Why are they needed? Information protection methods ensure modern network security. Essentially, accessing the Internet means that your data can be stolen by any dishonest person, highlighting the importance of robust security measures similar to those implemented by gambling online platforms like https://www.richardcasino.com/promotions, which prioritize the safety and security of their users’ information.
What do they steal? Banking transactions, personal, and corporate data – all become targets for fraudsters. Various information protection methods can save you from them. So, what should you apply right now? Implementing advanced encryption methods, two-factor authentication, and regular security audits are essential steps in safeguarding your data against unauthorized access, much like the stringent security protocols adopted by leading online platforms.
Possible Threats to Information
The threats to information requiring organizational protection methods include attempts of external or internal influence on the automated system, capable of causing significant damage to data. Information systems often become most vulnerable when:
- The organization’s software requires modifications, updates, or has vulnerabilities;
- There are processes that do not work well enough (including protective ones);
- There are special conditions for using and storing data.
There are several groups of threats, differing in nature:
Objective
The correctness of chosen equipment for storage and processing, as well as the smooth operation of protective software, plays a crucial role here.
Main flaws: technical equipment malfunctions, poor antivirus programs, lack of security gateways, no possibility for visual control over servers and access to them.
It is impossible to know in advance what will fail, but it is possible to identify the weakest points and be prepared to timely adopt the necessary methods and means of data, information protection.
Accidental
This includes emergencies, various unexpected events, and system failures. It is especially important to act quickly and resolve the issue in a short time, which includes various types of technical equipment malfunctions at any system level and even those responsible for access control, wear and tear, expiry of microchips, information carriers, line connections, incorrect work of antiviruses, service, and application programs.
Subjective
These threats often arise due to employees responsible for technical processing, preservation, and data security. No matter what information protection methods against leaks are taken, the human factor cannot be cancelled: an employee may make a mistake in following safety rules and create a breach in the system during software loading, active use, database operations, turning devices on and off.
Criteria for the Real Possibility of Threats
The operator company’s employees take all types of threats into account. To determine the possibility of negative impact (including malfunctions and hacking), the following criteria are considered:
- Accessibility: how easily a malefactor can overcome the security system and gain access to confidential information.
- Fatality: the possible negative consequences of the threat to the system’s operation and how quickly the company’s specialists can eliminate them.
- Quantity: counting the details of storage and processing materials, which are more likely to fail.
All information protection methods apply mathematical ways of calculating possible consequences of certain threats. This is done by analysts within the organization. Thanks to such an assessment, all possible risks can be identified and prepared for in advance: purchase new equipment, send employees for additional training, review access rights, and much more.
Key Methods and Ways to Protect Information
Legislative Methods of Information Protection
In Russia, the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection” of July 27, 2006, governs social relations in the information sphere, emerging from:
- the creation and use of information resources based on development, extraction, storage, or data transmission;
- the development and application of information technologies and means of their provision;
- the protection of data and rights of individuals and companies in this sphere.
Legal methods of information protection apply to any documented data, illegal handling of which can harm the persons using them. According to the law, it is not allowed to do anything with information related to personal or family secrets, census secrets without their permission, unless there is a court decision.
Companies related to finance are especially responsible for personal data of clients and preventing it from falling into the hands of malefactors. The contract drawn up by the bank includes a list of information that is confidential and protected. The same applies to medical organizations.
Nowadays, computer programs have become a commodity that can be bought or sold. Regardless of how the program is presented, it is protected in the same way as literary works. Often, software available in the open access still contains files that cannot be opened, copied, or sent to someone.
Moreover, programs may use additional objects that are subject to copyright. Among them are literary works, cinema, visual arts, and musical compositions. Models of objects or software that cannot be produced or transferred because it violates copyright are called counterfeit or “pirated copies.”
Copyright owners can sue the violator and demand from him:
- agreement with the author’s rights;
- cessation of illegal actions violating the right;
- monetary compensation for damages;
- collection of funds earned by the violator on copyright infringement;
- compensation, which can range from 10 to 50 thousand minimum wages.
Methods of Information Protection by Technical and Engineering Means
Incorrect operation of devices can lead to the leakage of important data. To prevent unwanted breakdowns, it is necessary to purchase quality parts and service and replace them when needed. For example, regularly clean the dust from fans in the system unit to prevent them from stopping, as this can cause overheating and failure of the hard disk.
To prevent power outages from causing loss of unsaved information, it is necessary to have voltage stabilizers and uninterruptible power supplies. Do not forget about timely updating antivirus programs and other software.
Cryptographic Methods and Means of Information Protection
Cryptography is a science that deals with the study of means (based on encryption) that ensure secrecy, integrity, and authentication of materials. In the modern world, not letters but binary codes are encrypted. There are several types of encoding methods:
- Symmetric Encryption
A secret key-cipher, known to both the sender and the recipient, is used.
- Asymmetric
Only one key is open, used to verify the presence of an electronic signature or encode information. But to create a signature and decrypt, you need to know the secret key. This helps to keep it secret from everyone, even the data owner. However, such information protection methods and systems are very complex, and they require powerful devices.
For this reason, ensuring information security through asymmetric encryption is most often used only for verifying a person’s identity and as a tool for exchanging secret keys through open channels. After registration, the system gives the user a one-time key for symmetric encoding, and thus, during this session, there is no need to use open keys.
Software-Hardware Means of Data Protection
Antiviruses are programs designed to detect dangerous files and viruses and treat data, which means removing virus parts and restoring damaged information.
Monitor programs remain in the device’s memory forever and check the protection: detect critical events and strange actions, among which are opening a program, attempts to make changes to critically important system data, and more.
Anti-spam filters are found in public and corporate email systems and are engaged in detecting suspicious letters and removing them from the general list so that the user accidentally does not go to a dangerous site or open a virus letter.
Network firewalls and DDoS attack prevention software are methods of software means of information protection by preventing server overload. Programs for managing personal accounts and detecting strange user behavior are designed to protect the system from threats by malefactors, and people’s accounts from their hacking and use for illegal purposes.
Protection of Transmitted Electronic Data
In the 1990s, there was a transition from analog to digital methods of information distribution. Discreditation systems at set time intervals measure the frequency of the analog signal, for example, sound, and compare it with a given value. The final result is translated into binary code, which looks like a set of ones (pulses) and zeros (spaces).
It is also possible to obtain this message, but if one can connect to a regular phone conversation or someone else’s frequency even accidentally, the digital signal, due to its encryption, is not so easily hacked: it requires knowledge and special devices to turn the binary code into understandable data. For this reason, the main methods of information protection involve complicating codes.
Quite often, upon registration, the user needs to specify the following data:
- an electronic signature;
- a secret key-token;
- a password set by the person or a one-time key issued by the system.
A large number of security systems are equipped with the ability to check the device from which access to the system is made.