Components of Security

Data and financial asset security, and secured access to and participation in on‑line commerce, generally consist of the following components:

·         Encryption: Maintains data privacy by converting information into an unreadable pattern and allowing only authorized parties to decrypt the data. Encryption can also maintain data integrity by creating digital signatures for transmitted data, enabling the recipient to check whether the data has been changed since or during transmission.

·         Identification and Authentication: Serves as the foundation for other security mechanisms by verifying that a user is who he or she claims to be. Identification and authentication mechanisms are often employed with encryption tools to authenticate users, to determine the proper encryption key for encrypting/decrypting data, or to enable users to digitally “sign” or verify the integrity of transmitted data.  

·         Access Control: Software that provides authentication, authorization, and accounting functions, controlling a user’s access to only that data or the financial assets which he or she is authorized to access, and that keeps track of a user’s activities after access has been granted.

·         Administration and Management Tools: Software that sets, implements, and monitors security policies, the access to which is typically regulated by access control systems. These tools are extremely important to the overall effectiveness of a security system.