RISK TO INFORMATION

SYSTEM
IBRAHIM KHALEEL A
RISK TO HARDWARE
Risk to hardware involve physical damage
to computers and communications media.
The major causes are:
Natural disasters
Blackouts and brownouts
Vandalism
Natural disasters
Natural disasters that pose a risk to ISs
include tsunami , earthquakes , fires,
floods, tornadoes and lighting which can
destroy hardware, software or both,
causing total or partial paralysis of
systems or communication lines
E.g. Tsunami destroyed information
system in Japan
Blackouts and Brownouts
Computers run on electricity. If power is
disrupted, the computer and its peripheral
devices cannot functions and the change in
power supply can have very damaging
effects on computer processes and storage.
Blackouts are incidents of a total loss of
electrical power.
Brownouts, the voltage of the power
decreases.
Vandalism
Vandalism occurs when human beings
deliberately destroy computer systems.
Bitter customers may damage ATMs or
disgruntled employees may destroy
computer equipment out of fear that it will
eliminate their jobs or simply to get even
with superiors.
Risks to Applications and Data
The major risks to software applications
and data are:
Theft of information
Data Alteration and Destruction,
Computer viruses
Theft of information
The most sensitive information is usually
stored electronically somewhere on a
company’s information system. Today’s
electronic equivalent of the physical key
is code, combination of characters that is
needed to access secured data.
Sometimes the hackers hacking the
personal data of the company
Data Alteration and Data Destruction
Alteration or destruction of data is often an act
of mischief.
Destruction and alteration of data as the most
significant type of computer crime. These two
crimes are the dreaded nightmares of chief
information officers and data base
administrators. IS staff must spend a lot of time
scanning the data pools to ascertain the integrity
of the entire resource. This activity itself wastes
the time of highly salaried employees.
Computer viruses
Computer viruses are so named because
they act on programs and data in a fashion
similar to the way viruses act on living
tissue: computer viruses easily spread
from computer to computer.
Once a virus reaches a computer , it
causes damages to applications and data
files.
Thank you