Internet Impact On It Security

University of Phoenix

NCT520- Networking Management

Ron Koy

March 10, 2007

The Internet has had a large impact on businesses, countries, and individuals. The Internet began as a research tool for Universities and has become the "information freeway". The Internet has created problems for company infrastructure and has helped as well. Internet accessible environments have changed the way business function due to the information technology security. Entities are forced to change the way information exchange takes place and be proactive to protect internal data and systems. In the 1980s, large commercial companies began to use TCP/IP to build private internets.

The downside of the Internet for business is the increase of identity theft, network hacking, viruses, and security vulnerability. The access to the Internet through phones, PDAs, and other wireless media is increasing and making the Internet more available within business environments. As a result, security has become a natural reality.

Security Measure

Firewalls are an extremely beneficial and necessary security tool that is recommended to protect organizational networks. There are many ways information can be shared over the internet either by an employee, for example searching the net or by hackers trying to break into the network. Thus, organizations need to implement a security device such as a firewall as a means of protection.

A firewall is a security device acting as a barrier between two networks. There are two types of firewalls, either hardware or software. Firewalls are built into routers and software that act as a firewall. A firewall, working closely with a router program examines each network packet to determine whether to forward it to its destination. A firewall also works with a proxy server that makes network requests on behalf of users. A firewall is often installed on designated computer separate from the rest of the network so no incoming request can get directly at private network resources.

"Firewalls use one or more of three methods to control network activity:"

* Packet filtering - Packets are analyzed against a set of filters. Packets that make it through filters are sent to the requesting system and all others discarded.