According to dictionary.com, the noun trust is a “firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.” Trust is something that human beings have in each other and things we come across everyday in our lives. It is our nature to trust what we hear and see on television, what we read in the newspaper, and what we hear on the radio. As humans, we trust our family and friends, the nutrition facts on cereal boxes, the labels on our mail, and that the item we buy on ebay will actually make it to our front door. Trust was what the internet was based on when it was first created. The idea was to connect computers world wide to share ideas and resources. However, little thought was directed towards the malicious activity that could take place with such technology (Rogers).

Many people are shocked to find out how easy it is for an intruder, or someone who attacks their computer, to actually gain access to all of their valuable information. Simply by sending an email with a virus attached to it, a computer criminal can gain access to your credit card numbers, bank accounts, and any other valuables stored on your system. Reading an email which activates a virus can create a hole for an intruder to crawl through to gain access to your system, and once inside that computer criminal can install programs which open up more holes so he or she can keep using your system right under your nose. When you trust an email or a packet, which is really just a spoof, your computer may become infected, your files deleted, and your information lost (Rogers).

Computer amateurs, hackers, crackers, career criminals, cyber gangs, cyber stalkers, sexual predators, and cyber terrorist all pose a threat to computer security in many ways. Not just your home computers are endangered. Threats are posed to offices, the military, networks, businesses, and the government as well. Hardware theft, sabotage, fraud, identity theft, scams, software piracy, online pornography, cyber stalking, and many more Personal Safety Issues are all threats to computer security (Morley). To help protect against these criminals and the risks, threats, and intrusions they are responsible for, there are many laws and acts in our constitution.