There's no doubt how much of our lives now depend on your computers. We use these machines to communicate with our friends, learn more about our assigned topic for schoolwork, create beautiful graphics, create office reports and many other things which may just not have happened if not for this technology called the Internet.

Indeed, we can almost live in it because it practically has most of the things we need. However, Internet experts who don't have very good intentions just may abuse this convenience that we're enjoying. For example, its very convenient for us to buy something just by going to a certain website, picking some options and typing our credit card information. The problem is, the comfort we enjoy in taking advantage of this technology is the same comfort cyber criminals are so happy about because it makes them able to launch their cyber attacks quite easily. These attacks are, of course, going to undermine our computer's Internet security and if we don't want to expose ourselves to Internet threats, we need to understand what they are and, just as importantly, the people who are behind them.

Of course, by definition, an Internet security risk is anything that compromises the safety or condition of your computer and everything in it by way of the Internet. Damage may include anything within your data, your software, hardware and even processing incompatibilities. There are many types of people who could bring us many different types of risks as well, but these cyber criminals known as either hackers, crackers, cyberextortionists, cyberterrorists, unethical employees, script kiddies or corporate spies.

It's interesting to know that hackers were once viewed as good although it's undeniable that these days, the term has many negative connotations. A hacker is technically a aperson who breaks into a computer network's security walls and tries look into the leaks or the holes of the system. Originally, hackers did this to find out what made these systems weak and what could be done to make them stronger. These days, however, the term has been used to point to somebody who hacks for selfish purposes. For example, these days, people hack other people's computers to get their victims' personal information such as credit card usernames and passwords and use this information for illegal acts. On the other hand, the word cracker has retained its positive value and is always considered to be a good force in any network setting.

A cyberterrorist is someone who uses the Internet to launch an attack against another person's computer and usually for political reasons. Cyber attacks are pretty much like traditional terrorism wherein the people who are actually involved in the crime are highly skilled and trained. Meanwhile, an unethical employee would be someone who works in a company and uses the company's information or files to attack that company's management. A script kiddie is someone who tries to hack but has mediocre skills, that's why his tricks don't always work. A corporate spy is someone who is assigned to spy or pry into a specific network in order to steal information in an act called corporate espionage. Companies do this in order to take a step ahead of their competitors in the business.