Data Protection and Security

I

Introduction to Information Security

I.I

Definitions

Security

The term security refers to the protection of certain assets in spite of certain threats and attacks. Security is not something abstract but an issue we all confront in our daily life. To exemplify, let us consider a typical morning routine of Ali, a university student and give a partial list of security related activities he encounters:

1. Ali locks the door of his house before he leaves.
2. The security personnel checks Ali’s student ID at the campus gate before he is admitted.
3. Ali visits an ATM machine to withdraw some money using his bank card.
4. Finally, Ali enters his password to his computer before he starts reading this lecture note.

Like Ali, in everyday rush we all make a lot of security-related choices not to mention the security decisions made upon us by others. Most of us even do not think much about these. Are they really necessary? Do we have enough precaution? This course will also provoke critical thinking about security in general but its scope is restricted to a subdomain.

Roughly speaking, regarding security we can distinguish two main subtopics:

1. Physical Security
2. Digital Security

Physical security is about protecting “tangible” assets. It is not a recently developed need but rather an essential concern even for the first man created. We do not discuss much about physical security however as we will see some of the underlying principles are common to both security worlds and most of time we need to incorporate them together to achieve our security goals.