In a market economy, information has become an important and very expensive commodity. This means that there will always be intruders who will want to kidnap and resell it to your competitors. As a private person, and a large corporation, it is important to keep your secrets in secret. This fact is the most important component of successful activity, regardless of where you live, That is why the International Day of Information Protection is widely celebrated not only in Western countries, but also in Russia , Ukraine, throughout the civilized world.
The history of the World Information Security Day
First suggested to celebrate this holiday employees of the American Association of Computer Equipment in 1988 year. It was in this year that the civilized world was shaken by the epidemic caused by the "worm" of Morris. That this can happen, people have known since 1983, when a simple American student Fred Cohen created the first prototype of such a malicious program. But only five years later people saw in real life what it can do with their equipment. The "Great Worm" of Morris, as his hackers dubbed, paralyzed the work of 6,000 Internet sites in the United States. The program found easily vulnerable places in mail servers, and to the limit slowed down the work of computer equipment. The damage from the epidemic reached a figure of 96.5 million dollars.
More modern viruses have become even more cunning and destructive. The famous hacking program "I love you", which broke out on May 4, 2000, was distributed via Microsoft Outlook mail. This resource is used by millions of people. Opening the letter, an unsuspecting person ran a virus. He not only destroyed files on the infected computer, but also independently sent similar "love messages" to all the friends and acquaintances of the victim. Starting its march in the Philippines, the program quickly got to the US and Europe. Losses around the world from the damage were colossal and amounted to billions of dollars.
Now you understand that the appearance of the day of an information security specialist was justified. Their activities are needed not only by the military, but also by ordinary citizens who, in our age of advanced technology, can easily suffer at the hands of computer terrorists. These people are constantly fighting with the carelessness of users and the cunning intelligence of hackers. If several years ago the leaders of enterprises were more interested in physical security, now they are more concerned with finding competent people who can provide them with computer protection.
On the International Defender Day, which was decided to celebrate on November 30, various events are held. Their main goal is to remind each user that he also must maintain and ensure the reliability of information resources. People should understand that a hard-to-determine password, the installation of an anti-virus program, a firewall, will help them avoid a serious danger, often resulting in the loss of large amounts of money. Today, even small children can use tablets, smartphones or personal computers.
What can a simple user do on the International Day of Information Security? It is not at all necessary to hold a demonstration or to hang posters around the city. Just update your antivirus, change the old passwords on the mail and on social networks, remove the garbage from the computer, backup the data. Take the time to watch the latest updates on the protection of personal equipment that constantly appear on the network. These simple actions, if done regularly on your home or production equipment, very often help to fix serious security holes.