Prof.

Ahmed Gadallah

2023
 Computer Security

is the process of detecting and

p r e v e n t i n g a ny u n a u t h o r i ze d u s e o f y o u r
laptop/computer. It involves the process of
safeguarding against trespassers from using your
personal or office based computer resources with
malicious intent or for their own gains, or even for
gaining any access to them accidentally.
Why Security?

Cyberspace (internet, work environment, intranet) is

becoming a dangerous place for all organizations and individuals to
protect their sensitive data or reputation. This is because of the
numerous people and machines accessing it. It is important to
mention that the recent studies have shown a big danger is coming
from internal threats or from disappointed employees like the
Edward Snowden case, another internal threat is that information
material can be easy accessible over the intranet.
One important indicator is the IT skills of a person that wants to
hack or to breach your security has decreased but the success rate
of it has increased, this is because of three main factors :

- Hacking tools that can be found very easily by everyone just by

googling and they are endless.

- Technology with the end-users has increased rapidly within these

years, like internet bandwidth and computer processing speeds.
- Access to hacking information manuals.
Since locking down all networks is not an available option, the only
response the security managers can give is to harden their networks,
applications and operating systems to a reasonable level of safety,
and conducting a business disaster recovery plan.
Let’s see this case, you are an IT administrator in a small company
having two small servers staying in a corner and you are very good at
your job. You are doing updates regularly, setting up firewalls,
antiviruses, etc. One day, you see that the organization employees
are not accessing the systems anymore. When you go and check, you
see the cleaning lady doing her job and by mistake, she had removed
the power cable and unplugged the server.
What I mean by this case is that even physical security is important in
computer security, as most of us think it is the last thing to take care
of.
Now let’s go directly to the point of what all to secure in a computer
environment −
• First of all, is to check the physical security by setting control systems
like motion alarms, door accessing systems, humidity sensors,
temperature sensors. All these components decrease the possibility of
a computer to be stolen or damaged by humans and environment itself.
• People having access to computer systems should have their own user
id with password protection.
• Monitors should be screen saver protected to hide the information
from being displayed when the user is away or inactive.
• Secure your network especially wireless, passwords should be used.
• Internet equipment as routers to be protected with password.
• Data that you use to store information which can be financial, or non-
financial by encryption.
• Information should be protected in all types of its representation in
transmission by encrypting it.
What are the Benefits of Computer Security Awareness ?

Do you know in all this digital world, what is the biggest hole or the
weakest point of the security?
Answer. It is us, humans.

Most of the security breaches come from uninformed and

untrained persons which give information to a third party or publish
data in Internet without knowing the consequences.
See the following scenario which tells us what employees might
end up doing without computer security awareness −

So the benefits of computer security awareness are obvious as it

directly minimizes the potential of you being hacked off your
identity, your computer, your organization.
 What are Potential Losses due to Security Attacks ?

The potential loses in this cyberspace are many even if you are using a
single computer in your room. Here, I will be listing some examples that
have a direct impact on you and on others −
• Losing you data − If your computer has been hacked or infected, there
is a big chance that all your stored data might be taken by the attacker.
• Bad usage of your computer resources − This means that your network
or computer can go in overload so you cannot access your genuine
services or in a worst case scenario, it can be used by the hacker to
attack another machine or network.
• Reputation loss − Just think if your Facebook account or business email
has been owned by a social engineering attack and it sends fake
information to your friends, business partners. You will need time to
gain back your reputation.
• Identity theft − This is a case where your identity is stolen (photo, name
surname, address, and credit card) and can be used for a crime like
making false identity documents.
 Some Basic Computer Security Checklist

There are some basic things that everyone of us in every operating system need
to do −
• Check if the user is password protected.
• Check if the operating system is being updated. In my case, I did a screenshot
of my laptop which is a Windows 7.
• Check if the antivirus or antimalware is installed and updated. In my
case, I have a Kaspersky antivirus being updated.
• Check for the unusual services running that consumes resources.
• Check if your monitor is using a screen saver.
• Check if the computer firewall is on or not.
• Check if you are doing backups regularly.
• Check if there are shares that are not useful.
• Check if your account has full rights or is restricted.
• Update other third party software’s.
 Computer Security - Elements

The general state in Computer Security has the ability to detect and
prevent attacks and to be able to recover. If these attacks are
successful as such then it has to contain the disruption of
information and services and check if they are kept low or tolerable.

What are the Main Elements in Computer Security ?

In order to fulfil these requirements, we come to the three main

elements which are confidentiality, integrity, and availability and
the recently added and .
 Confidentiality is the concealment of information or resources. Also,
there is a need to keep information secret from other third parties that want to
have access to it, so just the right people can access it.

