The Risks to Privacy From Collecting and Storing Personal Information

The internet has a lot of information, and a lot of your information. There can be privacy concerns around what happens online.

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Privacy is extremely important on the internet, many people can be hurt by internet crimes. For example, credit card information that is put into any site can be stolen by hackers and sold on the black market. Any information that is put into the internet can be taken by hackers and used to hurt you.

Threats

The internet can be very dangerous, if you make the wrong decisions, your identity or finances could easily be stolen. However, once your data is stolen it can get much worse. Once your data is sold to big companies, they can start to find out more about you that you don’t want them to find out. For example, someone searching for products about their sexual orientation may be identified as queer for a company. They may then receive marketing for queer branded products, this could potentially put them in danger if they have not told family.

Protection

To protect yourself from these online threats and being tracked by big companies, you need to invest in internet security. You need to install antiviruses to stop malware from infecting your devices. You should also be careful where you put your information in, if you give any data to an untrustworthy site, you may find that information used to attack you. Make sure you take precautions and think smartly while on the internet and giving out your information.

How can computing resources be misused and how can it be protected?

New computers and other modern tech can easily used for evil. There are many ways this can happen and many ways to protect from it.

What to do?

Computing resources are extremely powerful, and when they are misused can cause a lot of harm. There are many ways that computing resources are misused, and there are whole industries built upon cyber crime. However, there are ways to protect yourself from this cyber crime, and it is important you are able to recognize misuse of computing resources when you see it.

There are multiple types of computer misuse. The first example that comes to mind is probably unauthorized access, which is when hackers use weakness in the systems of targets to gain access to the targets and do whatever they want with their data. An example of this happened in 2023, when a large medical service provider in Massachusetts had its data breached and leaked. This led to the exposure of over 2.3 million peoples information. That is incredibly dangerous as this may include medical records and other sensitive information, which when weaponized can ruin someone's life.

How to protect from these threats?

There are a few ways to defend yourself from someone who is misusing computing resources. One way is to regularly back up your information and set up plans in case of a data leak, these are often called disaster recovery plans. You should also monitor your system logs and what is happening in your computer. If you are in charge of a larger system, like that of a company, you need to constantly audit your system and check it.

How unauthorized access to information is gained?

Unauthorized information is one of the most common types of theft online. Unauthorized information access is when weaknesses in computers and systems are used to gain information from the system. This can be extremely dangerous because the data that is gained may include banking details or similarly harmful information. If these things get out peoples’ lives could be ruined.

Unauthorized information is gained through many ways. One way that you can easily defend against is making a strong password. Having a password that is just “password” or “1234” leaves your accounts and information open to attack from anyone. Make sure you have a strong password, don’t include your birthday or name, make it abstract and have special characters.

Another way that unauthorized information is gained is through malware. Malware are things like viruses or worms. Using malware, people can easily get inside of a computer and gain any information they want. Be careful of what sites you are on, and don’t click on anything that seems suspicious.

How Computing Innovation Can be Beneficial and Harmful

Computing innovation is extremely powerful. The recent innovations in cyber technology have led to a lot of good in the world, yet they also have great potential to harm. Through computing innovation our world has drastically changed, we have become a more connected and involved society, but we can also now hurt each other a lot more easily.

New technology has a lot of benefits in all sectors of life. For example, tasks can be completed much more quickly these days due to automation and things like artificial intelligence. It is also much easier for people to communicate in our modern world. Imagine getting the news of what happened in another continent months after it happened!

However, there are also many downsides to modern technology. One downside is that all of your information you put onto the internet can be stolen. Your private information is open to people who know how to hack into computer systems. Another downside to recent innovation is that automation and AI may take jobs from people who need them.