BASICS OF COMPUTERS & NETWORKING Programming languages: There is only one programming language that any computer can

actually understand and execute: its own native binary machine code. This is the lowest possible level of language in which it is possible to write a computer program. All other languages are said to be high level or low level according to how closely they can be said to resemble machine code. In this context, a low-level language corresponds closely to machine code, so that a single lowlevel language instruction translates to a single machine-language instruction. A high-level language instruction typically translates into a series of machine-language instructions. Low-level languages have the advantage that they can be written to take advantage of any peculiarities in the architecture of the central processing unit (CPU) which is the "brain" of any computer. Thus, a program written in a low-level language can be extremely efficient, making optimum use of both computer memory and processing time. However, to write a low-level program takes a substantial amount of time, as well as a clear understanding of the inner workings of the processor itself. Therefore, low-level programming is typically used only for very small programs, or for segments of code that are highly critical and must run as efficiently as possible. High-level languages permit faster development of large programs. The final program as executed by the computer is not as efficient, but the savings in programmer time generally far outweigh the inefficiencies of the finished product. This is because the cost of writing a program is nearly constant for each line of code, regardless of the language. Thus, a high-level language where each line of code translates to 10 machine instructions costs only one tenth as much in program development as a low-level language where each line of code represents only a single machine instruction. In addition to the distinction between high-level and low-level languages, there is a further distinction between compiler languages and interpreter languages. Let's take a look at the various levels. Absolute Machine Code The very lowest possible level at which you can program a computer is in its own native machine code, consisting of strings of 1's and 0's and stored as binary numbers. The main problems with using machine code directly are that it is very easy to make a mistake, and very hard to find it once you realize the mistake has been made. Assembly Language Assembly language is nothing more than a symbolic representation of machine code, which also allows symbolic designation of memory locations. Thus, an instruction to add the contents of a memory location to an internal CPU register called the accumulator might be add a number instead of a string of binary digits (bits). No matter how close assembly language is to machine code, the computer still cannot understand it. The assembly-language program must be translated into machine code by a separate program called an assembler. The assembler program recognizes the character strings that make up the symbolic names of the various machine operations, and substitutes the required machine code for each instruction. At the same time, it also calculates the required address in memory for each symbolic name of a memory location, and substitutes those addresses for the names. The final result is a machine-language program that can run on its own at any time; the assembler and the assembly-language program are no longer needed. To help distinguish between the "before" and "after" versions of the program, the original assembly-language program is also known as the source code, while the final machine-language program is designated the object code. If an assembly-language program needs to be changed or corrected, it is necessary to make the changes to the source code and then re-assemble it to create a new object program. Compiler Language Compiler languages are the high-level equivalent of assembly language. Each instruction in the compiler language can correspond to many machine instructions. Once the program has

