Untitled

Physical Barriers

• These include turning off computers and locking offices when the systems are unattended to prevent damage by people, the environment (e.g: fire, flooding, electrical interference) or theft.

Password Control

• Passwords are sequences of characters, known only to the computer user, which allow access to a computer, network or application. Passwords should always be strong so that it is hard for someone else to guess them or work them out.

Access Levels

• These can be set up to allow individuals to have access to only specific levels of an application and to prevent unauthorised users from accessing particular data.

Anti virus software

• This is set up to intercept computer viruses before they can
• become resident on the computer. The software can isolate the virus, remove it and sometimes repair any damage. Equivalent security programs exist for other types of malware.

Firewall

• This is a piece of software that monitors all data arriving at your computer rom the internet and all data leaving your computer. It stops anything that it thinks is harmful or unwanted (such as viruses, spam, Trojan horses and hackers).

Encryption

• This is used to codify data so that it cannot be read by anyone who does not have the key to the code. An algorithm, sometimes known as a cipher, is applied to the data at the transmission end and the reverse is applied at the reception end.

Backup

• Backup and recovery. Making a backup of data is the only way of recovering from a total data disaster. Many individuals and organisations back up data to Flash ® solid state storage devices or magnetic tape at night. The tapes are stored safely in a
• separate place, so that they are not destroyed by any disaster which could destroy the master system (fi re, earthquake, etc.). Many types of backup exist.