Group 3: Data Security, Protection from Hackers and Unintentional Data Loss. Dossa Sahil, Johnston Brett Parker, Saltesz Matthew Alexander

Intro
In 1945, the first digital computer was built, and not even a decade after its release, highly skilled programmers known as 'hackers' began to steal information from other computers by building harmful viruses. These viruses came in the form of many different shapes, the first being saved onto a hard disk (now known as hard disks) and manually transferred to other computers. Today, a computer virus may be obtained by a simple click of the mouse. To better understand how these 'hackers' obtain our information, we must briefly explain how information is passed from computer to computer. Information is passed between computers in "packets", which may be considered the fundamental unit of information on the computer. To send these packets of information between computers requires the need of an IP address and a Port number. An IP address (Internet Protocol) is the identity assigned to every computer, and is used to direct messages or find where the computer is located globally. A Port number is the service being used on the computer and are created by software on the computer. The software creates ports to allow specific networking functions. An example of a port number in which we used on a daily basis is port number 80, which accounts for WWW. or World Wide

Network Sharing and Connections
A basic method to protecting your information is to configure your network properties on your personal computer. To do this, we must open our 'networks connections' list and break any links between TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol) and other local networks. This is a safe solution if you do not have a local network and it is viewed often to ensure that no changes have been made.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh102/Msaltesz/network-properties.gif

Firewall
Firewalls are a good way to prevent data theft. Technology has progressed over the years and Internet security is great concern. A firewall is a barrier that prevents harmful things from getting into your computer. Firewalls inspect “packets” of information before other programs and software on your computer analyze it. Firewalls allow for file sharing without the worry of unauthorized intrusion. Types of firewall techniques:

1.Packet filter: Inspects "packets" of information before other programs and software on your computer analyze it. It can be vulnerable to IP spoofing, and is hard to configure.

2.Application Gateway: Security measurements are applied to certain applications. Can cause a fall in computer performance.

2.Proxy server: hides the true network address. It also intercepts any incoming or outgoing messages.

Firewalls use one or more out of three methods to manage the incoming and outgoing information in a network.

1.Packet filtering - packets are sent through filters. The packets that are not able to make it through the filters are discarded while the other packets are sent to the requesting system.

2.Proxy service – the firewall retrieves information from the Internet and sends it to the requesting system and vice versa.

3.Stateful Inspection – compares keys parts of a packet to a trusted database. The information has to match the database in order for it to be accepted by the computer.

A firewall can be configured to filter IP addresses, domains, and protocols(IP, TCP, HTTP, etc.)

Encryption


Encryption originally began as the art of cryptology. Cryptology has been around for thousands of years and was supposedly first utilized by the Ancient Greeks using a scytale. A scytale was simply words inscribed on a band of leather which could not be read unless you had the correct size of cylinder in which to wrap the leather around. This was a very primitive version, over the centuries cryptology has been getting more and more complex. It has been utilized mainly for military application before its transformation to the internet and in truth its function remains much the same as it was in its roots. Keep information secret from those who may wish to bring you harm in some way or another.

Today encryption is far more complex than its cryptology predecessor. It functions as a mask on your information to keep third parties to access your information while it is being sent from one place to another. Without encryption anyone would be free to access whatever was being sent over the internet, credit card information, personal information, address and anything else they deemed worthy of obtaining. How encryption works essentially is that it uses a key which only you and the recipient are aware of to mask the message. When it is sent nobody but the person with the other key should be able to open it and access you information. Today there are two main types of encryption, symmetric-key encryption and public-key encryption (or asymmetric-key encryption).

Symmetric-key encryption was the first type of encryption used for the internet. You must know before hand which machines will be used for the passing of information, the same key must be installed on each one and it is then that you will be able to pass the code from one machine to another and be able to effectively translate it. The first major encryption algorithm in the states was first introduced in the 1970's and was named the Data Encryption Standard (DES). The DES was a 56 bit key which offered more than seventy quadrillion different key combinations. This is quite a hefty amount of information to be able to crack, but computers continued getting faster and fast and soon the DES was not considered to be secure enough. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is the one that we use today and is much more effective at keeping information secure. The AES comes in 128, 192 and 256 bit combinations and is believed to be secure for the recent future. However there is a more secure way to do this entirely, public-key encryption.

Public-key encryption is a combination of two keys, a public and a private key. The public key is known to all while the private key is known only to your computer. You use your private key encrypts the message and then the public key encrypts your private key which is delivered with the original encrypted message. This method of encryption is far more secure based upon the multitudes of different combinations that are possible.

Backup
A backup is the copying of data to store so that in the event of data loss it can be restored. Data that is backed up can be stored on magnetic tape, hard disc, optical disc, floppy disc, floppy disc, solid state storage, and remote backup service. The main methods of backing up are:

1.Copying files: just copying files is a simple way to back up

2.Partial file copying: is when you limit the copy to a certain amount of blocks or bytes that have changed over a certain amount of time. This limits the amount of space needed to backup.

3.Filesystem dump: a copy of the whole system is made instead of certain files.

4.Identification of changes: checks to see when the last time the files where changed to see for what files a backup is needed.

5.Versioning file system: keeps track of any changes that have been made to a file, it allows for a user to see the file at the time that it was created.

Virus Protection
Viruses are small pieces of software attached to real programs that may duplicate if you run the program. They may come from online on the back of programs, as attachments on emails such as a .doc or .xls file or event as a program itself that will disguise itself. These are known as Trojan Horses. There are a few good ways to protect yourself from malicious internet codes and viruses. Majority of attacks come from within a company or business on itself but it is still useful to know the basics of protecting yourself from outside. 1. Purchase anti-virus software.

2. Buy your software on CD instead of downloading online, free online content is more likely to contain viruses hidden on the back of the program which could deliver information to the hacker.

3. Never double-click on an email with an attachment if you are unsure of the sender. The act of opening the attachment is enough for the virus to infect your computer.

4. Avoid macros in documents and make sure your macro virus protection is enabled when running Microsoft applications. It is a good practice to avoid running macros if you are unsure of their purpose.

It is also useful to note that most viruses are geared towards effecting a windows operating sysytem. If you were to utilize an alternate operating system many of these problems would be reduced if they don't entirely become obsoleted.