The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

With the massive use of internet in today’s world, we often upload personal details, information, pictures, and other relevant data through internet activities such as blogging, online purchasing, as well as with online banking. But, have you ever think about the safety and security of uploading these data? How safe is it to do so? What are the potential threats we might face?

Basically, there are two types of threats which are the Technical Threats and Nontechnical Threats.

Technical Threats

Technical threats are threats that arise with the use of software and systems knowledge. Among the common technical threats encountered are:

• Denial of Service (DoS) attack or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack

Denial of Service (DoS) attack is an attack on a website in which an attacker uses specialized software to send a flood of data packets to the target computer with the aim of overloading its resources. On February 2000, a teenager managed to cripple the web sites of Amazon, Yahoo and other companies by using simple DoS tools (see this CNN article). Similar to DoS, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attack in which the attackers gain illegal administrative access to as many computers on the internet as possible to send a flood of data packets to the target, but by using multiple computers. Both of the threats attempt to make the computer resources unavailable to its intended users.

• Virus


Virus is a computer program that can inserts itself without the permission or knowledge of the host. But, in order to propagate and harm the user’s computer, it requires the owner to activate or run the program. For instance, “I LOVE YOU” virus appears in the form of an e-mail with an attachment, which will be forwarded to everyone in the address book after downloading and opening the attachment. Subsequently, it damages the victims' computer such as deleting files or corrupting the hard drives (see this BBC article).

• Worm


A worm is a type of virus. However, unlike the virus, it is a computer program that can replicates itself across a network without any human intervention. For example, the “MSN Messenger worm” is a message and link which is sent by friends who are being infected with the computer worm. Once clicking on the link, it will take you to a web site and then automatically downloads the worm and infect your computer. Whether you are online or offline, the worm will automatically send the message and link to everyone in your address book. Besides that, worms can also damage your computer by installing other malicious code that copies information from your computer and use it for other online crimes.

• Trojan Horse


Although Trojan horse programs are classified as viruses, but they are not a virus since Trojan horse do not replicate itself. Trojan horse is a program that appears to have a useful function but that contains a hidden function that presents a security risk. It is designed to allow a hacker to gain access into a user’s computer, enabling the hacker to destroy information stored in the computer such as client’s or customer’s information, credit card details, bank account number and so on.

Nontechnical Threats

Nontechnical threats is an attack that use some form of trickery or persuasion to trick people into revealing information or performing actions that can compromise the security of a network. Social engineering is a type of nontechnical threats. It is a collection of techniques used to manipulate people into performing actions or exposing confidential information. One of the examples of social engineering is phishing. (If you are interested to know more about phishing can refer HERE).