COMPUTER SECURITY AND

THREATS
COMPUTER SECURITY AND THREATS
LESSON OBJECTIVES
DEFINITION OF COMPUTER SECURITY

WHY IS COMPUTER SECURITY NEEDED

COMPUTER THREATS
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, computers become an indispensable tool in the life of human
beings. They are used in banking, in shopping, in communicating between
people through emails and chats, etc.

However, some intruders are joining the conversations and try to read emails
of others without permission.

Most of the time, they misuse their computers by attacking other systems,
sending forged emails from computers, or examining personal information
stored in others’ computers.
Computer security
Computer security refers to techniques developed to safeguard information
and systems stored on computers.

The protection of data (information security) is important. It reduces the

probability of hardware and software problems and it increases the security
of data stored in computers.
Why is computer security important?
Computer security is important for many reasons:

Computer security helps to keep safely data and equipment functioning

properly and provide access only to appropriate people.

Computer security prevent unauthorized persons to enter in others

computers without their consents.
Why is computer security important?
Computer security helps to keep healthily computers against viruses, malware
and other unintentional softwares that can prevent computers to run
smoothly.

Computer network need to be protected because Cyber criminals, hackers,

and identity thieves present real and dangerous threats to any online system.
COMPUTER THREATS
A computer threat refers to anything that has the potential to cause serious
harm to a computer system.

A threat is an activity/ attack/ situation that may happen, with the potential to
cause serious damage.

Threats can lead to attacks on computer systems, networks and more.

Computer threats are categorized in two categories;

physical threats and logical threats:

Physical threats
Digital storage media and hardware are subject to numerous internal and
external forces that can damage or destroy their readability.

Below are some cases of physical threats: •

Improper storage environment (temperature, humidity, light, dust),

• Over use (mainly for physical contact media),

Physical threats
• Natural disaster (fire, flood, earthquake),

• Infrastructure failure (plumbing, electrical, climate control),

• Inadequate hardware maintenance,

• Hardware malfunction
Logical threats
Areevents or attacks that remove, corrupt, deny access, allow access, or steal
information from a computer without physical presence of somebody.

These include viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, adware, SQL injection etc

Threats to information systems can cause:

• Hardware failure: A malfunction within the electronic circuits or electromechanical

components (disks, tapes) of a computer system. Example: a CPU socket damaged.

• Software failure:
Logical threats
The inability of a program to continue processing due to erroneous logic.
Example: a crash of a computer program.

• Electrical problems: are faults caused by electric like a low-resistance

connection between two points in an electric circuit through which the current
tends to flow rather than along the intended path.

• User errors: is an error made by the human user of a computer system in

interacting with it. Example: a system file deleted unintentionally by a user.
Logical threats
• Telecommunication problems. Example: when the antenna are not working
• Program changes; modifications made to program. Example: a simple
modification in a program can affect the whole software.

• Theft of data, software, services and equipment. When a physical or logical

component of a system is stolen, the whole system stops. Example: a
computer cannot run without a RAM or cannot run with a corrupted software
activity
1. Discuss the difference between logical and physical threats and give examples
for each?

2. Explain the difference between hardware and software failure

3. Explain how a computer user can cause the errors to information system. 4. In
the school computer lab, take one computer and remove the RAM. What is
happening to the system?

5. After analyzing the school computer lab, enumerate the different threats that
are existing with the computer