Information transfer today is a major breakthrough in the field of communication technology. It is information exchange that allows you to quickly resolve many issues in any industry, production and much more.
But it is worth remembering about such an element as information security, which ensures reliable transmission of data packets, limiting possible external interference.
What is information security aimed at?
The history of the transmission of information has been going on for several decades, since the timely receipt of reliable data is the key to interaction between the parties. And the more important the information, the greater the need for its protection. This is precisely what the tasks of information security are aimed at.
Actually, the automation of most processes today is one of the reasons that require a careful approach to ensuring a secure transmission channel. The information environment is huge, but security tools track the slightest changes in the system code and attempts to unauthorized access, extract encrypted packets and much more.
If you do not properly use the protective equipment, the consequences can be catastrophic - loss of the necessary files, infection of the working environment with viruses and unwanted software, access by unauthorized persons to confidential information, etc. The tasks of the information security system are to protect the information environment from these actions. And the more reliable the system, the lower the chance of hacking.
Goals and objects of information security
Of course, security must be ensured everywhere, from user resources to government information portals. Therefore, the goals and objectives of information security are quite multifaceted and unique in their own way:
- ensuring the security of state data;
- providing ordinary users with high-quality and reliable data from various Internet resources;
- providing legal support to users in the exchange (receipt, use and transfer) of information.
These three lines contain much more subtext, although it all boils down to the fact that every citizen himself must comply with the security requirements of the information environment, as well as receive the same information as he transmits. And the tasks of information security are precisely in creating such conditions.
Special attention should also be paid to the objects to which security measures are directed. It:
- any available resource with information;
- global systems that create, host and distribute information on the Web;
- multiple portals providing unique data to users (analytical and system centers working with data, including personal ones, encryptors and security software);
- news portals, including official media resources;
- legal support of users and structures entitled to access, transfer and use various information;
- protection in the field of intellectual property and proprietary data (confidential information, without access by unauthorized persons).
Information threats: concept
And so, in connection with this, a reasonable question arises, and in the fight against what it is necessary to put into practice the goals and objectives of ensuring information security?
Naturally, protection is necessary against various threats that can, like introducing false information into the Network, distorting it, or completely disrupting the functionality of systems and stealing data from them.
Information threats across the state are divided into two categories - internal and external.
The former are more global and require serious intervention, or rather, the creation of serious security tools. The latter, although pointwise, are no less dangerous for most users of the Networks.
So, here is just a small list of external threats to the information environment:
- penetration of spyware created by other states and aimed at the theft of state secrets and technologies;
- posting and adding negative information about the state, which leads to misinformation of the population and the deterioration of its information awareness of domestic affairs.
Nevertheless, information security tasks are more in demand for eliminating internal threats. These include:
- insufficient level of information resources;
- insufficiently developed information technologies, including global projects for the exchange of data and the transfer of packets of confidential information;
- low level of computer literacy of users, which does not allow the full-fledged operation of the information environment
The main types of information threats
Today, all known information threats are divided into two broad categories - intentional (external interference) and random.
The first type is deliberate, better known as attacks on certain information resources and portals, unauthorized access with subsequent modification of data. In most cases, external intervention is carried out by a certain group of people, hackers who fulfill either someone’s order (other states, competing companies, etc.), or by users pursuing selfish interests. The main tasks of information security are the quick identification and neutralization of the activities of this group, as well as the inadmissibility of such threats in the future.
A deliberate threat is characterized by the following actions:
- data extraction (including through copying), destruction of information packages, which entails a disruption of the information environment;
- introducing unwanted software and viruses into the network;
- discreet impact on the working equipment of systems with the help of spyware, magnetic fields and program code changes.
Therefore, the information security objectives of the organization should be aimed at:
- ensuring the invulnerability of each user's workplace;
- server security;
- security for all used external media;
- setting up a secure communication channel.
The fight against computer viruses as the most serious type of threat
Yes this is true. It is all kinds of virus programs that today cause the most tangible losses for the information infrastructure. The problem is that the creation of antivirus software always goes a step behind viruses, and the signatures of security programs very often do not recognize new malware. As a result - damage to information packages, interference with the PC and much more.
The only thing that really copes with such a viral "dominance" is specialized utility applications that detect and neutralize the action of almost all known and dangerous viruses. The only minus is the use already in fact when the unwanted software is detected. Although, in the framework of ensuring information security, it is necessary to regularly use these programs in order to precisely identify such malicious software.
Information security for various users of computer systems
In most known situations, the issue of information security is resolved without the participation of ordinary users. Depending on the direction of the information environment, we can distinguish varieties of security tools:
- support programs aimed at individual security of a single PC;
- global protective equipment and functions that ensure the functioning of the entire information array;
- Separate tools to eliminate problems and vulnerabilities;
- heavy-duty applications that provide security and encryption of financial and bank information registers.
Information Protection Methods
In general, the tasks of ensuring information security also include the development of special methods to combat a particular threat, as well as means of protecting information packets.
So, information protection methods should contain the following aspects:
- the actual use of technical means (the more information space and the number of workstations used, the stronger and more multifunctional the protection should be);
- the maximum level of protection for the data core, the central database, which starts the information exchange cycle;
- increase secure access to shared resources on the Internet;
- creation of the latest computing processes that will have several levels of encryption, inaccessible to hacking.
In addition, you can take advantage of proven methods, including limiting the level of access to data, stable encryption of transmitted data, control and regular monitoring of database use.
Physical protection of information systems
In the end, it is worth saying a few words about measures of physical protection of the information environment, which, however, are also included in the tasks of information security.
We are talking about special devices that quickly recognize third-party interference in the system, as well as neutralizing most of the known threats today.
So, from year to year there is a confrontation between those who pose all kinds of threats to the safe operation of systems and working information environments, and those who ensure the stable and safe operation of these very systems. And the scales are hesitating, without an advantage in either side.