Do I need Computer Security ?

Every organization and individual possesses certain vital information - a unique formula, specialized customer database, a personal diary, annual financial data, etc. The organization would be compromised if such data fell into the wrong hands.
Until a few years ago, protecting such information was relatively easy. All one required was a strong safe with a single key to access it. However, such privacy does not exist anymore. Encryption is now the only way to protect your valuables. Currently, except for a few strong encryption packages, there are no means available to perform this critical encryption function.

Passwords within most programs (Word, Excel, Access etc.) can be broken by mere novices without any computing knowledge. Such password breaking tools are easily available on the Worldwide Web, for as little as $5.95, or sometimes even for free!

Most companies invest millions of dollars in putting up firewalls and trying to secure their networks. Ironically, they spend the least amount of money in protecting the area where the data actually resides or is created, the PC their employees use. The costs involved in securing data at the user level are minimum. They refuse to pay only 35$ for a security software.

Encryption renders your data, even if accessed by an unauthorized person, unintelligible and unusable. By adopting the simplest prevention techniques, you can ensure complete data privacy.

Hacking no longer requires experts. There are literally thousands of off-the-shelf programs available on the Internet that are as easy to use as the software packages you are so familiar with. Anyone, even a child with limited or no computer know-how, can use these packages to hack into your systems. There is no defined, requisite learning curve - the amount of knowledge or background essential to be an effective 'hacker' is virtually zero.
Simple acts like going online to check your mail exposes your machine to being hacked. It is a trivial task to 'wiretap' somebody's email, so that all future correspondence is now in the hacker's inbox as well.

At http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html you can find a scientific study made by Peter Gutmann, from Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland, in which is explained with full technical details the principles of the Magnetic dispositive and what methods can be used to recover the files after they have been overwritten several times with data. You can also find there a ton of references to other scientific paperwork's on the same subject.