been written, it is translated to the equivalent machine code by a program called a compiler. Once the program has been compiled, the resulting machine code is saved separately, and can be run on its own at any time. As with assembly-language programs, updating or correcting a compiled program requires that the original (source) program be modified appropriately and then recompiled to form a new machine-language (object) program. Typically, the compiled machine code is less efficient than the code produced when using assembly language. This means that it runs a bit more slowly and uses a bit more memory than the equivalent assembled program. To offset this drawback, however, we also have the fact that it takes much less time to develop a compiler-language program, so it can be ready to go sooner than the assembly-language program Interpreter Language An interpreter language, like a compiler language, is considered to be high level. However, it operates in a totally different manner from a compiler language. Rather, the interpreter program resides in memory, and directly executes the high-level program without preliminary translation to machine code. This use of an interpreter program to directly execute the user's program has both advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantage is that you can run the program to test its operation, make a few changes, and run it again directly. There is no need to recompile because no new machine code is ever produced. This can enormously speed up the development and testing process. On the down side, this arrangement requires that both the interpreter and the user's program reside in memory at the same time. In addition, because the interpreter has to scan the user's program one line at a time and execute internal portions of itself in response, execution of an interpreted program is much slower than for a compiled program. Computer Memory: 1. Volatile i) ROM 2. Non-Volatile i) RAM ii) Cache iii) Virtual Memory Computer memory refers to either of two types of computer storage volatile & non-volatile. Non-volatile memory refers to Read-only memory (ROM), also known as firmware, is an integrated circuit programmed with specific data when it is manufactured. ROM chips are used not only in computers, but in most other electronic items as well. Volatile memory refers to RAM that needs to be constantly refreshed to be retained. Static memory is permanent storage that is retained even after the computer is turned off. RAM or Random Access Memory is volatile memory that is erased when the power goes off. Program instructions and data held in RAM can be accessed and saved much more quickly than that held in permanent storage. Therefore, files needed to run a program and data that is being processed are held in RAM while they are in use. A computer is a machine in which we measure time in very small increments. When the microprocessor accesses the main memory (RAM), it does it in about 60 nanoseconds (60 billionths of a second). That's pretty fast, but it is much slower than the typical microprocessor. Microprocessors can have cycle times as short as 2 nanoseconds, so to a microprocessor 60 nanoseconds seems like an eternity. What if we build a special memory bank in the motherboard, small but very fast (around 30 nanoseconds)? That's already two times faster than the main memory access. That's called a level 2 cache or an L2 cache. Virtual memory is a part of the external memory (Hard Disk) which will be treated & used as RAM.

Registers: Registers are fast memory, almost always connected to circuitry that allows various arithmetic, logical, control, and other manipulations, as well as possibly setting internal flags. Most early computers had only one data register that could be used for arithmetic and logic instructions. Often there would be additional special purpose registers set aside either for temporary fast internal storage or assigned to logic circuits to implement certain instructions. Accumulators are registers that can be used for arithmetic, logical, shift, rotate, or other similar operations.

Data registers are used for temporary scratch storage of data, as well as for data manipulations. Address registers store the addresses of specific memory locations. Often many integer and logic operations can be performed on address registers directly (to allow for computation of addresses). Sometimes the contents of address register(s) are combined with other special purpose registers to compute the actual physical address. This allows for the hardware implementation of dynamic memory pages, virtual memory, and protected memory. Band Width: In computer networks, bandwidth is often used as a synonym for data transfer rate - the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period (usually a second). This kind of bandwidth is usually expressed in bits (of data) per second (bps). In electronic communication, bandwidth is the width of the range (or band) of frequencies that an electronic signal uses on a given transmission medium. In this usage, bandwidth is expressed in terms of the difference between the highest-frequency signal component and the lowest-frequency signal component. A Brief History of the Internet In 1969, the US Department of Defense started a project to allow researchers and military personnel to communicate with each other in an emergency. The project was called ARPAnet and it is the foundation of the Internet. Throughout the 1970's, what would later become the Internet was developed. While mostly military personnel and scientists used it in its early days, the advent of the World Wide Web in the early 1990's changed all that. Today, the Internet is not owned or operated by any one entity. This worldwide computer network allows people to communicate and exchange information in new ways. According to www.commerce.net, in April of 1999, there were 92.2 million Internet users over the age of 16 in the United States and Canada. By 2005, it is predicted 75% of the total US population will be online. What is the Internet? The Internet is the largest computer network in the world, connecting millions of computers. A network is a group of two or more computer systems linked together. There are two types of computer networks: Local Area Network (LAN): A LAN is two or more connected computers sharing certain resources in a relatively small geographic location (the same building, for example).

Wide Area Network (WAN): A WAN typically consists of 2 or more LANs. The computers are farther apart and are linked by telephone lines, dedicated telephone lines, or radio waves. The Internet is the largest Wide Area Network (WAN) in existence. Servers All computers on the Internet (a wide area network, or WAN) can be lumped into two groups: servers and clients. In a network, clients and servers communicate with one another.

