Problem:

Suppose a PC owner leaves the PC connected to the Internet where it ultimately is used by another party to implement a denial of service attack. To what extent should the PC owner be liable? Does your answer depend on whether the owner installed proper firewalls?

Solution:

The level of extent to which the PC owner should be liable for the mentioned loss depends upon the proper installation of firewall for that system. A denial of service attack is used by the hackers to make a machine or any other kind of network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily interrupting the services. Ideally the PC owner should leave the PC unattended only if he/she is fully confident that the system shall not be harmed by anyone in his/her absence. The best way to safeguard one’s PC is to install and configure a firewall properly. A firewall, when installed properly, can monitor the network traffic both incoming and outgoing based on the configured security rules. It acts as a barrier between trusted sources and external outside networks. It can reduce the security risk to a great extent by stopping hackers on attacking the system.