Page 132 - Using MIS

Security Guide

differentiatinG on SeCurity

Information systems and nearly free data stor- control over your identity. Soon criminals have piled up a
age and data communications have created new, valuable mountain of debt on your accounts, and your credit rating
targets for crime. Before data was centralized in computers, plummets. Your credit cards are useless, and you can’t obtain
data theft had limited scope. When criminals target credit replacements. With considerable work, agony, and expense,
card data in desk drawers in homes, a thief can steal the you will be able to undo most of this damage, eventually. But
data for perhaps eight credit cards per day. And those thefts the near-term impact on your time and reputation is severe.
involve considerable physical risk. But a computer criminal Now, compare your situation to that of one of your
can break into an organization’s database that holds data coworkers who learned not to send sensitive data in email.
on millions of credit cards. Those millions of records can be You are spending hours solving your credit problem while
downloaded to a computer in Africa and sold for $10 each she is learning new skills, networking with other profes-
from an Internet site in Uzbekistan to computer gamers in sionals, accomplishing extra projects at work, and so forth.
the United States, all within 24
hours. Or, even more graphically,
a mugger waiting on a street cor-
ner can rob only a single person
in a few hours; a computer crimi-
nal waiting on an Internet router
(Chapter 6) can mug millions of
people in those same few hours.
For some, such computer
crime is just a problem, but oth-
ers find a way to turn that prob-
lem into an opportunity to gain a
competitive advantage. Namely,
professionals and organizations
that take steps to protect them-
selves and their organizations
from such threats gain an advan-
tage over those that do not. That
sounds brutal, and perhaps it is,
but it is also today’s reality.
Consider yourself as an exam-
ple. Suppose you send your Social
Security number in an email.
Unless your email system is se-
cure, and very few are, that Social
Security number is vulnerable to
an electronic mugger. Suppose
your Social Security number is
compromised, and someone gains
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