Internet Security: Causes, Ill-Effects And Solutions

Literature Review

Question:

Describe about the internet security and the requirement of internet security in the organization?

This report will be dealing with the internet security and the requirement of internet security in the organization. It is seen that majority of the people are using the internet for a pretty long time that is 6-10 years and are also using laptops and phones majorly more than desktops and tablets for internet purpose. Moreover, the customers are also concerned about the internet security and use various methods for protecting their devices and data.

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Outline of the thesis

With the rising internet technology and advancement of internet, the chances of the internet devices getting affected by the virus, worms, Trojan, Adware and spywares has increased to a considerable extent (Huang et al. 2012). Internet Security is essential to protect the devices from the unauthorized poking by the unauthorized users, to maintain the data integrity, data security and avoid redundancy of data. To protect the internet from the unauthorized users and hackers, several steps such as firewalls, antivirus, limited uses of JavaScript, ActiveX etc need to be done (Bisiaux, 2014). This research will be discussing about the internet security, causes, ill-effects as well as ways to reduce it for making it safe for the users.

With the advancement of internet usage, several problems regarding its security and protection have raised. Through this report, it will be discussed about the causes of the rising problem of internet security and the necessity of it in daily life.

• What according to you is the necessity of having internet security?
• What are the possible ways of securing the internet?
• What are the main causes that compel you to maintain security of internet?

1.4 Structure of the paper

1^st chapter: Introduction: This section will be discussing regarding the theme of internet security in a brief manner along with the problems regarding interne security.

2^nd chapter: Literature Review: Different theories and concepts that helped the researcher in in-depth understanding the topic along with critical perspectives are discussed in a standardized manner. In addition, pros and cons of the research topic are also vividly discussed.  

3^rd Chapter: Research Methodology: This chapter is concerned about collection of data, research approach, philosophy, design that helped the researcher in analysis the topic in a methodical way.

4^th Chapter: Results and Findings: This chapter will be dealing with the results and findings of the collected data that will help the researcher in better understanding of the topic.

5^th Chapter: Discussion and Analysis: This chapter will be analyzing the collected data through various techniques that helped the researcher in gaining knowledge regarding the topic.

6^th Chapter: Conclusion: Internet security is an essential part in today’s world and this chapter will be discussing with the summary of the previous chapters that the researcher has tried to research in this topic.

2.1 Introduction

Jøsang (2014) commented on the fact that in this technologically driven world, the use of internet has made the world very small in size and helped the users in getting touch the rest part world very easily. Now days with the advancement of the internet and increase in internet usage, the security of the internet has become a matter of concern (Gold, 2013). This section will be dealing with the internet security, safety, types of internet attacks, and the need of internet security along with the ways of securing the internet.

Research Methodology

According to Pawlik (2014) internet security and internet safety are the closely knitted terms and are closely related to each other helping in understanding the research topic in depth. According to the view of Wright (2005) internet security is the application of the technologies in securing the internet from unauthorized users and hackers. On the other hand, Ziegeldorf et al. (2013) commented that internet safety relates to protection of internet against any kind of risks and threats that may cause due to usage of internet. For securing the internet and to avoid the redundancy and data loss, protection of internet is essential and internet safety is needed to be maintained.

Virus attack- According to Kim and Chung (2013) the viruses are basically the program that are spread through internet, emails that damages the computer by damaging the program, deleting files, crashing the system and reformatting the hard disk. The viruses generally use the programming language and thereby take up the computer memory that is used by the genuine programs.

Worm attack- Clarke et al. (2014) had a view that the worms are the self-contained programs that also attacks the host computer through internet by replicating themselves without the actual host file. The worm causes harm to the network as well as network bandwidth.

Trojan attack- According to Shepherd et al. (2014) the Trojan Horses are the charlatan files that claim themselves to be useful to the user but are malicious in nature. They are generally sent to the users through internet and contain malicious codes that cause theft or loss of data.

