Abstract: The basics of computer security are presented in the chapter. Many people will argue that there are countless technologies and disciplines within computer security, so there are countless basics. Again, though, basics should be independent of technologies. With that in mind, there are two fundamental ways to break into computers: take advantage of problems built into the software and hardware, and take advantage in the way a user or administrator sets up and uses the computer or network. Concerning the way someone takes advantage of problems built into hardware or software, it is because all software has bugs. The issues with security vulnerabilities are that they are built into the software from the time that they are released. As with all software bugs, security vulnerabilities are found as people use and test the software. Sometimes people just stumble on the vulnerabilities. The software has to be rewritten and then replaced in case of software vulnerability. Just like the system hardening addresses the software vulnerabilities, it should deal with the configuration issues. These documents are available for a variety of computer systems types at the NIST and NSA Web sites.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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