Solutions to the Problems of Our Current Security State

Introduction

Information security (IS) implies the protection of information along with the information systems from any unauthorized access, disclosure, use, disruption, perusal, modification, inspection recording as well as destruction. Information security revolves around confidentiality, availability as well as the integrity of data regardless of the type that the data is going to take, which could be print, electronic or the other different models. Security of the information systems is one of the most profound challenges that the society is facing in the current technological age. Information systems have made modification in of the manner in which people carry on with their everyday lives, undertake their business and even the running of the government. Thus, it is apparent that information systems have become one of the most integral parts of the everyday life as a result of their numerous applications that make our lives easier as well as faster in the implementation of certain tasks. 

The Challenges

The challenges that are resulting to the current state of the information system are mainly as a result of computer crime while other cases it involves the abuse of computers. Computer abuse, as well as computer abuse, are rapidly becoming major problems as technological is making it possible for criminals to achieve almost every unethical or illegal task. In the case of computer crime, it involves an individual using a computer to commit an act that is illegal while the abuse of computers revolves around an individual using a computer to commit an act that is unethical although not always illegal. The current state of computer crimes and computer abuse is threatening the information systems as a result of the growing reliability of individuals and businesses on information system (McGee, Coutière & Palamara, 2012). The threat is additionally aggravated by the insecurity that is evident in the telecommunication networks.

The majority of the ordinary threats to the information systems as fire, hardware failure, electrical problems, software failure user errors, personnel actions as well as the telecommunication issues additionally result in the increased access to large volumes of data. If the telecommunication network is facing threats, the information systems of an individual as well as businesses additionally face an even greater threat (Arogundade, Akinwale, Jin, & Yang, 2012).). Among the numerous computer crimes and abuse challenges threatening the current state of security is the issue of spamming. Spamming entails the practice characterized by the sending of the unsolicited email along with other electronic communication. Spamming is proving to possess the greatest threat to the current state of security as it is among the cheapest as well as easiest strategies of abusing a computer system. The spammers who engage in the sending of these emails are charged just a few cents for sending the unsolicited emails to hundreds of users who did not request the information. There exist laws that prohibit the use of spamming to abuse computer systems, but the spammers rarely get punished as the laws are rarely enforced.

Hacking is the additional problem facing the current state of security and occurs when an illegal user attempts to access private information that they do not have authorization to its access. The realization of the illegal access is mainly via the use of logic bombs, Trojan horses along with other numerous types of software with the ability to hidden with a lot of ease. Hacking in some occasions goes as far as the crashing of entire networks, whereby the hackers flood the network server with thousands of communications that are false with the objective of crashing the network (Zhuojun, Bin, Yuan & Vinck, 2015). Jamming as the additional threat to the current state of security is not the most common model of attack but is the easiest to accomplish. The illegal objective behind the jamming is to locate a way to be able to tie up the lines leading to a computer serving as the central brain of a website. Once there is the tying of the lines, the illegitimate visitors access the site thus jamming the lines with many illegal users.

The malicious software serves as the most common type of computer crime that is causing the most significant threats to the current state of security. The crime takes place when a criminal sends computer viruses through the internet and the viruses infect the computer, in most cases leading to a disabling of programs and in other cases causing the system to crash. The moment a virus has been implanted into a computer, it becomes easy for it to spread resulting in more significant damage to the computer system (Griffin, 2014).  The main effects of the computer viruses encompass the destroying of programs, crashing a computer system, destroying data as well as clogging the system memory.

The Solutions

The fact that the current technological generation has become overly dependent on the information systems, the challenges that threaten the information system also pose major threats to everyday activities. There complex roles that the information systems normally play in everyday lives has seen development that has made it attain near perfection although there are numerous challenges that are threatening the developments. These challenges include hacking, spamming, jamming, sniffing, malicious software, spoofing as well as identity theft. The challenges are causing major problems to the issues of reliability as well as the security of the information systems (Zhuojun, Bin, Yuan & Vinck, 2015).

These diverse technological attributes that are prevalent in the current environment are posing the major threat to the current security state of the information systems. They are resulting in hindrances to the flow of meaningful information in addition to the security of the sent information. Research indicates that through the adoption of the commonly accepted effective security practices, any organization can start managing their security risks successfully. It is imperative that the IT managers develop an appropriate internet and information security policy as well as auditing processes (Stewart, 2009). Security in any organization has to be considered as one of the most instrumental components of the survival of their mission.

            Additionally, the security processes need to be an everyday activity and not an attributes done once and forgotten considering that the threat landscape is changing sporadically on an hourly basis. Thus, it is necessary that the security policy provides written rules that are going to define the manner in which there will be the configuring of the computer systems, as well as the employees in the organization, shall conduct their businesses before the use of the information technology. There has to be a mechanism that promotes effective controlling of policies as they are the foundation of the implementation (Arogundade, Akinwale, Jin, & Yang, 2012).  If the organization does not have a policy in place, they will not have any plans upon which they will be designing and consequently implement and effective security program.

