Security Equipment
Security Hardware
Overview
Organisations have equioment and procedures in place to minimise the threat ti data and information loss. They are expected by cvlients to safegaurd their important and confidential data and information against unautharised access and the accidental loss of data. Equipment like security tokens and swipe cards are becoming mainstream in the fight for information privacy and data integrity
Security Hardware
This hardware used to protect data information, ranges from peripheral devices such as fingerpirnt readers, through to sophisticated biometric devices to protect highly sensitvie information. The level of hardware is often predicted by how sensitve the information is. This consists of the following
-BIometrics
-Swipe cards
-Smart cards
-Security tokens
-Mobile phone secure code
Biometircs
Access to most information is through the use of keys and swipe cards. But in highly sensitive cases that wont be enough because it is easy to losse them and also forge them. This is where Biometrics come into it, it uses phniysical human characterstics because it is vertually imposible to copy or steel someones biometric characteristics.
This including
- Voice reconition
-Fingerprint recognition
-Hand geometry
-Signature verification
-Facial recognition
-Iris recognition
Swipe Cards
Swipe cards are a very common type of security deviice used by many people. They consist of business-card-sized plastic cards with a magnetic strip on one side with the persons details stamped on the other side. They a simply the same as a bank card. They are generaly used for internal security within an organisation. This cards are commonliy used in hotels now to open the room doors. The way these work are simply sliding the card through a slot which activates a lock to release and grant access to the user. The only limitation to them is they are easily damaged and are hard to stop if stolen.
Smart Cards
These are much like swipe cards but they have a microchip installed in them that can store and manipulate data. Common smart cards are prepaid telephone cards, photocopy cards and the new Myki public transport cards. The idea of everyone have health smart cards to provide personal details and medical history for emergancie services to see. The memory of a smart card can variy from 2 kb to all the way up to 10 mb.
Security tokens
This is a small device the sise of a key ring which can display a constantly changing authentication code. When users access they need their account name, their password and the the code displayed on the security token. The code will change every five minutes, this will provide the assurance kown as tow-factor authentication. If the token is lost it cannot be used because the user account and password are needed.
Mobile phone secure code
A mbile phone secure code is another level of authentication used by financial institutions. This occurs by a security code being sent to the account holder's mobile phone to authenticate a transaction before it occurs. The account holder will need to log in and enter the code to make the transaction be processed.