A server is the common source that : Provides shared services (for example, network security measures) with other machines AND Manages resources (for example, one printer many people use) in a network. The term server is often used to describe the hardware (computer), but the term also refers to the software (application) running on the computer. Many servers are dedicated, meaning they only perform specific tasks. For example, An email server is a computer that has software running on it allowing it to "serve" email-related services. A web server has software running on it that allows it to "serve" web-related services. Clients Remember, all computers on the Internet (a wide area network, or WAN) can be lumped into two groups: servers and clients, which communicate with one another. Independent computers connected to a server are called clients. Most likely, your home or office computer does not provide services to other computers. Therefore, it is a client. Clients run multiple client software applications that perform specific functions. For example, An email application such as Microsoft Outlook is client software. Your web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) is client software. Servers and Clients Communicate Your computer (client hardware) is running a web browser such as Internet Explorer (client software). When you want to surf the web, your browser connects to a remote server and requests a web page. The remote server (server hardware) runs web server software (server software). The web server sends the web page to your computer's web browser. Your web browser displays the page. Algorithm: Algorithm is a list of well-defined instructions for completing a task. Starting from an initial state, the instructions describe a computation that proceeds through a well-defined series of successive states, eventually terminating in a final ending state. In this contest, a step-by-step representation of computer program execution. Flow Chart: It is a diagrammatic representation of computer program execution. CPU: The fundamental operation of most CPUs, regardless of the physical form they take, is to execute a sequence of stored instructions called a program. The program is represented by a series of numbers that are kept in some kind of computer memory. There are four steps that nearly all CPUs use in their operation: fetch, decode, execute, and writeback. Fetch, involves retrieving an instruction (which is represented by a number or sequence of numbers) from program memory. The location in program memory is determined by a program counter (PC), which stores a number that identifies the current position in the program. The instruction that the CPU fetches from memory is used to determine what the CPU is to do. In the decode step, the instruction is broken up into parts that have significance to other portions of the CPU. After the fetch and decode steps, the execute step is performed. During this step, various portions of the CPU are connected so they can perform the desired operation. If, for instance, an addition operation was requested, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) will be connected to a set of inputs and a set of outputs. The inputs provide the numbers to be added, and the outputs will contain the final sum. The final step, writeback, simply "writes back" the results of the execute step to some form of memory.

Hot Swapping & Hot plugging: Hot swapping and hot plugging are terms used to describe the functions of replacing system components without shutting down the system. More specifically, hot swapping describes replacing components without significant interruption to the system, while hot plugging describes the addition of components that would expand the system without significant interruption to the operation of the system. Different types of Computers Based on the operational principle of computers, they are categorized as analog computers and hybrid computers. Analog Computers: These are almost extinct today. These are different from a digital computer because an analog computer can perform several mathematical operations simultaneously. It uses continuous variables for mathematical operations and utilizes mechanical or electrical energy. Hybrid Computers: These computers are a combination of both digital and analog computers. In this type of computers, the digital segments perform process control by conversion of analog signals to digital ones. Following are some of the other important types of computers. Mainframe Computers: Large organizations use mainframes for highly critical applications such as bulk data processing and ERP. Most of the mainframe computers have the capacities to host multiple operating systems and operate as a number of virtual machines and can thus substitute for several small servers. Microcomputers: A computer with a microprocessor and its central processing unit is known as a microcomputer. They do not occupy space as much as mainframes. When supplemented with a keyboard and a mouse, microcomputers can be called as personal computers. A monitor, a keyboard and other similar input output devices, computer memory in the form of RAM and a power supply unit come packaged in a microcomputer. These computers can fit on desks or tables and serve as the best choices for single-user tasks. Personal computers come in a variety of forms such as desktops, laptops and personal digital assistants. Let us look at each of these types of computers. Desktops: A desktop is intended to be used on a single location. The spare parts of a desktop computer are readily available at relative lower costs. Power consumption is not as critical as that in laptops. Desktops are widely popular for daily use in workplaces and households. Laptops: Similar in operation to desktops, laptop computers are miniaturized and optimized for mobile use. Laptops run on a single battery or an external adapter that charges the computer batteries. They are enabled with an inbuilt keyboard, touch pad acting as a mouse and a liquid crystal display. Its portability and capacity to operate on battery power have served as a boon for mobile users. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): It is a handheld computer and popularly known as a palmtop. It has a touch screen and a memory card for storage of data. PDAs can also be effectively used as portable audio players, web browsers and smart phones. Most of them can access the Internet by means of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi communication. Minicomputers: In terms of size and processing capacity, minicomputers lie in between mainframes and microcomputers. Minicomputers are also called mid-range systems or workstations. The term began to be popularly used in the 1960s to refer to relatively smaller third generation computers. They took up the

