Threats from malicious code can be classified into several categories that are generally tied to the motive behind the breach. Some software threats may be designed to channel funds from one account into another (personal/professional gain) or to cover up a separate illegal or unethical act. This is data tampering, which can be harmful and costly to an organization, but which can be approached from the standpoint of preventing or controlling access to data. In addition to data tampering, threats include viruses, worms, Trojan horses, bombs, trap doors, and spoofs.
Viruses, worms, Trojan horses and bombs are designed to destroy data. A virus is a code fragment that copies itself into a larger program, thus modifying that program. Trojan horses are programs disguised as one function when in fact they are designed to destroy or copy data. Similarly, bombs can lay dormant until some time when it destroys significant amounts of data. Worms compound the damage it inflicts by spreading from one site to another. ("Technologies" 2004).
The Internet also presents the opportunity for spoofing (appearing to be someone else for personal or professional gain), phishing (using fake e-mail to solicit personal information) and denial-of-service attacks that bring down companies' Web sites (Salkever, 2003).
REGULATORY CHALLENGES OF THE INTERNET
The regulatory issues confronting companies doing business on the Internet are widespread. There are regulations regarding marketing to minors, regulations regarding privacy, and regulations that seek to control gambling and pornography. There are regulations regarding fraud that takes place on sites that accept payment and the responsibilities that companies have to protect their consumers' information. The issues are made even more complicated by virtue of the fact that the Internet does not exist in any one nation and there is no single entity that is ultimately responsible for the Web. ...