transmitted data,
firewalls)
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
The CIA of Security
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Confidentiality — ensure that only those
individuals who have the authority to view a
piece of information may do so.
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Integrity — related to concept but deals with
the generation and modification of data.
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Availability — ensure that the data, or the
system itself, is available for use when the
authorized user wants it.
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Authentication — deals with the desire to
ensure that an individual is who they claim
to be.
Nonrepudiation — deals with the ability to
verify that a message has been sent and
received and that the sender can be
identified and verified.
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Security Principles
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Three ways an organization can choose to
address the protection of its networks:
v Ignore security issues
v Provide host security
v Approach security at a network level
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Host Security
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takes a granular view of security by
focusing on protecting each computer and
device individually instead of addressing
protection of the network as a whole
Network Security
v emphasis is placed on controlling access to
internal computers from external entities
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Least Privilege
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Least privilege means that a subject (which
may be a user, application, or process) should
have only the necessary rights and privileges to
perform its task with no additional
permissions.
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The concept of least privilege applies to more
network security issues than just providing
users with specific rights and permissions.
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Another issue in least privilege concept is the
security context in which an application runs.
All applications, scripts, and batch files run in
the security context of a specific user on an
operating system.
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Layered Security
Network security
Network security
Host security
Host security
Audit logs
(Detection)
Access controls
Intrusion detection systems (Detection)
Firewall (Prevention)
Figure 1. Various Layers of Security
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Diversity of Defense
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Diversity of defense is a concept that
complements the idea of various layers of
security. It involves making different layers of
security dissimilar so that even if attackers
know how to get through a system making up
one layer, they may not know how to get
through a different type of layer that employs
a different system for security.
Trends and Issues
Basic Computer Concepts
Access Control
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Discretionary Access Control
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Mandatory Access Control
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an access control mechanism in which the
owner of an object (such as a file) can
decide which other subjects (such as other
users) may have access to the object, and
what access (read, write, execute) these
subjects may have
an access control mechanism in which the
security mechanism controls access to all
objects (files), and individual subjects
(processes or users) cannot change that
access
Role-Based Access Control
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an access control mechanism in which,
instead of the users being assigned specific
access permissions for the objects
associated with the computer system or
network, a set of roles that the user may
perform will be assigned to each user
Trends and Issues