Page 6 - Outsmart Cyberthreats

BIG IDEA 1: Data Security
Data is everywhere. It's all around us, all the time. Keeping
it secure, private, and reliably accurate is a crucial challenge
for individuals and organizations alike. One aspect of data security is maintaining control over physical access to devices that store data. Another involves virtual access and all the things we need to do to keep digital data safe from bad guys.
Think about all of the machines that gather and store data.
➜ How many can you name?
➜ Where do people store data in your school?
➜ What kinds of restrictions are in place at your school to keep people
out of spaces where data is stored?
To get access to your data stored in computer systems, you typically have to get
through two “gates”: authentication and authorization.
Authentication is you proving that you are you. It usually involves something that ➜ only you know, such as a password,
➜ only you have, such as a key, or
➜ only you are—your fingerprint, for example, or your retina.
Authorization is what you are allowed to see or do with data once you have proved that you are you.
The best data security systems combine both physical and virtual controls in multiple layers or sequences of security measures. If one layer were to fail in
a cyber attack, then the next layers would be in place to prevent further access to the stored data.
Think about where you put your phone overnight, when it is out of your physical keeping. What kinds of physical and virtual security layers are in place to protect it? Can you imagine how each of these layers might fail? What could
you do to improve the overall security profile of your phone?
6 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE
03/2021