Internet's Influence on Students: Security, Challenges, and Measures

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the internet's impact on students, exploring both its positive and negative aspects. It highlights how the internet offers vast resources for research, communication, and career development, while also addressing the risks of addiction, distraction, and the spread of misinformation. The essay delves into the challenges of internet security, including user system hijacking and the exposure of confidential information, emphasizing the importance of firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and vulnerability scanners. It concludes by stressing the need for students to use the internet effectively and safely, utilizing security measures to protect their personal data and maximize the benefits of this powerful tool. The essay is well-researched, citing several academic sources to support its claims, and provides a balanced perspective on the subject.

Integrated Professional Skills in
the Digital Age

INTRODUCTION
Internet is the most trending tool which has changed the life of individuals. It has brought
a drastic change the people live in society and how they interact with each other. It has changed
the simple world to a modern generation which has made the task of business, schools, colleges
and organization faster and simpler. This essay is about the impact of internet on the students by
comparing the positive and negative aspects of internet. It also discusses challenges and
measures of security which the individual takes when using internet.
Main Body
Compare and contrast between the positive and negative aspects of the internet.
Internet is the short form of International Network which has brought the world closer by
creating a platform for effective sharing of information. Internet has given a new way to business
by allowing them to sell their products online (KIESLER, 2014). Moreover it had helped the
university students to a greater extent by providing them a effective source of information. There
are various positive and negative aspects of internet for university students which are as follows-
Positive Aspects
Internet is a powerful medium tool which has opened door of information and knowledge
for the students. It enhances their knowledge level by having access to huge data and has made
their research work a speedy and simple. Moreover with the help of internet platform they can
easily communicate with various authors, teachers and researches worldwide. It has helped them
in their career growth and advancement. It has various Google apps and YouTube facilities
which helps the students in getting access to large information. Apart from this internet also act
as a cost saving tool in which they get the free lecture sessions of the highly professionalized
lecturers instead of spending huge money of attending classes. The greatest opportunity lies with
them is they can also perform online jobs even while they are studying. It provides them a scope
to earn while learning. This way their knowledge is also been enhanced which help them in
grasping future opportunities(JEWKES, Yvonne and YAR, 2013).
Negative aspects
Internet is a powerful medium in the modern world but is associated with some negative
aspects such as students becomes highly addicted and dependent on internet to get information
due to which they never keep their mind attentive as they think every think will be available on
internet. This reduces their creativity level as everything is easily available on the internet.
Students don’t have to pay much extra efforts in completing their assignments as the readymade
assignments are easily available on the internet from which they can easily get the information.
Engaging on internet for long time can drastically inhibits the physical development which is a
biggest problem which leads to obesity and depression, results in decline of their academic

performance. The most trending problem associated with internet is that use of social media
platforms on which students share their personal information and photos and waste their useful
time while interacting with unknowns. This is the most negative aspect in which information of
the individuals and students are shared on the social networking sites and can easily be hacked
by the cyber people. When students use internet abandonments of family is the most negative
aspect as they become busy with their virtual world and forget the real world. Moreover internet
not only act a stool of providing information it contains various corrupted and waste information
which disturbs the mental health of the individuals().
As with every positive side of internet, negative outcomes are also there. It is necessary
for the students and the individuals to make effective use of internet and make their live easier
rather than making it complicated. As the internet provides a source of information for the
students by providing them career growth and advancement but also disturbs their mental health
if they spend lot of time surfing internet. Therefore using the internet in the positive manner
helps the students and other individuals to make their complicated life easier and helps in
achieving growth and success in their life.
Discuss the challenges and measures of security and privacy when using internet
When using internet there should be enough security of the data entered through browser.
Intent security is concerned with the browser security or the overall protection and authentication
of data. But there are some challenges of internet security such as-
 User system Hijacking- Even with the advanced firewalls and anti malware and many
other software’s there are various malicious programs such as viruses worms and Trojans
which takes the full control of the user system and programs and disrupts and hijacks the
data. It can take the user’s personal information and can spread out in a negative way.
 Disruptive Confidential Information- With the more and more use of internet many
companies, business, students and other individuals stores their personal information on
internet so that when in needcan be effectively utilized. Moreover companies have
various financial information from online sales and their investments. Therefore there is a
high risk of exposure of information and criminal access to the data increases every time.
Moreover Internet of things posses some great challenges to the privacy that goes beyond the
data privacy issues. This is caused by some of the apps and the instruments which an individual
faces on daily basis such as with the vision features and voice recognisation and tracking with
the consumer devices such as Cars, TVS and mobile phones has increased the criminal access to
the private information. This information is transmitted by the server easily and sometimes give
access to the third parties which posses various challenges for the individuals (Kittinger, Correia
and Irons, 2012).

These are the various challenges that the individuals may face while operating internet
and should take necessary steps and corrective actions in order to minimize the
challenges and can make the use of internet in the positive way.
There are various measures of security that the individual must take while using internet which
are as follows-
Internet privacy is the security level of the personal data and involves various tools and
techniques to prevent the personal data. Various measures to keep the data secure are as follows-
 Use a firewall- Firewall has become a data security tool for the home users as well as for
the business man. There are different types of malware scanners which will keep the
malicious software away and will prevent them to steal the efficient data. If anything is
found damaging the data it act as a personal security guard and prevents the personal
information.
Intretection Detection system- These are of two types such as host based ids and network based
id’s. Host based id’s are installed on the computer machine and creates a data base of file
signatures and helps in regular checking of current system and prevents the malicious virus to
enter in the computer programs and files(Kuss, 2013). The other is network based id’s which are
easy to plan and install and consist of normal network sniffer which is normally attached to the
data base of attacked signatures. This prevents the virus to enter in the network and corrupts the
data. Moreover it also updates the firewall and prevents outbound traffic to enter and attack the
data.
 Vulnerability Scanners- It is just like a port scanner which identifies the service running
on the network and checks a large system of data base against vulnerabilities.. This is
simple tool which updates the software to scan the updated and latest security holes. The
most popular one is the retina which scans the whole data on the network and provides a
detailed summary about the viruses or the hole which exist and assist in proper
prevention of private information and data.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that internet has both the positive and the
negative sides. Individuals should make the effective use of internet to advance their career
growth by having access to huge information. Internet acts as a powerful medium tool to
communicate with people all around the world and has made the life of the individual easier.
Apart from this there are various challenges of the internet security which steals the private
information of the user and damages their data but individuals should make effective use of
firewall to prevent their data from malicious viruses and effectively stores their data online.

REFFERENCES
Books and Journals
KIESLER, Sara (ed.). Culture of the Internet. Psychology Press, 2014.
JEWKES, Yvonne; YAR, Majid (ed.). Handbook of Internet crime. Routledge, 2013.
HOLLER, Jan, et al. Internet of Things. Academic Press, 2014.
COMER, Douglas E. The Internet book: everything you need to know about computer
networking and how the Internet works. Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2018.
Kuss, D. J., Griffiths, M. D., & Binder, J. F. (2013). Internet addiction in students: Prevalence
and risk factors. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 959-966.
Kittinger, R., Correia, C. J., & Irons, J. G. (2012). Relationship between Facebook use and
problematic Internet use among college students. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking, 15(6), 324-327.
LEUNG, Louis; LEE, Paul SN. Impact of internet literacy, internet addiction symptoms, and
internet activities on academic performance. Social Science Computer Review. 2012. 30.4: 403-
418.