Security in Computing: Electronic Espionage, Access Control, Encryption, Viruses, Web Security, and Network

Security in Computing 1
Security in Computing
By (Name)
The Name of the Class (Course)
Professor (Tutor)
The Name of the School (University)
The City and State where it is located
The Date

Security in Computing 2
Security in Computing
Chapter 1
1.1) Electronic Espionage Effects
a. High and stiff competition.
b. Damaged reputation
c. Loss of trade-secrets, trademarks and copyrights.
1.2) Security breach example
The 2019 attack on Microsoft’s Microsoft Office 365.
https://www.techworld.com/security/uks-most-infamous-data-breaches-3604586/
Chapter 2
1.1) An access control directory provides a means in whch objects (users and files alike) are
use-protected. Objects and files are protected by associating each user with a list of files
an objects they can access (read) and edit (write) (Hu, et al., 2006). In operating
systems, this creates a directory in which each file is associated with an owner who has
full control and can give these rights to other user(s). A user control matrix refers
basically to a control matrix derived from access control directory depicting what rights
different users have over different objects. It is represented in form in form of triples and
are mostly sparse since not ll subjects have control rights to most files/objects.
1.2) Biometrics-based authentication technologies are relatively new and have not yet diffused
into the markets well. Many people find their applications intrusive. Cultures might be
abused in such cases as fingerprinting, face and geometry recognition.

Security in Computing 3
The systems can become a single point of failure in an organization (Jain, et al., 2004).
While forgetting passwords can be attributed to human error or fault, losing biometrics,
which could be disastrous, is not.
Since the readers use sampling to establish threshold for user acceptance, variation in
angles from which the biometrics are taken reduces the readers’ accuracy. The devices
samples the biometrics, measures hundreds of key points before comparing them against
some given sets of measurement to draw a perfect or close match. False negatives and
positives still occur with the devices thus posing security threats.
1.3) Encryption
a) One-way hash function
Refers to an encryption algorithm that convert strings of varied length into fixed-length
bits sequence. Encryption keys generated this way are hard to reverse unlike the case of
message digest. The functions are useful in the creation of ‘change detection algorithm’
that is dependant of sealed bits.
b) Cryptographic checksum.
This refers to a function that is used generate checksum. As a digest funtion, it uses a
cryptographic key that is assumed to only be known to data’s sender and recipient.
This prevents attackers from modifying error detection mechanisms and the bits as
well. The checksum shrinks and transforms data in accordance to the value of data
bits.
c) Public key cryptography