Administrative Assistant / Secretary: The Basics of Data Security

Information = Profit
Information about your company is valuable, not only to your company but also to unscrupulous people outside your company. Such information includes confidential records such as bank transactions or corporate credit card numbers. It also includes paper or computer files about customers, new products, sales strategies, and so on. Consider how damaging it would be to your company if such records were lost or destroyed or if they were stolen by a competitor. That’s why data security is critical to protect computer information from theft, misuse, and disaster.
The misuse of computer information ranges from unauthorized use of computer time to criminal acts like sabotage. It all falls under one general category that many people call “computer crime.” Surveys show that over half of the government departments and industrial organizations in the United States have experienced some form of computer crime. Because of this growing epidemic, it’s important that you understand the different types of computer crime in order to protect yourself and your company’s information.

Determining What Is a Crime
There are different degrees of computer crime, from breaking into other people’s computers in order to steal or sabotage data, to making illegal copies of software to give to a friend. All of it is wrong.
Probably the most often committed offense is theft of computer time. It ranges from the innocent borrowing of someone’s computer without permission to the theft of computer time from a business for personal use and gain. Theft of computer time—especially involving large computers, such as one running an office network—can easily translate into a theft of money. Besides the theft of time, unauthorized use of a computer also involves unnecessary wear and tear on the equipment and software.
The best way to judge whether a personal activity might be considered a criminal act is to compare it with the use of a company vehicle. Would it be wrong to borrow a company car or truck without asking? Would it be wrong to use the company car on the weekend for personal use? Would it be wrong to fill up one’s personal car with gas and charge it to the corporate account? We know your answer is “Yes, it would be wrong,” so keep this comparison in mind when using business computer equipment and software yourself and when overseeing others’ use of it.

Threats from Outside
Today’s companies are using computer communications in ever-increasing ways, and these same applications are in the hands of criminals. Working from the privacy of their own homes, would-be criminals often gain access to an organization’s computers for the purpose of stealing or altering information. This electronic trespassing or vandalism has several variations, which are referred to by their own slang terms:
- Hacking—breaking into computer systems to gain access to restricted or private information
- Crashing—breaking into a computer system in order to shut it down or turn it off
- Trashing—altering or erasing a computer’s data files
- Viruses—malicious computer programs that destroy data or open unauthorized access to a computer

Threats from Inside
One of the most serious threats to the security of business data comes from insiders: those working within a company who decide to misuse computer or data files as a form of vengeance or for financial gain. This type of computer crime is extremely harmful, since it may involve information worth thousands and thousands of dollars. If a computer crime happens in your company, any insider could be a suspect. However, there are certain individuals who are likely to be investigated first:
- Disgruntled employees often take their vengeance out on the computer system in the form of sabotage.
- A competitor or an employee who has recently quit or been terminated may be responsible for theft of computer data or software.
- Outside users of a computer system via a communications system may attempt authorized sale of information, such as customer lists.
- Computer programmers may attempt to take their programs with them or to create hidden embezzlement schemes.
- Computer operators may alter or erase data on purpose.
- Computer system engineers may attempt to alter security information or passwords.

Software Piracy
Software piracy is another major computer crime problem. Individuals are sometimes allowed to make copies of their programs for protection purposes, but the sale and/or the distribution of those copies to friends and other computer users is a violation of federal copyright laws.
With the growing concern over the copying problem, many software publishers have been forced to devise elaborate copy protection schemes. Piracy may not affect your company directly, but the cost of combating piracy is eventually passed along to you as the consumer.

Apprehending Criminals
Computer criminals have often been hard to apprehend as a result of a lack of understanding on the part of law enforcement agencies and the judicial system. However, things are beginning to change. Many states are leading the way with special legislation aimed at stopping software piracy. Other new laws make it a crime to trespass electronically on a computer system even if there is no damage or theft. Many cities are establishing special police units to combat computer crime.

Protecting Your Company’s Data

Audit Logs
There are steps you can take to protect your company’s data from these human threats. Audit logs are a record of who has been using a computer system. As a user logs onto a computer, it records the time, the name of the user, the files that person accesses, and when the person logs off. The computer then keeps the data in a special security file.
In some cases, an audit log can tell whether files have been altered. The use of audit logs is usually provided as part of security password software that can be installed on individual computers. If a computer crime occurs, the log can furnish the authorities with evidence they might need to prosecute.

Codes
Special data encryption techniques code your data files and your communications automatically. Someone who is attempting to intercept and manipulate the information would receive a file that looks like random symbols, thus preventing use of the data.

Computer Viruses
One type of computer crime that is a big concern to even the smallest business is the computer virus. A virus is a program developed by a computer vandal who finds pleasure in creating havoc. This program “infects” other programs, causing them to malfunction or to fail completely. Viruses are passed from computer to computer via email and by copying files from one computer to another. Some viruses will only display messages; others can damage your hard drive and the files stored there. Some virus programs even try to extort money from victims in order to receive a software antidote.
To combat the rapidly growing virus problem, there are a variety of virus protection software programs available on the market (Table 16-1). The key to selecting and using one of these programs is to purchase the most current edition and then update it on a regular basis.
Most virus protection programs are designed to look for and destroy viruses that are known at the time the program was written. As new viruses appear, an older virus protection program may fail to detect them.

