The first form of security risk that may emerge due to poor physical security is the stealing of information technology devices. There are mobile devices, such as Smartphones, laptops, and tablets used by the employees in the organization to carry out the business tasks and operations. These devices contain a lot of sensitive and critical information that needs to be protected. Poor physical security provides the attackers with the chance to steal the devices and explore the information stored within. The mobile devices can easily be kept hidden in the bag or pockets to take away the same outside the organization without the due permission to do so (Schultz, 2007).
There are a lot of employees that work in the business organization and each of these employees has access to certain data sets associated with the organization. The lack of adequate physical security controls may allow the malevolent entities to enter in the premises of the organization. These entities may belong to a competitor in the market and may assault an employee to gain sensitive or critical pieces of information from the employee. This will put the information sets at risk of losing the confidentiality and privacy of the data.
The business organizations handle abundant sets of data that comprise of private, public, sensitive, critical, and non-critical data pieces. There are data servers that are used to manage the databases of the company. These data servers and other servers are placed in the server room. It is essential to lock up the server room so that none of the unauthorized entities may gain access to the room. It is essential to develop the policies regarding locking and unlocking of the room and the resources responsible for the same.
Surveillance is another important physical security control that shall be implemented with the aid of security guards, audio and video surveillance tools. The security guards must be placed at every entry and exit point of the organization. These guards must check for the identity of the individual entering the organization and must also check the bags at the time of entry and exit. Audio and video surveillance shall be used with the aid of microphones and video cameras shall be carried out. These will capture all of the activities being done in the organization. A surveillance manager along with the tea must review these recordings and logs at all times (Sinha et al., 2015). Any of the deviations or suspicious activities shall be identified and immediately reported.
Rack mount servers shall be used by the business organizations. These come with the advantages as lesser floor space and easier to secure. These can be conveniently locked up in the closed racks and can also be bolted to the floor. In this manner, the entire server set will not be possible to be moved and the likelihood of the physical security attacks on the same will come down (Hammonds, 2018).
There is a lot of information that a malevolent entity may obtain from the workstations of the employees. For instance, if an employee does not lock the computer system being used to handle the critical business applications and is not at the workstation, a malicious entity may access the system and obtain all of the information. It is necessary to apply certain physical security controls to avoid such occurrences. The computing resources at the workstations shall be locked at all times when the employee is not available at the desk. There shall be use of biometric recognition on the computer systems to unlock the device.
Backing up of the data is an essential activity that is done for the purpose of disaster recovery. Most of these data backups are stored on the virtual storage spaces. However, there is use of discs and tapes for backing up the data sets. These disks and tapes may be stolen by a malevolent entity and the information exposure may take place. These devices shall be secured using physical security controls and shall not be allowed to be carried outside of the office. These shall be placed in the secure vaults and must not be allowed to be accessed by anyone except the vault manager. A log book of users accessing the vault with consent from the manager must be prepared.
These are the cryptography algorithms that are also referred as the symmetric algorithms. In these measures, there is a same key that is used for the purpose of data encryption and decryption. For example, if in a string of text, every alphabet is replaced by its successor then the receiver will not be able to guess the message unless the key is shared. One of the problems of this form of cryptography algorithm is the security of the key that is involved. The keys are transmitted from the sender to the receiver’s end and are exposed to security threats and risks. Data Encryption Standard (DES) and Triple Data Encryption Standard (3-DES) are the algorithms that are primarily used under this category.
Public Key Algorithms
Public Key Cryptography is also referred as asymmetric cryptography that makes use of different keys for the purpose of encryption and decryption. In these algorithms, there are public and private keys that are involved. The encryption of the message is done with the aid of a public key and the decryption of the message is carried out using private key. Key management and security of the keys in this case is better than symmetric algorithms. It is not possible to guess or capture the private key using the public key used for encryption. RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography are the examples of this algorithm.
Hash Functions
The third major category of cryptography algorithms is the hash functions. These are the functions that take input in the form of message and provide a fixed size string of alpha-numeric characters in response (Wang et al., 2017). These functions are applied in a variety of applications, such as digital signatures, integrity checks, and likewise. SHA-256 is one of the primary hash functions that is used for cryptography.
Data Encryption Standard (DES) is one of the algorithms under secret key cryptography. In this algorithm, a 64-bit key is used as the input and out of these 56 bits are used. There is a creation of 16 sub-keys with 48-bit each for the purpose of encryption. The permutation of the keys is then carried out to generate other keys (Liu, Liu and Xu, 2014). The key is then divided in to two parts as left key and right key. Right half now becomes the new left half and there is XOR function applied on it. 16 such rounds are created to obtain cipher text.
The algorithm is used and applied in the area of computer network data security and for secure communications. Using the above flow, the text strings are converted to their cipher forms and are transmitted over the networks. The attackers present on the network fail to obtain the meaning and contents of the message without the presence of security key (Gong et al., 2017).
Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA) algorithm is a public key algorithm that used a public key for encryption and private key for decryption (Saranya, 2016).
Working of RSA Algorithm
In this algorithm, there are two prime numbers selected as p and q. These are then multiplied to obtain the value of n. A list of numbers from 1 to n is prepared and the common factors are removed. The numbers of values that remain are referred with a variable as l. The encryption key is then selected that shall be between 1 to l, and shall be coprime with l and mod (n). The decryption key is calculated using the function as shown below.
In this manner, the algorithm is used in hybrid encryptions along with the digital signatures.
SHA-1 is one of the hash functions that are used for the purpose of cryptography. The function works by a set of steps. In the first step, five variables as H0, H1, H2, H3, and H4 are created. The work or message that shall be hashed is then determined. The work is then converted to its ASCII form. The ASCII form of the work is then converted to its binary form. The binary characters are joined and are added with a 1 at the end. There are zeros appended at the end of the code such that the total length is 448 mod 512. The original message length is then added to the 64 bit field left after appending the zeros. The message is then broken up in to sixteen sections with each section of 32 bits. Step loop function is then applied to convert it in to 80 words (Preneel, 2010). The five variables that were set up in the initial phase are applied with AND, OR, and NOT functions. H variables are then converted to hex. The variables are then joined to obtain the hash function.
References
Gong, L., Zhang, L., Zhang, W., Li, X., Wang, X. and Pan, W. (2017). The application of data encryption technology in computer network communication security.
Hammonds, O. (2018). 3 Benefits Of Using Server Racks – 3 Benefits Of. [online] 3 Benefits Of. Available at: https://www.3benefitsof.com/3-benefits-of-using-server-racks/ [Accessed 23 Aug. 2018].
Liu, D., Liu, W. and Xu, J. (2014). The Application of DES Encryption and Decryption Algorithm in the STS Protocol. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 644-650, pp.2202-2205.
Preneel, B. (2010). Cryptographic hash functions. European Transactions on Telecommunications, 5(4), pp.431-448.
Saranya, R. (2016). Image Encryption using RSA Algorithm with Biometric Recognition. International Journal Of Engineering And Computer Science.
Schultz, E. (2007). Risks due to convergence of physical security systems and information technology environments. Information Security Technical Report, 12(2), pp.80-84.
Sinha, A., Nguyen, T., Kar, D., Brown, M., Tambe, M. and Jiang, A. (2015). From physical security to cybersecurity. Journal of Cybersecurity, p.tyv007.
Wang, D., Jiang, Y., Song, H., He, F., Gu, M. and Sun, J. (2017). Verification of Implementations of Cryptographic Hash Functions. IEEE Access, 5, pp.7816-7825.
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