P3

Data protection act

the data protection act is an act which is enforced to help keep peoples personal data safe when they give their details to a company / service. It makes sure that the people who have information keep it to themselves and do not abuse the act as they will be prosecuted under this act.

Security Risks

Hacking - Hacking is basically entering something you shouldn't, this could be something from guessing someones Facebook password to hacking into the whole of Facebook. Hacking would be used for many things, such as finding out information on somebody's profile, or trying to delete data off of a website so people will not know what it is about. Hacking involves re-programming a system so it will do things which the site wasn't first authorized to do.

Identity Theft - Identity theft is basically stealing another persons personal information such as bank details or their name and address, this could retrieved from websites which people may have entered their information into and not checked that it is a secure website. this would be used on websites to try and get people into trouble or maybe even use their bank details to buy products off the victims bank card.

Viruses - Viruses are programs specially made to steal and corrupt data on websites from a website or even a computer system. They are normally downloaded from the internet as you may have clicked a link that you wasn't legit or safe and this is where people can then give your computer system a virus and it may force it to not work. A virus will effect everybody that clicks on it in the same way, such as if it will effect everyone that comes in touch with it who uses the website, not just the host of the website.

Security Protection Mechanisms:

Firewalls - the firewall is made to stop things which aren't allowed to access the system, such as virus', it will decide if the file entering the system is allowed due to the network transmissions based on set rules. Software firewalls are already built into the computing system, such as windows firewall, which is built into all windows systems to prevent files which are not welcome to getting into the software. Hardware firewalls are devices which could be connected to the router to prevent bad virus' from entering via the internet.

Passwords - Passwords are things that prevent access to something private, such as your own Facebook space, you will be the only person who knows the password and this should be private as it is personal. the stronger the password the less likely you will be hacked, such as is you have a simple password like your own name for example, people would find this easier to guess. Your password will be harder to guess if you include numbers and capital letters; thus making it harder to get correct.

SSL - SSL ( secure socket layer) helps provides communication over the web. websites which have SSL will have a certificate to show that they are secure and this will be more appealing for people to use as they will know that it is a safe site to use. it is the encryption of the data of network connections above the transport later and a lower sub-layer of its application layer using a keyed message authentication code message integrity.