What Are Vulnerabilities and Threats?

Technology security ensures that one's information technology (IT) resources are protected from unauthorized access and his/her users' privacy is maintained. Secure IT practices include being informed about existing and emerging threats as they relate to software, hardware, and various methods used by email or telephone scammers. This chapter defines the key targets, tools, and methodologies associated with the most common and dangerous security threats. A good set of security protocols ensures these four outcomes: confidentiality, integrity, availability, and nonrepudiation. The chapter then defines two more important expressions: vulnerability and threat. A backdoor is an undocumented method of accessing a compute device. Device and software manufacturers might include backdoors for perfectly legitimate reasons: to give support teams a way to access and administrate a malfunctioning server, for instance. Malware is any software that includes functionality designed to harm the target device or network.