The Necessity of a Computer Security System

Do you still think that a computer security system is an unnecessary luxury?  Think again. Your confidential information could be compromised in certain circumstances on your computer.  In fact, the DRAM or memory chips in your computer can even be read by other people after your computer has been switched off. This means if you are not mindful of computer security you may be putting yourself in line for major problems.  We need to find a useful approach that will allow you to work on your computer, or even turn it off, and yet ensure confidentiality. 

Let’s start by first restricting access to your working computer, using a computer security system. One of the ways to do this securely is to put a firewall system in place. This is a system that limits the type of access that can be made to your computer.  It is known as a layered approach as it works at various levels of the computer architecture.  First of all, a hardware firewall will protect your computer at the point of entry to a network.  If you have several computers, then they would all be behind such a hardware firewall.  The next thing to put in place is software firewalls. These are computer programs that can run on your PC and will provide a further layer of protection.  Software firewalls are more flexible and have more options but may be more open to attack by information thieves and pirates more than the hardware version. 

What if an information thief does get past your firewall?  Then at least you need to know about it.  The mechanism for this is called an intrusion detection system or IDS. This system constantly watches your computers and your network to see if there is an unauthorized presence or connection.  It looks to see if the “signature “ of any user on the network matches the signature that it has in its database.  If this is not the case, it will alert you. 

So now you have a system to prevent unauthorized access. You also have a solution to let you know if unauthorized users connect to your PC. However, if this happens how do you protect your PC further?  This is the job of software in your PC to protect against and isolate malicious software that might have been transmitted to your machine.

Computer security systems can be very good in terms of technology, but there is nothing to beat a good computer security policy for all people using PC’s and computers on your network. Such a policy can be based on common sense and the observation of some fundamental rules.  Examples of the rules in such a policy are staying away from dubious Internet sites and avoiding opening attachments to e-mail when you do not recognize the sender. 

Remember also that the best equipment and policies in the world will not protect you if you make blunders in using your computer security system, like leaving the door of the computer room unlocked.