Computer security is a crucial subject. IT security promises to keep data confidential, up-to-date and authoritatively available. It teaches us ways to manage information or cybersecurity risks. These types of risks include personal data hacking, phishing, identity theft, etc. and lead to computer hardware failure. However, in order to overcome these threats, we can use quality and updated antivirus software and check the hardware from time to time. This article talks about what computer security really is and its impacts on daily life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Computer security is evolving as an integral part of science and technology. The main goals of IT security are confidentiality, availability and integration. Confidentiality is about keeping information private and preventing data from being used without authorization. Availability is the provision of the service to authorize the user without blocking. Finally, integration means keeping the system up to date in an authoritative manner. Computer security plays a big role in the IT industry. You might always think that computer security is about protecting your computer against viruses or malware. However, this is only a small part that falls under IT security. Generally speaking, IT security is defined as the protection and preservation of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information (Dimitriadis, 2011). Simply put, IT security is about protecting computer hardware and software from malicious use by unauthorized users. The main objective of computer security is to protect information, an entire computer machine, computer systems, etc. Even though the term IT security can be interchanged with different names like cybersecurity, information security, all these types of security have the same objectives. To be clearer, information security is about preventing information from being used, modified or deleted by unauthorized users. Cybersecurity involves protecting computer systems from attacks by harmful computer network viruses. Our computer systems are infested with many bugs. Even when we think our computer is working perfectly, there are many persistent threats, malware, viruses, etc. that are lining up to invade our computers and, therefore, our personal lives. These days, we live most of our lives on our computers. From shopping to filing our taxes, we transmit our most sensitive information to our personal devices. For example, the personal credit/debit card information we add in online shopping apps is one of the most common dangers, generating a huge information security risk. Similarly, personal photos and statuses that we upload on various social networks are also hot topics. There are times when you think your information is all safe and sound, but some unauthorized users can break into your computer system to access, modify, delete or copy all your personal information and data. This process is called hacking and attackers who do this are called hackers. Another very unusual type of risk in terms ofinformation security is phishing and URL spoofing. Phishing is a technique for obtaining private information by sending a user an email that appears to come from a legitimate user or organization, and URL spoofing involves creating a real website to obtain personal information and data. The word identity theft itself refers to a type of scam in which criminals pose as real businesses or an innocent party simply to obtain someone's personal information. Just like software, hardware also presents many similar potential risks and threats. Hardware is the physical parts of computer systems that you can touch and see with the naked eye. The term hardware security is not so well known in the IT world, but it is one of the most important topics. Unlike computer software security, hardware security requires manual work and more time to manage hardware security risks. As an example, microchips are known to be the only device manufactured under strict rules and guidelines. However, the country that manufactured and distributed microchips around the world introduced counterfeit microchips. Counterfeit microchips are not manufactured according to strict guidelines, leading to underperformance of computer hardware. These types of microchips have introduced unauthorized production and cloning, hardware Trojans, etc. (Burns, 2019). However, technology has become so powerful that there are still solutions to all these problems mentioned above. Computer security can be expensive, but so are our machines. Securing computers and their data is not easy. In fact, it takes a lot of time, resources, money and patience. This is why we must always be careful in choosing the right defense mechanism against our IT security threats. Since we use the Internet/computer networks in our daily lives, the first defense is to use a computer firewall. Computer firewalls can be defined as the network security device that regulates all incoming and outgoing traffic based on a set of security rules and guidelines (Agrawal, 2019). Firewalls act as a wall between secure internal networks and unauthorized external networks. Simply put, firewalls reject untrusted networks and prevent them from accessing secure networks. There are different types of firewalls, but there are two most common types of firewalls. The first types are packet filters: they run on the router which examines the source address and destination address and blocks certain packets coming from uncertain addresses. The second type is application-level firewalls: they examine Internet traffic content and addresses. Likewise, other ways to avoid computer security threats include using the right type of anti-malware software. For example, Webroot, Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee, etc. and some built-in antivirus software like Windows Defender in Windows 10. These types of antivirus software will prevent hacking, identity thefts, network parasites, scams through deceptive emails and URLs. On the other hand, hardware tends to fail or be less damaged than software. However, the equipment requires just as much care and protection. Viruses that multiply unnecessary files and folders are likely to take up disk space, eventually causing a hard drive crash. Therefore, we need to update our antiviruses often. Furthermore, when our machines/26057989