space that would be needed for a refrigerator or two and used transistor and core memory technologies. The 12-bit PDP-8 minicomputer of the Digital Equipment Corporation was the first successful minicomputer. Supercomputers: The highly calculation-intensive tasks can be effectively performed by means of supercomputers. Quantum physics, mechanics, weather forecasting, molecular theory are best studied by means of supercomputers. Their ability of parallel processing and their well-designed memory hierarchy give the supercomputers, large transaction processing powers. Wearable Computers: A record-setting step in the evolution of computers was the creation of wearable computers. These computers can be worn on the body and are often used in the study of behavior modeling and human health. Military and health professionals have incorporated wearable computers into their daily routine, as a part of such studies. When the users hands and sensory organs are engaged in other activities, wearable computers are of great help in tracking human actions. Wearable computers are consistently in operation as they do not have to be turned on and off and are constantly interacting with the user. Computer Protocols When two humans converse, they may have to use the same language but they generally understand each other without having to adhere to rigid rules of grammar or formal language frameworks. Computers, on the other hand, have to have everything explicitly defined and structured. If computers wish to communicate with one another, they have to know in advance exactly how information is to be exchanged and precisely what the format will be. Therefore, standard methods of transmitting and processing various kinds of information are used and these methods are called "protocols". Protocols are established by international agreement and ensure that computers everywhere can talk to one another. There are a variety of protocols for different kinds of information and functions. This article will discuss some of the common protocols that the average PC user is likely to encounter. TCP/IP TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP (Internet Protocol) are two different procedures that are often linked together. The linking of several protocols is common since the functions of different protocols can be complementary so that together they carry out some complete task. The combination of several protocols to carry out a particular task is often called a "stack" because it has layers of operations. In fact, the term "TCP/IP" is normally used to refer to a whole suite of protocols, each with different functions. This suite of protocols is what carries out the basic operations of the Web. TCP/IP is also used on many local area networks. The details of how the Web works are beyond the scope of this article but I will briefly describe some of the basics of this very important group of protocols. More details can be found in the references in the last section. When information is sent over the Internet, it is generally broken up into smaller pieces or "packets". The use of packets facilitates speedy transmission since different parts of a message can be sent by different routes and then reassembled at the destination. It is also a safety measure to minimize the chances of losing information in the transmission process. TCP is the means for creating the packets, putting them back together in the correct order at the end, and checking to make sure that no packets got lost in transmission. If necessary, TCP will request that a packet be resent. Internet Protocol (IP) is the method used to route information to the proper address. Every computer on the Internet has to have it own unique address known as the IP address. Every packet sent will contain an IP address showing where it is supposed to go. A packet may go through a number of computer routers before arriving at its final destination and IP controls the process of getting everything to the designated computer. Note that IP does not make physical connections between computers but relies on TCP for this function. IP is also used in conjunction with other protocols that create connections. Another member of the TCP/IP suite is User Datagram Protocol (UDP). (A datagram is almost the same as a packet except that sometimes a packet will contain more than one datagram.) This protocol is used

