Unit 4: Safeguarding your computer and personal information
Safeguarding your computer and personal information
It is impossible to achieve 100% protection form cyber crimes. The focus is, however, to minimize their occurrence and the resulting losses. Some common measures to safeguard ourselves are listed below. We can divide them into two categories (1) Strengthening security over the Internet (2) Strengthening security of a web site
Unit Objectives
Upon completion of this unit, the participants will:
- Understand how to strengthen security over the Internet.
- Encryption
- Digital signatures
- Secure Web servers
- Anti-Virus software
- Security in Internet Explorer
- 2 Checking security features of a web site
- Configure the security features of a web page
- Understand the role of cookies
Lecture
Presentation Slides
Unit4_Safeguarding_Personal_Information
Discussions
- List examples of types of computer crime and discuss some ways computer crime can be prevented.
- Classroom activity:
- Design a project to evaluate the safety of websites.
Case studies
- Case study 1 - Theft of confidential data
John Smith works as a manger in a corporation. One day he receives a neatly packed CD containing “security” updates from a company which has business associations with his company. Without thinking much, he installs the software on his computer which has sensitive data of the company and of all the employees. What he fails to notice is the software has installed (without his knowledge) a terrible virus program which has managed to steal the confidential data. He also notices later that the address of the company was fictitious. Now he has lost all the confidential information and additionally the “virus” has left his computer in an “infected” state.
Reflection:
- Where did John go wrong?
- What precautions he could have taken to avoid the above situation?
- Case study 2- Phishing
Jane Doe receives an email that seems to have been sent from her bank. The email urges Jane to click on a certain link in the email. Without verifying the authenticity of the email, Jane clicks on the link where she is taken to “a secure page on the bank’s website”. She believes the web page to be her bank’s web site and enters her username, password, social security number and other personal information as she is asked to do in the email. She fails to notice that the website was fake. Unfortunately Jane loses her personal information.
Reflection:
- Where did Jane go wrong?
- What could she have done to prevent this identity theft?
Quiz
Links
- Back to the Main Page: Jay_Chakravarthy
- Back to Portfolio Page: Understanding_Online_Safety
- Back to Community: ETAP 623 Sping 2009