Symptoms of Viruses
When a virus attacks your computer, you may see the following effects:

Anti-Virus Software


- The virus continuously makes a copy of itself and uses up all the free space on your hard drive.
- A copy of the virus may be sent to all of the addresses in your email address list.
- The virus may reformat your hard drive and wipe out all your files.
- The virus may install hidden programs that allow people to access your computer without your knowledge or permission.
- You experience a sudden degradation in system performance.
- Your anti-virus software stops working for no reason.
- Strange messages appear on your screen.
- Strange music or sounds play from your speakers.
- A program installed on your computer suddenly disappears.
- Your computer will not start.
- There is a lot of communications activity.
- The computer takes a long time to start.
- You get “out of memory” error messages.
- You cannot install new programs.
- A disk utility such as ScanDisk reports serious errors.
- A disk storage partition suddenly disappears.
- Anti-virus software indicates a virus has been found.

Firewalls
The only way to make a computer completely secure is to not use other people’s data files and to completely disconnect from the Internet. Obviously, this is not practical. A firewall is a security system that protects a computer from attacks. It blocks access to a computer’s communications ports, monitors the installation of new software, and controls which programs have access to the Internet.
There are both hardware and software firewalls available. Hardware firewalls are usually available within network routers and broadband modems. Software firewalls are available within Microsoft Windows and as add-on software products.
Firewalls block both incoming and outgoing threats. Incoming threats come in the form of communication port scans that look for an entrance into a computer in order to affect it with a virus. An outgoing threat occurs when a computer becomes infected with a virus or spyware. These malicious programs attempt to communicate with other computers on the Internet to spread themselves and steal information. A firewall limits access to only the programs the user authorizes.
Windows Defender is a firewall that is available with Windows. Internet security programs, such as Norton Internet Security and ZoneAlarm, are also available.

Maintaining Your Computer’s Security
To prevent virus infections, hacker attacks, and other types of computer crime, do the following:
- Always use anti-virus software and keep it updated with the latest virus signature files.
- Install operating system security updates and software updates.
- Install and use firewall software.

Acts of Nature
Mother Nature can be an enormous threat, even causing a computer system to fail and lose data permanently. Floods, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, and fires could completely destroy your office computer and all your data files, resulting in the failure of the business and loss of everyone’s job, since business records, client lists, accounting records, and much more would all be lost.
Electrical surges or voltage spikes can damage the computer’s important electronic components. These surges can also disrupt and scramble data storage media like the hard drive. A complete power outage can shut down a computer system, causing loss of all data in the memory. (Steps you can take to prevent such problems can be found below.)

Mechanical Problems
Mechanical problems can cause storage media such as the hard drive to fail, resulting in the loss of all data stored there. Sudden changes in temperature or humidity, or bumping or dropping a computer system when the hard drive is operating, can result in what’s called a head crash—or hard drive failure. (Again, steps to prevent such problems appear below.)

A Security Checklist
There are a variety of ways to protect your company’s data and make it more secure from both human and natural threats. You may wish to use some of these methods for your own computer. If you have office management responsibilities, you may also want to make changes for your entire department or company.

To protect your data:
- Investigate theft prevention devices, which can lock a computer to a desktop.
- Prevent electrical noise and power surges from damaging your computer system through the use of surge suppressors. A surge suppressor plugs into the wall, and the computer system plugs into it for power.
- Get even more security with a device known as an uninterruptible power supply. It will power your computer system for a limited period of time in the event of a power outage. Then, if an outage does occur, you’d have ample warning to save your data.
- Make a backup copy of all data stored. The methods to back up your data range from printing out your files on paper to making regularly scheduled backups of your files on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, backups on network drives, or backups on Internet or “cloud” drives.

Coping with Disaster
It is a good idea to insure your company’s computer system and software. If you work in a small company, you may want to check with your boss to see if he or she has this insurance. But in the case of a disaster, getting reimbursed for the cost of the equipment can’t ever replace the valuable data that the business relies on.
Most large organizations have disaster plans that shift data-processing jobs from one location to another and protect data by storing them in two or more locations. A small business should also have a disaster plan just in case. As secretary, you can get the ball rolling.

A good disaster plan should address the following questions:
- Is backup computer equipment available?
- Are backup software and data files available?
- What should employees do in the event of a disaster?
- What projects and tasks have priority?
- Are essential business supplies available?

Taking the time to create a disaster plan and to inform all employees in the company that it is essential. If the company is very small, even having an extra computer system, software, and supplies at someone’s house may be a good start. It’s like an extra insurance policy, and it may help all of you keep your jobs should disaster strike.