Internet Security

For this week's class, we were exposed to internet security and one particular useful thing i learnt was how to differentiate between a virus, worm and trojans. So what are the differences??? :O

 Virus:

 A virus:

• a computer program. It's written by some individual or individuals, presumably with the intent of spreading and causing grief.
• makes the infected computer "sick" - in the computer sense, "sick" can mean poor performance, crashes, lost files and data, or more.
• replicates itself - just like you can copy a file from one disk to another, and now have copies on both disks, a computer virus is in part defined by its ability to make copies of itself. Typically the copies aren't on the infected computer, but rather on other computers, which leads us to the last characteristic...
• infects other computers - exactly how depends on the virus, of course, but another key defining point for a computer virus is that it can spread, on its own.

Computer Worm:

A worm:

• a stand-alone program
• can cause a great deal of trouble merely by getting passed from one computer to many others, and can clog up a network very quickly.

Trojan Horse:

A Trojan Horse:

• program that claims to be one thing, but is, in fact, another
• not a virus, per se, but may carry them.  
• For example many people consider Kazaa, the music sharing software, a trojan horse because it carries with it a bunch of spyware. 

So, locally, in Singapore, are companies in Singapore aware about all the cybercrime and stuff related to internet security??? :O

According to an article from CNET news, it states that:

Many organizations are focused on stopping random hackers and blocking pornography when they should be concerned with bigger threats from professional cybercriminals, according to a new cybersecurity report.

to read more: see this link.. http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62060776,00.htm

In short, many companies are misguided with relation to their security. To me, this is a big concern as the focus of companies are misdirected and imagine what cybercriminals are capable of if they know how lax the companies are with their security! Their companies could very much suffer a big loss should they be attacked by cybercriminals.. One can only hope that through news like this, companies would increase their security against potential internet cybercriminals.