10.9. Data Security in an Interactive Environment

Interactive environments are vulnerable in terms of data security. An example of interactive environments is any of the systems with communication capabilities, such as email, computer networks, the Internet.

E-mail is any kind of communication used by computers and modems. The most unprotected places in the e-mail are the sender’s outgoing mail point and the recipient’s inbox. Each of the e-mail software packages allows you to archive incoming and outgoing messages to any other address, which can lead to abuse by intruders.

E-mail, while ensuring the forwarding of messages, is capable of causing significant harm to the recipient of the messages. To prevent undesirable consequences, you should use other safety techniques, including:

• you can not immediately run the program received by e-mail, especially attachments. You need to save the file to disk, check it with an antivirus program and then run it;

• it is forbidden to provide your password and personal data, even if the sender offers the addressee something very tempting;

• when opening received Office Office files (in Word, Excel), you should, if possible, not use macros;

• It is important to try to use proven as well as newer versions of mail programs.

One of the important problems for Internet users is the problem of data security in the network itself. The user is connected to the resources through the provider. In order to protect information from hooligan elements, unqualified users and criminals, an authorization system or access control is used on the Internet. Each data file (or other computer resources) has a set of attributes that indicate that anyone can view this file, but only the owner has the right to change it. Another problem is that no one except the owner can view the file, despite the fact that the names of these information resources are visible. Typically, the user seeks to somehow protect his information, but it must be remembered that system administrators can overcome security systems. In this case, various methods of encrypting information using keys developed by the user come to the rescue.

One of the problems of working on the Internet is limiting the access of certain categories of users to information resources (children and schoolchildren). This can be done with the help of special software products - firewalls (Net Nanny, Surf-Watch, Cyber ​​Patrol). They are based on the principle of filtering by keywords, fixed lists of WWW service sites where material is undesirable for children. Programs of a similar type, recording Internet sessions and denying access to certain places on the network, can be installed in office and other institutions to prevent employees from wasting time in their personal interests.

The Internet is a system in which numerous users have their own Web servers that contain advertising or reference information on Web pages. Competitors are able to spoil the content. In order to avoid trouble in such situations, you can regularly browse the Web-pages. If any corruption is detected, it is necessary to restore it using previously prepared copies of files. It is important to keep in mind that the security of information on servers is required of providers who systematically review event logs and update software if it detects problems in protection.