OVERVIEW

In the era before the 20th century, "security" consisted mostly of "physical security" of putting physical objects of some worth in a secure room or box and posting live people around to keep an eye on them. As the computer era dawned, "security" became the protection of data and data systems initially of not letting the data escape via a disk in somebody's pocket, later preventing "hackers" from gaining access to a system and trashing it or transferring valuable data (e.g. credit card data) over data networks.

Anyone who attempts to either access specific information that resides on a corporate network or use network resources when unauthorized to do so is by definition an intruder regardless of their intent. Network intruders can range from a bumbling employee to hackers, "crackers" (the malevolent form of hackers), and disgruntled employees. Actions by any nefarious individual, group or even bumbling employee can spell disaster for many businesses. If the intruder has accessed the network with malicious intent, they can steal information; disrupt businesses by modifying data files, software and network operations; and pirate resources like long distance data services for their own use often without being detected.

Businesses that are attacked through network intrusion can suffer large losses in financial and intellectual assets, along with deterioration of business capabilities that can have wide-reach adverse affects, including dealing with the aftermath-public embarrassment and damage to their reputation that can lead to a loss of customer confidence.

VOICE NETWORK SECURITY

As the reader can tell, terrorists, acts of war...