Research report on Internet Security Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Report on Internet Security - Research Paper Example This denotes whenever a person is online, he/she can become a possible target for security threats (BigPlanet, n.d.). Due to this reason, internet security has become more important for internet users including individual persons, organisations and the government. The structure of internet allows for the existence of several security threats (Daya, 2008). Focusing on this aspect, the report encompasses brief history of internet security threats. Furthermore, the report also describes about the method of protection from security threats. The objective of the report is to acquire a brief idea about different security threats that exist in internet and how these threats can be dealt with. History of Internet Security Threats The idea of internet has started as a project sponsored by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of US Department of Defence in the year 1969. The key intention of the project was to develop a network which can operate even if main segments of communication netwo rk crash. Thus, ARPANET was designed in order to redirect the network traffic spontaneously around the problems in linking systems. The protocols of ARPANET were mainly intended for openness and flexibility of information, rather than for information security. Thus, every person needed to be an unrestricted insider of the network so that information can be shared easily. As more computer systems (which are also known as sites in present day’s phraseology) linked in the ARPANET, the worth of this network has increased (Dekker, 1997). At that time, researchers played practical fun on each other by using ARPANET which involved joke mails, annoying posts and other minor security breaches. During that period, connection from any remote system was not considered as a security threat, because ARPANET users comprised a small group of people who were generally familiar to each other and also had faith on each other. Since the popularity of ARPANET increased, its users also augmented. In the year 1986, the first exposed security threat in ARPANET occurred in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of California where an unidentified system had attempted to copy information from the computer system. This incidence raised concerns about the damaging characteristics of ARPANET (Dekker, 1997). In the year 1988, ARPANET had first faced mechanical security incident namely ‘Morris Worm’, where a student of Cornell University developed a program which can connect with another system and can copy itself in the system. This self copying mechanical attack caused symmetrical eruption of copies at computers that were connected with ARPANET. At that time, ARPANET had almost 88,000 users who reflected it as the prime way of communication. In reaction to the worm, several users had detached themselves from the ARPANET, further hindering the communication procedure. Several organisations have emerged after these security occurrences in order to deal with the online att acks and instruct the ARPANET users regarding potential security threats and also certain preventive activities (Dekker, 1997). In the year 1989, ARPANET was officially termed as Internet and shifted from a government research project