CYBER SECURITY

     Cyber security also known as computer security is a term that refers to information security of computers and networks. Computer security is a critical aspect in any industry, which operates on computer systems. With the computer virus alone contributing to losses of about $67 Billion a year, the demand for better computer security has risen immensely.

     There are as many as 28 types of threats currently in the computer world. While some are only mildly annoying some pose a serious threat to information and its security. Some of them are virus, Trojans, Spyware, Scare ware, Wabbits, Botnet,etc. 

     There are various mechanisms that provide security against such threats, they are:

FIREWALL

     A firewall has a predefined rule set, based on the rule set they control the incoming and
outgoing traffic by analyzing the data packets. Most of the personal computer have a software- based firewall, which protects them from threats of the public Internet. A firewall performs its functions in the network layer of the OSI model. The basic working of a firewall can be best illustrated using the diagram below: 

                           
                                                             
                                                               ANTIVIRUS

   
     Antivirus is a piece of software that performs 3 major functions of prevention, detection and

removal of malicious computer programs. Although the name Antivirus can be misleading, they also offer protection against malware such as worms, rootkits, backdoors,etc.


There are primarily three ways that antivirus performs its functions: 

     Signature based detection is the most common of them, the antivirus software has a predefined database of known virus signatures, it compares the contents of a file to its database, if a match is found it prompts that the program or file is malicious.

     More sophisticated antivirus use the heuristic analysis to identify new kinds of malware or slight modifications of existing malware. This kind of approach involves wildcards that allow the scanner to detect viruses even if they are padded with extra,meaningless code .

     The 3^rd approach is a slightly modified version of the heuristic approach, It follows the principle of file emulation. It involves the execution of a program in virtual environment and then logging the actions of the program. Based on the logged actions the antivirus seamlessly carries on the appropriate disinfecting action, if the file is infected.

     There are also various other security software like Anti Spyware and a combination package of a firewall, antivirus and an Anti Spyware manufactured by big-name antivirus software companies that provide protection against malware.All the security software though provide good protection,also consume lots of system resources which can affect the overall system performance

All these kind of software along with monitoring of the web by government agencies,would provide protection for private and public information so that they cannot be mis used  and thereby aid in preserving data integrity.

                                                                  References: 

Retrieved March 7th from http://www.dhs.gov/topic/cybersecurity 
Retrieved March 7th from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security 
Retrieved March 7th from http://www.zen.co.uk/blog/cyber-security/