Security and privacy have always been collectively one of the main concerns of humans and so many measures have been taken to ensure these two very important concepts have been provided.

The interesting thing about security and privacy is the fact that the same concepts apply to information technology world and essentially there is no difference between security and privacy in real world and virtual world of IT.

Things like passwords, locked doors and checking for identity are now used in their virtual form in information technology.

Security and privacy are so tightly connected concepts that it is impossible to discuss one without considering the other one.

Privacy breaches take place when unauthorized individuals or groups gain access to information they are not allowed and security breaches happen when unauthorized persons or organizations break into a system and carry out things like stealing,updating,destroying and passing on of the information present in a system to others.

It is important to mention the fact that security breach happens even if the intruder does not carry out any special action after accessing a system in unauthorized way.

Based on above mentioned definition one can easily find out how much security and privacy are interconnected, because gaining access to confidential information that means a privacy breach could lead to security violations like stealing the related information, or gaining unauthorized access to some parts or all parts of the system that is a security concern might lead to privacy breaches by gaining access to private information.

Some necessary measures to be taken:

• Install security updates for softwares and operating systems as soon as possible.
• Password protect sensitive and confidential parts and files of computer system you own. Organizations usually have their own security and privacy policies.
• Choose passwords that are strong enough, like passwords that consist of at least 8 characters and are mixtures of numbers and alphabetic characters.
• Change your password on a regular basis.
• Never give away your passwords to others.
• Install a reliable firewall and configure it to suit your system and requirements.
• Define user privileges based on requirements and do not give extra privilege to any user in case multi-user systems.
• Backup your necessary and confidential files to be able to restore them later after an attack that could lead to destruction of information.
• Encrypt (scramble) private and confidential information so intruders will not be able to use the files even if they steal them.