Security Management of IT

Security Management of IT

Security has become one of the primary concerns when an organization connects its private network to the Internet. Regardless of the business, an increasing number of users on private networks are demanding access to Internet services such as the World Wide Web (WWW), Internet mail, Telnet, and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). In addition, corporations want to offer WWW home pages and FTP servers for public access on the Internet.

Network administrators have increasing concerns about the security of their networks when they expose their organization’s private data and networking infrastructure to Internet crackers.

Document Security – means to secure users documents

When we talk about document security we can have many different ideas as to what security is actually wanted or needed, and what it is there to achieve. Let’s look at the three principal approaches used today, how they rely upon each other and where they differ. The principal approaches are encryption, DRM and collaboration.

Encryption

Underpinning all digital security systems is encryption. If prospective document security solution does not use this, then forget it because it is just smoke and mirrors. Encryption is the technology that hides documents from those who are not authorized, and verifies that the content the originator created is unchanged.

If one is authorized recipient of encrypted information they have the ability to do anything like with that information once you have removed the encryption. That is the Achilles’ heel. The recipient of documents that have been encrypted can go on to use them in any way they wish, and to alter them in any way they wish.

That does not mean they can pretend that someone else originated them. And that is a valuable protection, provided the user can be bothered to look closely at the authenticity of documents received.

Encryption therefore is just the building block of document security but has limited controls

 DRM – Digital Rights Management

DRM looks to take care of continuing control(s) over information. Whether it’s a song, film or a book, DRM uses and then goes beyond the capabilities of pure encryption in enforcing persistent controls over the ability to use the content. It is used to limit the ability to distribute (Copyright being the right to make copies and distribute!) or to print, or to view.

Historically, DRM has been used when one entity wants to grant access to its information to another entity, but under controlled conditions. This can be for making sure employees cannot take key documents with them if they leave, or that those who have bought a book, or a training course, cannot pass it on to anyone else without the publisher’s permission (and, no doubt, a fee).

The combination of digital rights management controls and encryption ensure documents cannot be shared with others, copied, modified or printed. The use of copy and paste and screen grabbing is usually prevented (depending on the vendor).

If user is looking therefore for complete control over their document security then a solution using digital rights management is what they need to purchase.

Collaboration

Collaboration is an important aspect of document security where document modification is required. Often it does not make use of encryption technology, but relies on access control mechanisms to identify who authorized users are, and to link those identities to the input they made to a specific document.

As one can guess, collaboration is really a precursor activity to DRM. The controls for collaboration are focused over making sure corporate administrators can be certain that only authorized persons had access to and could (or did) amend the document, and that it is properly authorized for distribution. The document that is distributed will appear to be a finished item, and none of the internal management matters will be made available to anyone, either internally or externally. The ability to prevent the use of simple cut and paste or screen grabbing is usually not implemented.