Internet Security With the increasing awareness and use of the internet, organizations and individuals are facing newer security issues each day. Everyday people purchase goods on the internet and any hacking as a "joke" could cause the customer's credit card information to fall in the wrong hands. Misuse of such had been on a rise recently all over the world. Governments have now started to enforce strict internet laws to minimize such occurrences. It is unfortunate that internet being such a powerful tool which is used by millions to benefit them is being misused by some. "The Computer Security Institute released a study earlier this year in which 85% of respondents said they experienced a computer breach, with 64% serious enough to cause financial losses"( Tim Lemke, p.7). Many companies have started to produce high tech anti-virus and adware or spyware detectors. Such companies have made available their products online and for the benefit of the customers, they have provided them with a free trial or free demo version to get a feel of the product before they spent their valuable money to purchase it. However, not realizing that the availability of such trials and demos are for the benefit of the masses, hacker have started to crack these products and are providing it for free all over the internet at various websites. Because of this many such companies have faced losses and excellent products have been taken off the market. Internet has created many security issues as well particularly as far as hackers are concerned and an organization should be up-to-date with the security threats to prevent any mishaps.

Organization also face a threat from within the organization itself i.e. employees who know and are familiar with the computer system. "The U.S. Department of Justice's Computer Crime Unit contends that 'insiders constitute the greatest threat to computer systems'" (Scott Charney). The organizations need to take disciplinary measures and ensure that risks from within the organization are eliminated. However such disciplinary measures cannot be taken against outside hackers and thus the use of security tools like...

Firewalls are very important for any organization that has an internet access. "A firewall prevents unauthorized access to data on servers that reside behind the firewall. Whether your organization has an existing network or is setting up a new one, firewall planning is extremely important" (Microsoft). A firewall enables the organization to monitor the data going out and coming to its servers. Unwanted traffic can be blocked thus any unauthorized attempts of an invasion from outside can be prevented and thus provides security to the organization's data. Email is a tool that cannot be blocked out by an organization and its use has far too many advantages rather than disadvantages. Many organizations that do not require a fully activated internet but do require services like email, should install firewalls that are particularly created for this function. These firewalls block out any other internet traffic apart from emails. Thus it limits it vulnerability. However those that do require all the components of the internet to be functional should also use firewalls to monitor and prevent attacks.
Email can also have harmful effect on an organization. One such factor is spam through email. "Ed Amoroso, CISO of AT& T, says that among the 2.8 million e-mails sent to his company every day, 2.1 million, or 75%, are junk" (Scott Berinato).Spam mailing costs organizations thousands of dollars and a lot of time of the employees get wasted in trying to delete the spam mail which would otherwise be used productively. "According to Worldtalk's Cost of SPAM Analysis, employee time lost to sifting through junk e-mail can cost a 5,000-person corporation upwards of $12,000 USD a day, not taking into account the possible bandwidth issues and the cost of network administration" (Dawn Harris). Moreover virus and spywares are also sent via email to users. A firewall cannot detect or protect a computer from internet viruses and it is highly important for an organization to have a top of the line anti-virus installed which is updated on a regular basis. Any infection by a virus or other malicious tools can cause…