together with IP when small amounts of information are involved. It is simpler than TCP and lacks the flow-control and error-recovery functions of TCP. Thus, it uses fewer system resources. A different type of protocol is Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) . It defines a small number of messages used for diagnostic and management purposes. It is also used by Ping and Traceroute. Mail protocols Email requires its own set of protocols and there are a variety, both for sending and for receiving mail. The most common protocol for sending mail is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). When configuring email clients such as Outlook Express, an Internet address for an SMTP server must be entered. The most common protocol for receiving mail is Post Office Protocol (POP). It is now in version 3 so it is called POP3. Email clients such as Outlook Express require an address for a POP3 server before they can read mail. The SMTP and POP3 servers may or may not be the same address. Both SMTP and POP3 use TCP for managing the transmission and delivery of mail across the Internet. A more powerful but less common protocol for reading mail is Interactive Mail Access Protocol (IMAP). This protocol allows for the reading of individual mailboxes at a single account and is more common in business environments. IMAP also uses TCP to manage the actual transmission of mail. It is increasingly popular to use Web based email such as Yahoo. Web mail, of course, involves the same protocol as a Web page and this is discussed next. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Web pages are constructed according to a standard method called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). An HTML page is transmitted over the Web in a standard way and format known as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This protocol uses TCP/IP to manage the Web transmission. A related protocol is Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer (HTTPS), first introduced by Netscape. It provides for the transmission in encrypted form to provide security for sensitive data. A Web page using this protocol will have https: at the front of its URL. File Transfer Protocol File Transfer Protocol (FTP) lives up to its name and provides a method for copying files over a network from one computer to another. More generally, it provides for some simple file management on the contents of a remote computer. It is an old protocol and is used less than it was before the Word Wide Web came along. Today, Its primary use is uploading files to a Web site. It can also be used for downloading from the Web but, more often than not, downloading is done via HTTP. Sites that have a lot of downloading (software sites, for example) will often have an FTP server to handle the traffic. If FTP is involved, the URL will have ftp: at the front. Program Execution: 1. Interpreting or compelling 2. Data collecting 3. Calculating or manipulating 4. Data outputting 5. Storing What is broadband? Broadband is an internet connection with a bandwidth of 512kbps or more and can be accessed through telephone line, cable line, radio signals, or even by satellites. Broadband connections need special modems which should be capable of sending and receiving data very fast. Broadband also demands faster processing speed and good memory (Random Access Memory) from your computer. what is ADSL broadband? ADSL is the technology used in the broadband connections accessed through telephone line. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology allows faster downloading than uploading and its micro-filter uses the existing telephone line both for making calls as well as for surfing the net at the same time. ADSL is ideal for people who regularly download videos, mp3 music and software updates.

Connection speeds: Generally narrowband or dial-up connection refers to the internet connections with a connection speed of 56 kbps (kilobit per second) or below than that. On the other hand, broadband connections begin with a minimum speed of 512kbps and have speeds up to 24Mb. Printer: a printer is a peripheral which produces a hard copy (permanent readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Dot matrix printer.- A print head sweeps across the surface of the page while tiny pins punch through an ink ribbon, much like an old-fashioned typewriter. Images and text are assembled line by line and dot by dot, so dot matrix printers are not nearly as fast as other types of printers, nor is the resolution anywhere near as good. ii. Ink jets: Ink jets spray liquid ink onto paper to form letters and images.

i.

