The Internet, as
defined by Dictionary.com, is “a vast computer network linking
smaller computer networks worldwide. The Internet includes
commercial, educational, governmental, and other networks, all of
which use the same set of communications protocols.” In a
nutshell, everything and anything that can go online will be online,
and everyone and anyone that can go online can have access to it.
The flip side to this is that anyone with malicious intent has a
chance of accessing your computer as well. It is the end-user, the
consumer who ultimately uses the computer product, that is hurt the
most by this. He or she may not know anything about computers, and
thus become an easy target. But there is no need to panic and start
unplugging your computers. All this means is that end-users must
learn how to protect their electronic data if they do not want to
become victims of the Information Age.
The average
end-user who occasionally checks email and chats is at much risk, if
not more, than someone who lives on the Internet. Whether choosing
to blaze across the Information Superhighway or moving through these
tubes in your dump truck, there are a set of precautions one can take
in order to better protect yourself. Changing our computing habits
isn't a simple task, but it's much better than becoming a victim of
technology. With so much personal information being stored in
computers—“medical records, tax records, school records, and [so
much more],” our lives are now interconnected with these computer
systems (Easttom Computer Security Fundamentals 2).
According to the
Internet World Statistics there are a total of 1.1 billion
Internet users in our global population of 6.6 billion people. This
means that 16.9%, or about 1/6th, of the world uses the
Internet. These same set of statistics also says that 211 million
out of the 302 million people living in the US are Internet
users—making this the highest ratio of Internet users in a country.
The US also has the highest percentage of users in the world coming
in at 18.9%. Unfortunately, being number one in this case also means
that Americans are also the number one targets.
According to Chuck
Easttom's book, online sales jumped from a $27.3 million in 2000 to a
projected $109.4 million in the year 2005. The drastic increase in
online shopping is obvious, but what's even more significant is that
in February of 2003 a hacker breached a security system and got
access to 5.6 million Visa and Mastercard accounts (Katayama). This
isn't the only instance of credit card information being stolen
through the use of the Internet. A Google search of “hacker”
followed by “'credit card'” gives links to other similar
incidents. Simply put, the bad guys already know how to abuse the
Internet while the rest of us are still trying to figure out how it
works.
While that article,
and others like it, show how much danger there is on the information
superhighway, it's also something that happens specifically to
organizations—meaning that it's beyond the end-user's control. If
your credit card company's security is compromised, the best thing
you can do is yell at a customer service representative. But since
customer service doesn't actually fix any problems, the next best
thing is to start protecting ourselves, our family and our friends.
Just as it is a bad idea to walk around with $20,000 cash in hand,
there are certain rules to follow when going online. Knowing what to
do and what not to do will improve the overall computing experience.