Systems Security: Firewalls, Encryption, Passwords & Biometrics - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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System Security

The objective of system security is the protection of information and property from theft, corruption and other types of damage, while allowing the information and property to remain accessible and productive. System security includes the development and implementation of security countermeasures. There are a number of different approaches to computer system security, including the use of a firewall, data encryption, passwords and biometrics.

Firewall

One widely used strategy to improve system security is to use a firewall. A firewall consists of software and hardware set up between an internal computer network and the Internet. A computer network manager sets up the rules for the firewall to filter out unwanted intrusions. These rules are set up in such a way that unauthorized access is much more difficult.

A system administrator can decide, for example, that only users within the firewall can access particular files, or that those outside the firewall have limited capabilities to modify the files. You can also set up a firewall for your own computer, and on many computer systems, this is built into the operating system.

Encryption

One way to keep files and data safe is to use encryption. This is often used when data is transferred over the Internet, where it could potentially be seen by others. Encryption is the process of encoding messages so that it can only be viewed by authorized individuals. An encryption key is used to make the message unreadable, and a secret decryption key is used to decipher the message.

Encryption is widely used in systems like e-commerce and Internet banking, where the databases contain very sensitive information. If you have made purchases online using a credit card, it is very likely that you’ve used encryption to do this.

Passwords

The most widely used method to prevent unauthorized access is to use passwords. A password is a string of characters used to authenticate a user to access a system. The password needs to be kept secret and is only intended for the specific user. In computer systems, each password is associated with a specific username since many individuals may be accessing the same system.

Good passwords are essential to keeping computer systems secure. Unfortunately, many computer users don’t use very secure passwords, such as the name of a family member or important dates – things that would be relatively easy to guess by a hacker. One of the most widely used passwords – you guessed it – ‘password.’ Definitely not a good password to use.

So what makes for a strong password?

Longer is better – A long password is much harder to break. The minimum length should be 8 characters, but many security experts have started recommending 12 characters or more.
Avoid the obvious – A string like ‘0123456789’ is too easy for a hacker, and so is ‘LaDyGaGa’. You should also avoid all words from the dictionary.
Mix it up – Use a combination of upper and lowercase and add special characters to make a password much stronger. A password like ‘hybq4’ is not very strong, but ‘Hy%Bq&4$’ is very strong.

Remembering strong passwords can be challenging. One tip from security experts is to come up with a sentence that is easy to remember and to turn that into a password by using abbreviations and substitutions. For example, ‘My favorite hobby is to play tennis’ could become something like Mf#Hi$2Pt%.

Regular users of computer systems have numerous user accounts. Just consider how many accounts you use on a regular basis: email, social networking sites, financial institutions, online shopping sites and so on. A regular user of various computer systems and web sites will have dozens of different accounts, each with a username and password. To make things a little bit easier on computer users, a number of different approaches have been developed.

First, many web browsers allow you to store your login information so that you don’t have to enter it every time. This saves time, but it’s not a good idea unless you are certain access to your computer is restricted. Second, many web sites allow you to use your login credentials associated with another account, such as your email or social networking account. Both these approaches also carry risks, but limit the frustration of having to remember dozens of different passwords.

Biometrics

Biometrics is an automated method of recognizing a person based on behavioral or physiological characteristics. This means that a computer system recognizes a user without using a password. This is an attractive option since there are many security risks associated with passwords, in addition to the challenge of having to remember dozens of different passwords.

A biometric system requires that the particular characteristic of a person is first recorded. This information is then stored and associated with a particular user. Then the system becomes operational, and every time a user wants to access the system, the particular characteristic is measured and compared to the stored information.

Biometric identification methods include the following:

Fingerprint recognition – This relies on matching the unique print patterns found on one or more fingers. This is probably the most widely used biometric identification method in use today.
Facial recognition – This compares selected facial features from a digital image to a facial database. This approach is widely used in surveillance but can also be used for security purposes.
Eye iris recognition – This analyzes the complex and unique patterns of the irises of an individual’s eyes using visible or near infrared light. This system is widely used for border crossings in several countries.

Other types of biometrics include voice analysis, handwriting and signature analysis and gait analysis.

One key element of a biometric system is the actual equipment needed. For example, fingerprint recognition technology has advanced to the point where it can be built into a relatively simple button. This means it can be added to almost any computing device, which has started happening in recent years.

Eye scanning equipment, on the other hand, is relatively complicated and expensive and is therefore not as likely to be deployed into millions of individual computers. Given the importance of computer security and the issues associated with traditional passwords, biometrics is expected to play an increased role in the security of computer systems.

Lesson Summary

Computer systems face a number of security threats. Specific security threats include data loss, unauthorized access and computer viruses. System security includes the development and implementation of security countermeasures. These include firewalls, data encryption, passwords and biometrics.

A firewall consists of software and hardware set up between an internal computer network and the Internet to filter out unwanted intrusions. Data encryption is the process of encoding messages so it can only be viewed by authorized individuals. Encryption is widely used in systems like e-commerce and Internet banking.

A password is a string of characters used to authenticate a user to access a system. Good passwords are essential to keeping computer systems secure. Biometrics is an automated method of recognizing a person based on behavioral or physiological characteristics. Biometric identification methods include fingerprint recognition, facial recognition and eye iris recognition.