Risk management emphasizes on the identification, assessment as well as prioritizing of risks and the necessary mitigation techniques. In most cases organizations implement it as a component of the formal information security assessment that identifies the critical information assets in the organization including systems, data or networks. Additionally, it examines the threat to these critical assets as well as assets vulnerabilities as well as risks (Stewart, 2009). Thus, it is imperative that an organization has a risk mitigation plan in place that is as a result of efficient evaluation while ensuring that there is a regular review as well as management of the risks associated with the organization’s vital information assets. It is additionally vital that an organization has adequate comprehension of their security architecture (Arogundade, Akinwale, Jin, & Yang, 2012). The main question that the organization should be asking itself is of the manner in which their security architecture is aiding their business. Mapping the main resources that are vital to the organization as well as the reasons is paramount.

The additional component of the management of the current problems affecting the status of security related to the issues of accountability as well as training coupled with adequate expertise to the organization. Regarding accountability and training, it is imperative that the organization develops accountability for the users’ actions, trains for accountability and additionally enforces it, in the same way, it is evident in the organizational policies and procedures (Griffin, 2014). The users comprise of all the organizational stakeholders such as the partners, employees, vendors as well as suppliers. Regarding the expertise, it is imperative to ensure that the organization has the adequate in-house expertise for all their technologies as encompassing securing the operations of the technologies.

The system, as well as network management, encompasses of different varieties of instrumental disciplines. These disciplines are software integrity, access control, secure asset configuration as well as backups. The establishment of an assortment of security controls for the protection of assets that reside on the systems as well as networks is vital. It is imperative to take into attention the use of access controls at the network layers along with the use of data encryption technologies are appropriate. It is advisable to use removable storage media for the vital data to make sure that it is secured physically. Undertaking regular checks along with verifying the integrity of the software that has been installed is vital in ensuring that faulty software is not installed (McGee, Coutière & Palamara, 2012). The system administrators should ensure that they carry out regular assessments for viruses, Trojans, worms along with other malicious software and other unauthorized software.

It is vital to offer procedures as well as mechanisms that will guarantee that there is a secure configuration of all the deployed assets in the entire lifecycle of the various installation, operations as well as maintenance and retirement. The implication of this assertion is that it is imperative that one applies patches to rectify security as well as functionality challenges while establishing a standard and minimal essential configuration for every type of computer and service. The organization needs to keep their network topology up to date as well as maintaining an appropriate logging level (Zhuojun, Bin, Yuan, & Vinck, 2015).  Before the application of the patches, it is necessary to consider the security impacts for every modification to the networks as well as the systems. Implementing regular system vulnerability checks on a periodic basis is additionally essential and ensuring that there is the addressing of all the vulnerabilities once identified. They also need to be the mandating of the regular schedule of backups for both the software as well as data. It implies that an organization has to validate their software as well as data prior and after backup, and additionally ensuring that they have the ability to restore from the backups (Zhuojun, Bin, Yuan, & Vinck, 2015).

Protection of the critical assets when providing network access to users who are working remotely as well as to the third parties as the service providers and contractors is another critical protection model applied. It is imperative that one applies network system file as well as the application-level access controls, restricting access to the authorized times as well as tasks are necessary. It is additionally essential to consider the encryption of data as well as through the use of the virtual network technologies when necessary (Arogundade, Akinwale, Jin, & Yang, 2012). The application of the appropriate monitoring, auditing as well as inspection facilities along with assigning responsibility for the reporting is necessary for the enhancement of the responses to systems as well as network events and conditions.

Implementation of physical security interventions is also essential in the promotion of the efforts meant to deal with current state of security. The physical security elements are one of the security types that is regularly forgotten as the attribute of security entail the practices, threats as well as the available protections which vary from one site to the other (Griffin, 2014). The ideal danger in the loss of a computer is not on the loss of the system hardware but relates to the value of the data stored on the computer disks. The hacking issue remains one of the hottest issues in the societies with various measures applying to the administrators as well as the other users. An example of an intervention meant to deal with the hacking challenge is in the case of a firewall which is a program applied to the close monitoring of the specific information that passes in as well as out of a computer system. It is possible to implement programs that will keep some users out thus preventing information from leaving the information system. When dealing with issues of identity theft which is the other challenge faced in the current society, the common assertion that prevention is the best mode of dealing with the vice. As such, it is necessary to ensure that one keeps their information close by guarding it well (Stewart, 2009). Carrying out regular virus scans can assist in dealing with the challenge posed by the malicious software along with the regular maintenance schedules.

Conclusion

As evident from the paper, there are numerous issues that are causing major threats to the current security state of information systems. Issues as phishing, jamming, malicious software, hacking among others pose major threats to the information security systems, making the implementation of the various tasks very complex. The fact that most of the current society place major dependence on these systems implies that these security threats are impacting the operations of organizations and government ion major ways. However it is evident that through the implementation of diverse interventions as the establishment of information system policies, risk management interventions, system and network management attributes among others will assist in the mitigation as well as the successful resolution of these threats.

References

Arogundade, O. T., Akinwale, A. T., Jin, Z., & Yang, X. G. (2012). Towards an Ontological Approach to Information System Security and Safety Requirement Modeling and Reuse. Information Security Journal: A Global Perspective, 21(3), 137-149. doi:10.1080/19393555.2011.652290

Griffin, P. (2014). Telebiometric information security and safety management. IEEE Communications Magazine, 52(1), 186-192. doi:10.1109/MCOM.2014.6710082

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in affordable custom writing if you need a similar paper you can place your order from college research paper services.