Spyware attack and Adware attack – Schaffer (2006) commented on the fact that spyware is a common attack thorough internet since it gathers the information regarding the search of the customers and delivers it to them. It can be a modification to the HTML package and also is a stand-alone installation package. They enter the user’s computers through Web browsers, browser enhancements, browser theme and games. On the other hand, Furnell (2005) had a view that adware is a program that displays the advertisement related to a specific website of the user’s web browser.

According to Kabernik (2013) now days it has now become a necessity to the users to protect and have security of the internet. This is because, with the rising technological and internet advancement, the crime regarding the internet is also increasing in a rapid pace. In order to protect the computers, laptops and other mobile devices from the viruses, malwares, worms, Trojan horse etc. that are spread through internet need to be secured. So, Jung et al. (2001) commented on this fact that in order to protect the internet, the data and information of the user and for avoiding the redundancy of data, security of internet is essential. Moreover, for the personal security of the user’s data and to avoid the misuse and leakage of the data, internet security is essential.

With the increase in internet attacks, the advancement to internet security is also increasing in a rapid manner. There are various ways of internet security that are discussed below-

Results and Findings

Usage of secured Email- According to Hiller (2013) it is a common way of spreading viruses and bringing the internet users under danger. For securing the internet from these attacks, the users shouldn’t accept any kind of attachments through email, need to disable the automatic downloading mode in the web browsers and limit the usages if Java Script, Windows Scripting Host and ActiveX in the web browsers (Bays et al. 2015).

Encryption- Huang (2012) commented on the fact that for protecting the files within the device, encryption of data is essential. According to Nie (2013) there are certain application tools that are used for encryption of the data and decryption of the same without data redundancy and thereby protecting the data.

Firewalls- According to Huang et al. (2012) another method of securing the internet is through usage of Firewalls. This is because; a firewall passes the message sin a selective manner and other messages are simply screened out. Aschenbruck (2012) commented on this fact that firewalls are quite effective in fending off the worms.  

Secured Web Browsing- Bainbridge (2007) commented on the fact that it is the tendency of the internet users to browse the internet to the maximum and thereby the security and privacy regarding this is to be taken most seriously. Shepherd et al. (2014) had a view that the available tools in the market are used to deactivate the tracking IP addresses of the sites and hence reduces the attack of the viruses and worms that are spread through web browsers and IP address trackers.

In this section it is clearly seen the different types of internet attacks and the different ways that are introduced for protecting the internet and securing it. Moreover, the need of internet security is also discussed that also helps in better understanding of the internet security.

3.1 Introduction

The research methodology helps in understanding and undertaking the appropriate methods for completing the research in the most appropriate way. However, Ziegeldorf et al. (2013) pointed out that this research methodology helps in collection of data and also focuses on the research design and hypotheses that help in understanding the internet security to a considerable depth.

According to Pawlik (2014) there are three types of research design- exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. For this research, the researcher has chosen descriptive research designing. Jung et al. (2001) had an opinion regarding this research that this research design helps in understanding the internet security in details and also helps in understanding the influence of it on the users.

The data are the useful sources of information and are collected both using primary and secondary sources for the better understanding of the research topic. Shepherd et al. (2014) commented on the fact that the primary data are collected through direct interaction with the customers and users as well as managers. The secondary data are collected from the sources, magazines, journals related to the research topic.

For conducting the research, nearly 100 internet users are interacted with regarding their internet security problem and internet usage. Out of the 100 users, only 50 of them responded to the researcher and this helped the researcher in progress of the research.

Discussion and Analysis

This chapter of the research has dealt with the research design, data collection methods, hypotheses that are used for the better understanding of the subject to the researcher. Moreover, for the methodical and step by step approach, the research methodology has proved useful to the researcher.

This chapter will be dealing with the collection of the data and using the collected data that will help the company in better understanding of the topic regarding the internet security. The data will that are collected from the respondents will be helping the researcher in further understanding the research work.

1)  For how long do you use internet?

Options	No of respondents	Total Respondents	Response %
1-2 years	5	50	10%
3-5 years	10	50	20%
6- 10 years	20	50	40%
11-15 years	8	50	16%
More than 15 years	7	50	14%

Table 1: Users usage of internet

Figure 1: Users usage of internet

This is seen that 10% of the users are uses the internet for 1-2 years, 20% of them uses them for 3-5 years and 40% of the users them for 6-10 years. In addition to this, for 11-15 years, 16% of the users use the internet and for more than 15 years, only 14% of the users use it.

