Security A 21st Century Concern

Security A 21st Century Concern

Security is of major concern in today’s world as the world has become increasingly complex and easily accessible, especially via the internet and email. One of the most important issues facing people regarding security today is in regards to computers. Most of the security issues in relation to computer viruses and worms, Trojan horses, and the like, are geared predominantly to the PC consumer market.

Ranging from running adware to hijacking browsers, infecting computers with malware and spyware programs that run massive spam emails, act as servers, completely overtake computers, steal personal information including social security and identity numbers, personal residence information, age, demographics, as well as credit card and banking information, to running pornographic material and ads, the amount and variety of spyware and adware threats that pose security issues to computers, have compounded in the last few years, exploding the increase of security violations.

One of the most prevalent penetrators through computer firewalls and security systems, is the computer worm. Defined in the Oxford dictionary as a self-replicating program able to propagate itself across network, typically having a detrimental effect. Computer worms primarily replicate on networks, but they represent a subclass of computer viruses. With the wide variety of computer worms and viruses, researchers differ on the exact definitions of computer worms.

The network-oriented infection strategy is indeed a primary difference between viruses and computer worms. Moreover, worms usually do not need to infect files but propagate as standalone programs. Additionally, several worms can take control of remote systems without any help from the users, usually exploiting a vulnerability or set of vulnerabilities.

Each computer worm has a few essential components, such as the target locator and the infection propagator modules, as well as a few other non-essential modules, such as the remote control, update interface, life-cycle manager, and payload routines. The worm needs to be able to find new targets to spread rapidly on the network. Most worms search your system to discover e-mail addresses and simply send copies of themselves to such addresses, a highly convenient system for attackers looking to break into a corporate firewall. Most corporations typically need to allow e-mail messages across the corporate firewalls, thereby allowing an easy penetration point for the worm. Many worms deploy techniques to scan the network for nodes on the IP level and even “fingerprint” the remote system to check whether such a system might be vulnerable.

Another important component of a worm is remote control using a communication module. Without such a module, the worm’s author cannot control the worm network by sending control messages to the worm copies. An update or plug-in interface is an important feature of advanced worms to update the worm’s code on an already-compromised system.

The attacker is interested in changing the behavior of the worm and even sending new infection strategies to as many compromised nodes as possible. The quick introduction of new infection vectors is especially dangerous. Many worms have bugs in their life-cycle manager component and continue to run without ever stopping.

Acquiring A New Computer 101: The Fundamentals

Purchasing A New Computer 101: The Basics

Ok if your reading this I’m mosting likely to asume that you already have a computer but lets face it, in todays calculating enviroment the power (rate) of computer systems increases concerning every 18 months. We like to joke that when you obtain a new computer system its outdated prior to you can get it out of the box.

You have actually completed the very first step, choosing that you need a new computer system, currently we should make a vital decision prior to any others can be made. Do you desire a Macintosh or a Windows based computer system? In the past Macintosh computers might only run the Macintosh operating system, nevertheless with the launch fo the Intel chipsets in the new Mac Pro line customers can now run either home windows or Mac OS X. The standard advantages to buying a mac are: more steady os (also known as it does not crash as often), for all sensible pourposes they do not get infections, adware or spyware, the tech support is excellent, you can run Windows XP or Mac OS X and also the os is really easy to utilize. Now the advantages of possessing a Windows based computer system are: less expensive, to be straightforward this is the honly benefit that I can think about and the major factor they are more affordable is normally since inferior parts where utilized.

I own numerous computers, 2 Macs and also a PC. I like the macs they are a delight to deal with, they never break and also I never ever need to defrag the tough drvie or run a virus check. The COMPUTER I use due to the fact that I like to play games. It is frequently damaging down adn having problems. It truly comes down to this, if you want to play video games and also you angle instal Windows XP on your mac after that purchase a COMPUTER if you cann set up home windows on your mac purchase a mac. Macs utilize better components and are more reliable!

Operating System Design

Operating System Design

With the popularity of free software, computer “geeks” all over the world have begun to think about operating system design. Because the free operating systems that are currently online allow changes and redistribution, some enterprising individuals to begin thinking about designing their own operating system based on the freeware. So, how do you go about coming up with your own operating system design? First, you need to understand the components of an operating system.
Most operating system designs involve a software component called the kernel, which is responsible for hardware abstraction and resource management. The kernel is present at all times to all applications running on the system, and defines a special mechanism, known as a system call, by which applications can make requests of it. Most of the architectural decisions in operating system design concern exactly what role the kernel should play in the operating system architecture.
Modern processors include the capability to change privilege levels for different tasks. Lower privilege levels are denied the ability to directly access some or all hardware resources. This way, for example, applications cannot directly read from the hard drive. This is very important when the operating system must guarantee security, since an application that could read from the disk without the kernel becoming involved could bypass access control to files on that disk.
The kernel in the operating system is very important to the design of the operating system. Most operating systems utilize the monolithic kernel. In this design, the abstraction and resource management code of the operating system is all placed into the operating system kernel, which is mapped into each process.

There are a lot of other components that go into operating system design that you will have to think about if you want to undertake this type of project. While the kernel is certainly the most important component of an operating system, you will also have to address the following:

* System booting
* Devices and device drivers
* Processes
* Memory management
* File systems
* Networks
* User interface
* Real time
* Software compatibility
* Fault tolerance

However, when designing an operating system, your most important task has to be security. You want to be sure that your operating system design is security. If you want your operating system design to take the world by storm, you must provide the people who will be using it a sense of security that will insure their system won’t be breached.

In this exciting technological time, it is possible to design your own operating system if you’re not happy with the choices you currently have. Just pay attention to the various components all operating systems must have and then use your imagination to design an operating system you can be proud of!