International Information Protection Day (30/11)

In 1988, the American Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) declared November 30 as Computer Security Day. The purpose of the Day, which is also known as Computer Security Day, is to remind users of the need to protect their computers and all information stored in them.

In proclaiming the Day, the Association intended to remind everyone of the need to protect computer information, as well as to draw the attention of manufacturers and users of equipment and software to security problems.

It is no coincidence that 1988 became the founder of the holiday; it was in this year that the first mass epidemic of the online «worm» was recorded, named after its creator — Morris. It was then that experts thought about the need for an integrated approach to ensuring information security. Although the prototype of the first computer virus appeared already in 1983.

Since then, on this day, at the initiative of the Association for Computing Machinery, international conferences on information security have been held, accompanied by a lot of interesting and useful events.

In particular, the amount of damage received by unprotected equipment is reported. For example, the damage from the «I love you» computer virus, launched in 2000, amounted to a billion dollars in North America alone.

Every year the Day is held under a specific motto, which is placed on posters and other printed materials produced for the holiday. For several years, the main idea of all ongoing activities has been to remind that each user must personally respond, ensure and maintain the protection of information assets and resources.

In this context, information protection implies:

— installation of antivirus programs, — installation of firewalls, — using difficult to define passwords, — social engineering, — physical protection of information resources and assets and other measures.

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