2) What are the devices you use for internet?

Options	No of respondents	Total Respondents	Response %
Computers	10	50	20%
Laptops	20	50	40%
Tablets	5	50	10%
Phones	15	50	30%

Table 2: Devices where internet are used

Figure 2: Devices where internet are used

20% of the users use internet through computers, 40% uses it through laptops, 10% uses it through tablets and the rest 30% uses it through phones.

3) How much you are concerned about internet security?

Options	No of respondents	Total Respondents	Response %
Most Likely	10	50	20%
Likely	20	50	40%
Neutral	5	50	10%
Less	8	50	16%
Very Less	7	50	14%

Table 3: Concern about internet security

Figure 3: Concern about internet security

20% and 40% of the users are concerned about the internet security very likely and likely respectively, only 10% of them are neutral and 16% and 14% of them are concerned in a less and very less manner about the internet security.

1) It has been seen that maximum number of users are using the internet for the past 6-10 years since the usage of technology of using internet has become popular in these years.

2) Majority of the users are using internet in their laptops and phones since those devices are convenient for the users.

3) With the rising cases of hacking, the internet users are becoming more and more concerned about the internet usage.

Chapter 6: Conclusion

Throughout this research, it is seen that the internet security is a rising awareness among the internet users. This is done to keep the data and information secured in order to avoid leakage of the personal data of the users. It is seen that there are various methods of internet attack and similarly there are also methods of protecting the internet.

According to me, the internet security is a rising concern in today’s competitive world. This is because; with the increase in internet usage and advancement of internet technologies, the security regarding the internet has also increased. I have come across several journals that show the different methods of internet hacking and revealed how the hackers invent several methods of hacking procedures in order to bet access through the personal data and information of the users. Internet hacking or breaking down the security of the internet are done through the introduction of worms, virus, Trojan horse, Malware, Adware etc either through email, CDs, DVDs or external hard disk or other devices. While doing this report, I came across the fact that the attacks of viruses, Trojan horse, worms etc either replicates the files, make the redundancy of data, tracks the Email address or IP address of the users and make a blunder out of it. It even gathers the important information of the users and tries to make a blunder of the user and his/her personal data. Since, with the advancement of the internet technology, the internet security has come under a question, so the advancements in securing the data has also been increased to a considerable rate.

Conclusion

I have come across the related journals and articles regarding the security of the internet. I have learned that though the security of the internet is not very easy and cannot be reduced to the full. But still considerable amount of the steps and measures can be adopted to reduce the ill effects of the internet hacking and attack. I have learnt that for providing security to the internet users, the various methods that can be used are by using firewalls, encryption, secure web browsing and secure emailing. I have gained knowledge regarding the workings of the firewalls and encryption of data and securing the internet through the use of these. By using encryption and decryption method of data security, only the users who are sending the data and the receiver can understand the data without redundancy of data or misuse or loss of data. Moreover, by using firewalls, the data and information received from the internet are filtered effectively and efficiently and then passed to the respective devices of the users. Moreover, I have also learnt that by using secured email process and secured web browsing method, the degree of getting infected by the viruses and worms will be reduced to a considerable extent.

For carrying out the research work successfully, I made a quantitative questionnaire for the internet users. I questioned nearly 100 users and out of it only 50 users responded back. Through this questionnaire, I came across the facts that maximum of the users are well accustomed with the internet usage and are also concerned about the internet security. In addition to this, I have also seen that the users also use several methods that help in data security and stop data redundancy as well as maintain the data integration.

Reference List

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Huang, D. (2012) Emerging intelligent computing technology and applications, Berlin: Springer.

Huang, D., Ma, J., Jo, K. and Gromiha, M. (2012) Intelligent Computing Theories and Applications, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Kim, K. and Chung, K. (2013) IT convergence and security 2012, Dordrecht: Springer

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