Example in real life − Let’s say there are two people communicating via an
encrypted email they know the decryption keys of each other and they read the
email by entering these keys into the email program. If someone else can read
these decryption keys when they are entered into the program, then the
confidentiality of that email is compromised.
 Integrity is the trustworthiness of data in the systems or
resources by the point of view of preventing unauthorized and improper
changes. Generally, Integrity is composed of two sub-elements – data-
integrity, which it has to do with the content of the data and
authentication which has to do with the origin of the data as such
information has values only if it is correct.

Example in real life − Let’s say you are doing an online payment of 5 USD,
but your information is tampered without your knowledge in a way by
sending to the seller 500 USD, this would cost you too much.
In this case cryptography plays a very major role in ensuring data integrity.
Commonly used methods to protect data integrity includes hashing the
data you receive and comparing it with the hash of the original message.
However, this means that the hash of the original data must be provided
in a secure way.
 Availability refers to the ability to access data of a resource
when it is needed, as such the information has value only if the
authorized people can access at right time. Denying access to data
nowadays has become a common attack. Imagine a downtime of a
live server how costly it can be.

Example in real life − Let’s say a hacker has compromised a

webserver of a bank and put it down. You as an authenticated user
want to do an e-banking transfer but it is impossible to access it,
the undone transfer is a money lost for the bank.
 3- Computer Security - Terminologies

− An unauthorized access is when

someone gains access to a server, website, or other sensitive
data using someone else's account details.
− Is a Person who tries and exploits a computer
system for a reason which can be money, a social cause, fun
etc.
− Is an action or event that might compromise the
security.
− It is a weakness, a design problem or
implementation error in a system that can lead to an
unexpected and undesirable event regarding security system.
− Is an assault on the system security that is delivered
by a person or a machine to a system. It violates security.
 − Is a software that operates
on different OS which is used to prevent from malicious
software.
− Is a technique that a hacker uses to
stole data by a person for different for purposes by
psychological manipulation combined with social scenes.

− It is a malicious software that installs on your

computer without your consent for a bad purpose.

− It is a software or hardware which is used to

filter network traffic based on rules.
 4- Computer Security - Layers

In Computer Security, layers is a well-known practice which was

taken from military techniques. The aim of this is to exhaust the
attacker when he succeeds to penetrate the first layer of security by
finding a hole, then he has to find a hole in the second layer and so
on, until he arrives at the destination if he succeeds.
Let’s see the best practices in a Layer type of Security :

− The idea is to install just a

restricted number of applications in your computers, which are
useful as well as are genuine.

− In case your computer is

hacked and your files are damaged, you should have the possibility
to again have access to your files. An example is Windows System
Restore or Backup.

− The data that is accessed

over the network is best to be provided only to the authorized users.
Use usernames and passwords!!!
 − Generally a good
practice is to encrypt hard disks or removable devices, the idea
behind this is in case your laptop or your removable USB is stolen
and it is plugged in another machine it cannot be read. A good tool
for this is .
− Systems which are accessed over
the network is best to be provided only to the authorized users. Use
usernames and passwords!!!
− Again like the case of Network
Authentication, if you have a network storage or a network folder
shared, it is good to be encrypted to prevent any unauthorized user
who is listening to the network to read the information.
− Nowadays email or
instant messaging is widely spread and it is the number one tool to
communicate. It is better that the communication to be encrypted
between the end users, a good tool for this is .
 5- Computer Security - Securing OS

Guidelines for Windows OS Security

Following are the list of guidelines for Windows Operating System

Security.

, not the cracked or pirated

ones and activate them in order to take genuine updates.
 − To do this, Right Click on Computer –
Manage – Local Users and Groups – Users, then disable those users
that are not required. In my case, I disabled the Guest and
Administrator users and I created a new non-default like Admin.
 − By default, Windows OS creates shares,
please see the following screenshot. You have to disable them and
to do this, you follow −
Right Click on My Computer – Manage – Shared Folders – Right
Click Stop Sharing.
The next step is to . It is
recommended to do them automatically and periodically. To set this
up, go to Control Panel – System and Security – Windows Updates
– OK.
 , this will block all the
unauthorized services that make traffic. To set this up, go to Control
Panel – System and Security – Windows Firewall.
 , in the coming
sections we will cover in detail about antiviruses. It is strongly
recommended not to download from torrents and install cracked
versions.
Disable Autoplay for Removable Media. This blocks the viruses to run
automatically from removable devices.
To disable it go to – Start – on Search box type Edit Group Policy
–Administrative Templates – Windows Components – Autoplay
Policy – Turn off Autoplay – Enable – Ok.
 like Internet
explorer, Chrome or Mozilla Firefox and then update them regularly.
Missing the updates can lead to possible hacking.
 to encrypt hard drives, but
it is only available in Windows & Ultimate and Upper Versions.
To enable it follow the path: Start – Control Panel – System and
Security – BitLocker Drive Encryption.