Реферат: The Necessity Of Computer Security Essay Research

The Necessity Of Computer Security Essay, Research Paper

The Necessity Of Computer Security

When the first electronic computers emerged from university and military

laboratories in the late 1940s and early 1950s, visionaries proclaimed them the

harbingers of a second industrial revolution that would transform business,

government and industry. But few laymen, even if they were aware of the

machines, could see the connection. Experts too, were sceptical. Not only were

computers huge, expensive, one-of-a-kind devices designed for performing

abstruse scientific and military calculations, such as cracking codes and

calculations missile trajectories, they were also extremely difficult to handle.

Now, it is clear that computers are not only here to stay, but they have a

profound effect on society as well. As John McCarthy, Professor of Computer

Science at Stanford University, speculated in 1966: “The computer gives signs of

becoming the contemporary counterpart of the steam engine that brought on the

industrial revolution – one that is still gathering momentum and whose true

nature had yet to be seen.”

Today’s applications of computers are vast. They are used to run ordinary

household appliances such as televisions and microwaves, to being tools in the

workplaces through word processing, spreadsheets, and graphics software, to

running monumental tasks such as being the heart and soul of the nations tax

processing department, and managing the project timetables of the Space Shuttle.

It is obvious that the computer is now and always will be inexorably linked to

our lives, and we have no choice but to accept this technology and learn how to

harness its total potential.

With any progressing technology, an unauthorized application can almost be

found for it. A computer could and has been used for theft and fraud – for

example, as a database and manager of illegal activities such as drug

trafficking and pornography. However, we must not just consider the harmful

applications of the computer, but also take into account the good that they have

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