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Security objectives

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Security objectives

Below we shall briefly discuss some of the common objectives in computer, network and information security. An important precondition before these issues become relevant is that computer systems work correctly. This means that they do what they are supposed to do, according to what is often called a functional specification. Correctness is a topic in itself, with a certain overlap with security. Roughly speaking, one tends to speak of correctness in the absence of inadvertent errors, and of security in case there is sufficient protection against deliberate attacks on computer systems. Thus, security may be seen as an extension of correctness. Security adds a new dimension, involving key objectives like:

confidentiality: protected, private data or communications should not be visible to unauthorized parties. Some authors use the word privacy instead of confidentiality, especially with respect to actions;
integrity: data should be protected against modification by unauthorized parties;
availability: data and services shall be accessible when required by the user and delivered in a timely fashion;
authentication: parties involved in communication should have certainty about each other's identity, for instance in online transactions, contract signing, or voting;
non-repudiation: parties involved in communication should not be able to deny the actions that they performed, or the messages that they actually transmitted; this is important in on-line banking;
auditability: transaction histories should be available for later inspection.

Note: personal privacy protection is often seen as the combination of confidentiality and integrity.

Summarizing, an important element of computer, network and information security is protection against deliberate attacks. This has become an issue of great concern, not only in mainstream information processing, but also in many other sectors relying on securely functioning computer systems.

Next: (Partial) solutions to security Up: Computer, network and information Previous: Security problems Contents