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Operational and Organizational Security: Incident Response • Chapter 11 623

insecure. Environment refers to the surroundings in which the computers and
other equipment reside. If an environment is insecure, data and equipment can be
damaged.To prevent the environment from affecting a system’s safety and ability to
function, the following elements should be considered:
■ Temperature

■ Humidity
■ Airflow

■ Electrical interference
■ Electrostatic discharge (ESD)

If a computer overheats, components inside it can be permanently damaged.
While the temperature of the server room may feel comfortable to you, the inside
of a computer can be as much as 40 degrees warmer than the air outside the case.
The hardware inside the case generates heat, raising the interior temperature.
Computers are equipped with fans to cool the power supply, processor, and other
hardware, so that temperatures do not rise above 110 degrees. If these fans fail, the
heat can rise to a level that destroys the hardware.
Computers are also designed to allow air to flow through the machine, keeping
the temperature low. If the airflow is disrupted, temperatures can rise. For example,
say you removed an old adapter card that was no longer needed by a computer.
Because you did not have a spare cover, there is now an opening where the card
used to be. Because air can now pass through this hole, you might expect that this
would help to cool the hardware inside, but airflow is actually lost through this
opening. Openings in the computer case prevent the air from circulating inside the
machine as it was designed to, causing temperatures to rise.
A common problem with computers is when fans fail, causing increases in tem-
perature within the case.These fans may be used to cool the processor, power
supply, or other components.As with other causes of temperature increases, the
machine may not fail immediately.The computer may experience reboots,“blue
screens of death,” memory dumps, and other problems that occur randomly.To
determine whether increases in temperature are the cause of these problems, you
can install hardware or software that will monitor the temperature and inform you
of increases.When the temperature increases past a normal level, you should
examine the fans to determine if this is the cause.Variations in temperature can also
cause problems. If a machine experiences sudden changes in temperature, it can
cause hardware problems inside the machine. Heat makes objects expand, while

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