The Effects of Computer Hacking

Computer hacking is a term that is used to refer to the unscrupulous use of technology to obtain illegal access to delicate data that is stored and computer, which obstructs the security and confidentiality of the computer user. It is a method which is employed by a lot of identity thieves to steal valuable personal information. Most hackers focus on hacking personal computer of individuals who are connected online while other's focus their hacking energy into accessing company computers.

How does hacking affect its individual victims? Read on if you want to know more.

1. Hacking is a clear breach of the security of the computer. It renders important user data exposed and risks the user into various threats like identity theft. Various hacking activities are directed mainly towards exposing or stealing confidential user information like social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account information and individual photographs. These important personal information, when in the hands of computer hackers, can be very vulnerable to illegitimate use and manipulation like that of identity theft's.

2. When your computer is hacked, the criminals may delete valuable information and sensitive data inside your computer. They can deliberately or unwittingly manipulate sensitive data for their own personal gain. This gain can be both financial, as with the cases of credit card identity theft, or medical, like that of medical identity theft.

3. Denial of service attack is another consequence of attacking. This is typically known as the DOS attack, which simply makes various computer resources unavailable to its authorized users. For instance, hackers may change your log in username and password which thereby blocks you totally out of the entire computer system. More often than not, websites are the ones who fell prey to these DOS attacks, which makes the entire website unusable to all its members.

4. Hacking can also lead to theft of essential business information like client's database as well as customer's record can be either lost of maneuvered by computer hacker's. These databases can be sold to identity theft sites where personal information is being posted for sale to other individuals who might otherwise have other purposes for this information.

5. Information that is crucial to national security, confidential government data, data regarding national defense, security and crimes, can be exposed through computer hacking and these can have very serious consequences to the welfare of the entire society. It can create total panic among the people especially if exaggerated information is posted and issues are blown out of proportion.

These are among the various effects of computer hacking. If you want to keep yourself protected, you need a reliable antivirus program as well as an anti-spyware program. You also need to closely monitor the various programs that you download online as some of them come with a free virus that can be very destructive to your computer.

Hacking is a real threat, just like identity theft. You need to keep yourself protected and secure against any attacks from the outside.

Tina L. Douglas is a skilled writer from California. With numerous experiences in the field of writing for several financial institutions, she is greatly qualified across a variety of economic issues. Her notable pieces of writing involve best identity protection and identity theft service review.