NETWORK SECURITY I Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

NETWORK SECURITY I - Research Paper Example With networking in place, real time communication has been made possible through emails, VOIP, teleconferencing, online chats among other channels. However, these networks are vulnerable to numerous security threats, which have the capacity to cause extensive damage and losses for the users (Andress, 2011). This paper is a critical evaluation of network security threats and their solutions. Network Security Threats A network is an interconnection of two or more computers for the purpose of sharing resources, such as hardware and software (Wetherall, 2010). There are various types of networks which include, but not limited to, local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN) and metropolitan area networks (MAN). Local area networks are commonly found in institutions and offices, whereby sharing of resources is internal, for example, between departments or various workstations in an office. Wide area networks facilitate sharing of information on a wide geographical location, whereby numerous LANs around the world are interconnected for this purpose. The internet and the World Wide Web are examples of LAN as they can be accessed by users from every corner of the globe as long as they are connected to an internet service provider (ISP). MAN, on the other hand, exists in a smaller geographical location than WAN but larger than that of LAN (Wetherall, 2010). These networks have facilitated criminals with an avenue to make money through illegal activities especially due to the fact that millions of people around the world utilize one or all of the above mentioned networks on daily basis. Loads of data and sensitive information are exchanged over these networks on hourly basis and due to this; criminals have taken advantage through their technical skills to conduct cyber attacks, either for economic benefits or for malicious purposes (Zalewski, 2011). The internet, for example, has facilitated users with an avenue to conduct businesses and transactions through onlin e shopping. Online shopping is a mode of doing business whereby manufacturers and retailers design interactive websites, in which they display their products and details. Interested shoppers are only required to visit the websites from the comfort of their personal computers, from which they can evaluate and compare prices of commodities offered by different companies. Processes, such as cataloguing and placing orders are made through the same media thus making it easy and cheap for marketers and consumers to fulfill their desires without necessarily having to travel to the physical business location. This has also facilitated globalization as digitizing the world in this manner brings the world citizens closer thus forming a global village (Schneider, 2011). However, online shopping has been noted as being one of the major targets and facilitators of cyber crime. Rogue programmers have continued to develop phishing sites, which they utilize to steal users’ personal informati on for the purposes of committing fraud. Phishing sites are websites, which impersonate genuine websites such that it becomes difficult for users to differentiate between the genuine and the rogue websites. These websites usually request users to input their personal details, such as credit card numbers, emails, names, bank details among other sensitive