iii. Laser printer.: Laser printers are toner-based and make images in a fashion similar to
photocopiers. The image is projected onto a rotating drum with a laser, which then electrically attracts powdered toner to the paper Switching: The old telephone system (PSTN) uses circuit switching to transmit voice data whereas VoIP uses packet-switching to do so To understand switching, you need to realize that the network in place between two communicating persons is a complex field of devices and machines, especially if the network is the Internet. Consider a person in Mauritius having a phone conversation with another person on the other side of the globe, say in the US. There are a large number of routers, switches and other kinds of devices that take the data transmitted during the communication from one end to the other. Switching and routing Switching and routing are technically two different things, but for the sake of simplicity, let us take switches and routers (which are devices that make switching and routing respectively) as devices doing one job: make a link in the connection and forward data from the source to the destination. Paths or circuits The important thing to look for in transmitting information over such a complex network is the path or circuit. The devices making up the path are called nodes. For instance, switches, routers and some other network devices, are nodes. In circuit-switching, this path is decided upon before the data transmission starts. The system decides on which route to follow, based on a resource-optimizing algorithm, and transmission goes according to the path. For the whole length of the communication session between the two communicating bodies, the route is dedicated and exclusive, and released only when the session terminates. Packets To be able to understand packet-switching, you need to know what a packet is. The Internet Protocol(IP), just like many other protocols, breaks data into chunks and wraps the chunks into structures called packets. Each packet contains, along with the data load, information about the IP address of the source and the destination nodes, sequence numbers and some other control information. A packet can also be called a segment or datagram. Once they reach their destination, the packets are reassembled to make up the original data again. It is therefore obvious that, to transmit data in packets, it has to be digital data. In packet-switching, the packets are sent towards the destination irrespective of each other. Each packet has to find its own route to the destination. There is no predetermined path; the decision as to which node to hop to in the next step is taken only when a node is reached. Each packet finds its way using the information it carries, such as the source and destination IP addresses. As you must have figured it out already, traditional PSTN phone system uses circuit switching while VoIP uses packet switching. Brief comparison Circuit switching is old and expensive, and it is what PSTN uses. Packet switching is more modern.

When you are making a PSTN call, you are actually renting the lines, with all it implies. See why international calls are expensive? So if you speak for, say 10 minutes, you pay for ten minutes of dedicated line. You normally speak only when your correspondent is silent, and vice versa. Taking also into consideration the amount of time no one speaks, you finally use much less than half of what you are paying for. With VoIP, you actually can use a network or circuit even if there are other people using it at the same time. There is no circuit dedication. The cost is shared. Circuit-switching is more reliable than packet-switching. When you have a circuit dedicated for a session, you are sure to get all information across. When you use a circuit which is open for other services, then there is a big possibility of congestion (which is for a network what a traffic jam is for the road), and hence the delays or even packet loss. This explains the relatively lower quality of VoIP voice compared to PSTN. But you actually have other protocols giving a helping hand in making packetswitching techniques to make connections more reliable. An example is the TCP protocol. Since voice is to some extent tolerant to some packet loss (unless text - since a comma lost can mean a big difference), packet-switching is finally ideal for VoIP.

Internet Crimes: Computer crime, or cybercrime, refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network, where the computers may or may not have played an instrumental part in the commission of a crime.[1] Netcrime refers, more precisely, to criminal exploitation of the Internet.[2] Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement, child pornography, and child grooming. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise. On the global level, both governments and non-state actors continue to grow in importance, with the ability to engage in such activities as espionage, financial theft, and other cross-border crimes sometimes referred to as cyber warfare. The international legal system is attempting to hold actors accountable for their actions, with the International Criminal Court among the few addressing this threat.[3] Computer crime encompasses a broad range of potentially illegal activities. Generally, however, it may be divided into one of two types of categories: (1) crimes that target computer networks or devices directly; (2) crimes facilitated by computer networks or devices, the primary target of which is independent of the computer network or device.[citation needed] Examples of crimes that primarily target computer networks or devices would include: Computer viruses Denial-of-service attacks Malware (malicious code) Examples of crimes that merely use computer networks or devices would include: Cyber stalking Fraud and identity theft Information warfare Phishing scams

A computer can be a source of evidence. Even though the computer is not directly used for criminal purposes, it is an excellent device for record keeping, particularly given the power to encrypt the data. If this evidence can be obtained and decrypted, it can be of great value to criminal investigators. Spam

Spam, or the unsolicited sending of bulk email for commercial purposes, is unlawful to varying degrees. As applied to email, specific anti-spam laws are relatively new, however limits on unsolicited electronic communications have existed in some forms for some time.[4] Fraud Computer fraud is any dishonest misrepresentation of fact intended to let another to do or refrain from doing something which causes loss.[citation needed] In this context, the fraud will result in obtaining a benefit by: Altering computer input in an unauthorized way. This requires little technical expertise and is not an uncommon form of theft by employees altering the data before entry or entering false data, or by entering unauthorized instructions or using unauthorized processes; Altering, destroying, suppressing, or stealing output, usually to conceal unauthorized transactions: this is difficult to detect; Altering or deleting stored data; Altering or misusing existing system tools or software packages, or altering or writing code for fraudulent purposes.

