subject: What Are Internet Filters And Vulnerability Scanning? [print this page] The World Wide Web is so content-rich that there is no topic regarding which you would not find any information here. Students often refer to the various websites for their project work and reference. Besides being a source of information it is an entertainment package with the facility to download movies, music and games. For these reasons you will find many children and teenagers perpetually hooked on the internet. But we should never forget that the internet is unregulated where children are open to websites whose content are improper for them to view. Internet filters help parents and teachers to protect children from visiting these websites and by identifying the websites that are suitable for children to view. A vulnerability scanning is required to keep hackers at bay. It detects the harmful infiltrators that could harm your data and operating system when you are accessing the web.
You might have set a particular internet surfing time for your child; but how can you be sure that when you are busy at your office, your child would not get tempted to view a certain prohibited website? Children are generally inquisitive and would not get sleep till they have it their way! It is definitely true that the internet helps children to expand their knowledge about innumerable things. But these can also include content with inappropriate material like sex, racism and violence. These only generate wrong ideas on the minds of little children. There are chat-rooms and social networking websites where children might be coaxed to divulge personal information such as address, telephone number, etc. This has led to a situation where internet filters have become mandatory.
Internet filters could be softwares that can be easily installed on your computer or your internet provider can block a few websites on request. You can scan sites and then block the unsuitable ones. Internet filters software can have some limitation. The internet is vast, scanning each website and then blocking it would not be feasible. Children with a little information on computers can easily disable the filter. Certain websites are known to contain bugs and viruses. Therefore, if possible, ask your internet service provider to block these websites along with the fraudulent ones.
Many a time little children do not understand and click on pop-up windows which offer them so-called lucrative deals. These offers and deals are nothing but fake. These allow the entry of worms, spam and viruses into our computer and network. Vulnerability scanning will help you learn bout the components in your network which are susceptible to attacks so that you can take security measures beforehand. The process of vulnerability scanning involves having a close view of all the ports, running applications and operating system. A report can be generated according to the observation. The scanner can even crash an application to assess its vulnerability. This way all the vulnerable devices are identified in your network. Along with the report you are likely to receive updates on how to cure your system vulnerabilities. A time to time vulnerability scanning of your network shall be beneficial in keeping away from viruses and other threats. Internet filters and vulnerability scanning can be adopted to counter against malicious attacks.
