Introduction

Information technology has changed the business world. As James V. McGee, Laurence Prusak and Philip J. Pyburn (1993, p. 3) point out the way organizations perform their operations, design their products, and market their products have all changed dramatically since the serious introduction of information technology in the mid-1950s.

There are no doubts that the Internet has strongly located in all field of activity of a society in a role of the irreplaceable tool for work with the basic value – the information. Especially in business the Internet is interesting as the tool for communication and information transfer. The Internet gives to firms variety of possibilities: creation of favorable image of a firm or production; increase of availability of the information on firm or production for hundreds millions users of a network the Internet, including geographically removed; cutting-down of costs on advertizing and etc.

According to Kenneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon (2006, p. 9), the Internet and related technologies make it possible to conduct business across firm boundaries almost as efficiently and effectively as it is to conduct within the firm. In other words the companies are not limited by traditional ways to conduct a business. Nowadays the firms maintain close relationships with suppliers, customers and business partners at great physical distances.

At the present time it is very difficult to overestimate the value of the Internet in ability of the companies, the organizations or the enterprises. Every day this service occupies more and more an important place. The Internet becomes the basic business tool, really making profit.

The Internet main task remained the same, as at the time of its origin – accumulation, storage, distribution and an exchange of the diverse information.

Nowadays, there are a lots of managers of the enterprises consider application of information technology as possibility to increase the efficiency of the basic business. It is reflection of a certain stage of development of the company: the importance of a competition grows, the companies search for additional means of increase of profitability of business. For this reason information technology is some kind of a mode of development and advancement for peak efficiency of activity of the company.

An increased reliance on the Internet is an issue which frequently generates a great deal of heated debate, with supporters maintaining that internet is crucial for the modern business and safe enough, whilst opponents feel that it is internet lead to risk in terms of threats to information systems security. I find myself in the later group. This question is more vital today as ever before, as in the recent years a plenty of different threats and risk using the internet have increased; therefore, it is worth discussing. In this assignment will be considering threats of using the internet and how companies can protect their information systems.

1.  Reliance on the Internet

In recent years there is a rapid development of systems of the telecommunications, one of which key elements is the global computer network the Internet and its main service WWW (World Wide Web). Use the Internet as one of elements of system of marketing can make considerable impact on positive image of firm and on awareness of the consumer about the goods and services. For years of the existence the Internet began to carry out set of various functions. The main function is communication facility possessing the major advantages among which efficiency, reliability, ability to accumulate the information, possibility to supervise communications process, to influence its quality, etc. Another function of the internet is that internet is an integral part of many business processes. It became a place and simultaneously means of interaction of subjects of market relations – commodity producers, sellers and buyers. The most indicative examples of it are electronic commerce (e-Commerce) and the Internet-banking (Internet banking). Speaking about electronic commerce, mean retail trade through the Internet more often. The Internet-banking is a complex of the bank services given in a mode online: informing of the client on a condition of its accounts, remote steering of accounts; payment of utilities, purchase or sale of non-cash currency; crediting, operations with securities, steering of the personal finance, etc.

The Internet has already turned to the original market on which the whole industries work, creating the goods consumed by it and services.

Thus, the Internet became the working tool without which it is already impossible to imagine daily activity of set of people. It and global reference system, and an access mode to technologies, and transport for data transmission, and, at last, an operative and accessible communication medium.

One of the main advantages of Internet technologies is full access to information resources of the company from any point of a global or corporate network. Another aspect that should be mention is that simplicity of use which allows combining the evident form of representation with the simple gear of interrelation of documents. Moreover information systems allow to facilitate steering of the information and to improve communication possibilities.

2.  The main risks and threats to information systems security

Risks of the Internet are connected exclusively from it not by controllability. Being an enormous source of the information, the Internet doesn't divide it on good and bad, or useful and useless.

On the one hand, the Internet provides mass character of its use, and with another – generates a number of problems with serious consequences.

First, the Internet is the port in an external world, it became the basic source of distribution of a harmful mobile code (viruses, Trojan programs).

Secondly, the Internet began to be applied actively as means of the latent penetration into corporate local computer networks.

Thirdly, now the Internet can be considered as one of the basic ports of escape of the confidential information. ............