Other forms of fraud may be facilitated using computer systems, including bank fraud, identity theft, extortion, and theft of classified information. A variety of Internet scams target consumers direct. Obscene or offensive content The content of websites and other electronic communications may be distasteful, obscene or offensive for a variety of reasons. In some instances these communications may be illegal. Many[quantify] jurisdictions place limits on certain speech and ban racist, blasphemous, politically subversive, libelous or slanderous, seditious, or inflammatory material that tends to incite hate crimes. The extent to which these communications are unlawful varies greatly between countries, and even within nations. It is a sensitive area in which the courts can become involved in arbitrating between groups with entrenched beliefs. One area of Internet pornography that has been the target of the strongest efforts at curtailment is child pornography. Harassment Whereas content may be offensive in a non-specific way, harassment directs obscenities and derogatory comments at specific individuals focusing for example on gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation. This often occurs in chat rooms, through newsgroups, and by sending hate e-mail to interested parties (see cyber bullying, cyber stalking, harassment by computer, hate crime, Online predator, and stalking). Any comment that may be found derogatory or offensive is considered harassment. Drug trafficking Drug traffickers are increasingly taking advantage of the Internet to sell their illegal substances through encrypted e-mail and other Internet Technology.[citation needed] Some drug traffickers arrange deals at internet cafes, use courier Web sites to track illegal packages of pills, and swap recipes for amphetamines in restricted-access chat rooms.

The rise in Internet drug trades could also be attributed to the lack of face-to-face communication. These virtual exchanges allow more intimidated individuals to more comfortably purchase illegal drugs. The sketchy effects that are often associated with drug trades are severely minimized and the filtering process that comes with physical interaction fades away. Furthermore, traditional drug recipes were carefully kept secrets. But with modern computer technology, this information is now being made available to anyone with computer access. Cyberterrorism Government officials and Information Technology security specialists have documented a significant increase in Internet problems and server scans since early 2001. But there is a growing concern among federal officials[who?] that such intrusions are part of an organized effort by cyberterrorists, foreign intelligence services, or other groups to map potential security holes in critical systems. A cyberterrorist is someone who intimidates or coerces a government or organization to advance his or her political or social objectives by launching computer-based attack against computers, network, and the information stored on them. Cyberterrorism in general, can be defined as an act of terrorism committed through the use of cyberspace or computer resources (Parker 1983). As such, a simple propaganda in the Internet, that there will be bomb attacks during the holidays can be considered cyberterrorism. As well there are also hacking activities directed towards individuals, families, organised by groups within networks, tending to cause fear among people, demonstrate power, collecting information relevant for ruining peoples' lives, robberies, blackmailing etc. Spoofing attack In the context of network security, a spoofing attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage. Man-in-the-middle attack and internet protocol spoofing An example from cryptography is the man-in-the-middle attack, in which an attacker spoofs Alice into believing the attacker is Bob, and spoofs Bob into believing the attacker is Alice, thus gaining access to all messages in both directions without the trouble of any cryptanalytic effort. The attacker must monitor the packets sent from Alice to Bob and then guess the sequence number of the packets. Then the attacker knocks out Alice with a SYN attack and injects his own packets, claiming to have the address of Alice. Alice's firewall can defend against some spoof attacks when it has been configured with knowledge of all the IP addresses connected to each of its interfaces. It can then detect a spoofed packet if it arrives at an interface that is not known to be connected to the IP address. Many carelessly designed protocols are subject to spoof attacks, including many of those used on the Internet. See Internet protocol spoofing URL spoofing and phishing Another kind of spoofing is "webpage spoofing," also known as phishing. In this attack, a legitimate web page such as a bank's site is reproduced in "look and feel" on another server under control of the attacker. The main intent is to fool the users into thinking that they are connected to a trusted site, for instance to harvest usernames and passwords. This attack is often performed with the aid of URL spoofing, which exploits web browser bugs in order to display incorrect URLs in the browsers location bar; or with DNS cache poisoning in order to direct the user away from the legitimate site and to the fake one. Once the user puts in their password, the attack-code reports a password error, then redirects the user back to the legitimate site.

