The Necessity Of Computer Security :: essays research papers

The Necessity Of Computer SecurityWhen the first electronic computers emerged from university and militarylaboratories in the late 1940s and early 1950s, visionaries proclaimed them theharbingers of a plump for industrial revolution that would trans practice business,government and industry. But few laymen, even if they were aware of themachines, could see the connection. Experts too, were sceptical. Not only werecomputers huge, expensive, one-of-a-kind devices designed for performingabstruse scientific and military calculations, such as cracking codes andcalculations missile trajectories, they were also extremely difficult to handle.Now, it is clear that computers are not only here to stay, but they rush aprofound effect on society as well. As John McCarthy, Professor of ComputerScience at Stanford University, speculated in 1966 "The computer gives signs of bonnie the contemporary counterpart of the steam engine that brought on theindustrial revolution - one that is still gat hering momentum and whose truenature had yet to be seen."Todays applications of computers are vast. They are used to run ordinaryhousehold appliances such as televisions and microwaves, to being tools in theworkplaces through word processing, spreadsheets, and graphics software, torunning monumental tasks such as being the heart and soul of the nations taxprocessing department, and managing the project timetables of the Space Shuttle.It is obvious that the computer is now and always will be inexorably linked toour lives, and we have no choice but to accept this technology and learn how toharness its total potential.With any progressing technology, an unauthorized application put up almost befound for it. A computer could and has been used for theft and fraud - forexample, as a database and manager of illegal activities such as drugtrafficking and pornography. However, we must not just consider the harmfulapplications of the computer, but also take into account the good that t hey havecaused.When society embraced the computer technology, we have to breed this as anextension of what we already have at hand. This means that some problems thatwe had before the computer era may also arise now, in the form where computersare an accessory to a crime.One of the problems that society has faced ever since the dawn ofcivilization is privacy. The issue of privacy on the Internet has risen manyarguments for and against having it. The issue of privacy has gotten to thepoint where the government of the United States has placed a bill promoting asingle chip to encrypt all private tangible on the Internet.Why is privacy so important? Hiding confidential material from intruders