Referrer spoofing Some websites, especially pornographic paysites, allow access to their materials only from certain approved (login-) pages. This is enforced by checking the referrer header of the HTTP request. This referrer header however can be changed (known as "referrer spoofing" or "Ref-tar spoofing"), allowing users to gain unauthorized access to the materials. Poisoning of file-sharing networks "Spoofing" can also refer to copyright holders placing distorted or unlistenable versions of works on file-sharing networks, to discourage downloading from these sources. Caller ID spoofing In public telephone networks, it has for a long while been possible to find out who is calling you by looking at the Caller ID information that is transmitted with the call. There are technologies that transmit this information on landlines, on cellphones and also with VoIP. Unfortunately, there are now technologies (especially associated with VoIP) that allow callers to lie about their identity, and present false names and numbers, which could of course be used as a tool to defraud or harass. Because there are services and gateways that interconnect VoIP with other public phone networks, these false Caller IDs can be transmitted to any phone on the planet, which makes the whole Caller ID information now next to useless. Due to the distributed geographic nature of the Internet, VoIP calls can be generated in a different country to the receiver, which means that it is very difficult to have a legal framework to control those who would use fake Caller IDs as part of a scam. E-mail address spoofing The sender information shown in e-mails (the "From" field) can be spoofed easily. This technique is commonly used by spammers to hide the origin of their e-mails and leads to problems such as misdirected bounces (i.e. e-mail spam backscatter). E-mail address spoofing is done in quite the same way as writing a forged return address using snail mail. As long as the letter fits the protocol, (i.e. stamp, postal code) the SMTP protocol will send the message. It can be done using a mail server with telnet. Computer Virus: A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself[1] and infect a computer. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability. A true virus can spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive.[2] Viruses can increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer.[3][4] As stated above, the term "computer virus" is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware, even those that do not have the reproductive ability. Malware includes computer viruses, computer worms, Trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware and other malicious and unwanted software, including true viruses. Viruses are sometimes confused with worms and Trojan horses, which are technically different. A worm can exploit security vulnerabilities to spread itself automatically to other computers through networks, while a Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but hides malicious functions. Worms and Trojan horses, like viruses, may harm a computer system's data or performance. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but many are surreptitious or simply do nothing to call attention to themselves. Some viruses do nothing beyond reproducing themselves.

Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent. Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after. The object of the Adware is to generate revenue for its author. Adware, by itself, is harmless; however, some adware may come with integrated spyware such as keyloggers and other privacy-invasive software. Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers and collects little bits of information at a time about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's personal computer. Sometimes, however, spywares such as keyloggers are installed by the owner of a shared, corporate, or public computer on purpose in order to secretly monitor other users. A computer worm is a self-replicating malware computer program. It uses a computer network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computers on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. This is due to security shortcomings on the target computer. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer. A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is malware that appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install but instead facilitates unauthorized access of the user's computer system. A rootkit is software that enables continued privileged access to a computer, while actively hiding its presence from administrators by subverting standard operating system tools as well as other applications. Typically, a hacker installs a rootkit on a computer after first obtaining user-level access, either by exploiting a known vulnerability or cracking a password. Once a rootkit is installed, it allows an attacker to mask his intrusion while gaining root or privileged access to the computer. Although rootkits can serve a variety of ends, they have gained notority primarily as malware, appropriating computing resources or stealing passwords without the knowledge of the administrators or users of affected systems. Rootkits can target hardware, a hypervisor, the boot loader, kernel or most commonly, user-mode applications.