An Introduction to the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) It has grown more important to ensure the confidentiality and integrity for data communication where an organization's network contains intranets, extranets, and Internet Web sites. Because of the connectivity of networks today, an organization's network is exposed to unauthorized users who could possibly attempt to access and …
An Overview of Auditing Auditing enables you to determine which activities are occurring on your system. Through auditing, you can track access to objects, files and folders; as well as any modifications made to the objects, files and folders. Auditing therefore enables you to collect information associated with resource access and usage on your system …
User accounts allow Microsoft Windows to differentiate between computer users in order to determine the rights they should have. Each user account is assigned its own location on the hard disk for file storage. There is a collection of settings pertaining to each account that is stored in the computer’s Registry. Methods for Limiting a …
Group Policy Objects (GPOs) containing Group Policy settings can be linked to sites, domains, and organizational units (OUs), so that they are applied to user objects or computer objects located in the particular site, domain, or OU in Active Directory. Because of numerous Group Policy settings that exist, and the flexibility of group policies, Group …
An Overview on Certificate Authorities In the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), digital certificates are based on public key cryptography. The PKI consists of a set of components, policies, protocols, and technologies that provide data authentication, integrity, and confidentiality through the use of certificates, and public and private keys. Data is protected by applying a hashing …
Network Infrastructure Security Overview Network infrastructure refers to the grouping of physical hardware and logical components which are needed to provide a number of features for the network, such as connectivity, routing and switching capabilities, network security, and access control. The physical infrastructure of the network refers to the physical design of the network together …
In Windows Vista, there is a difference between accounts with “computer administrator” privileges and the Administrator account. In the Administrator account, the User Account Control is disabled. Also, the Administrator account is present, but hidden and disabled by default. Please be aware that Vista Beta 2 has a bug that may cause big problems, if …
What is Authentication Authentication is the process whereby the system identifies legitimate users from unauthorized users. It is the process in which a user identifies his/her self to the system. How effective an authentication process is, is determined by the authentication protocols and mechanisms being used. Windows Server 2003 provides a few different authentication types …
With Windows NT 4.0, came the launch of the System Policy Editor feature which enabled administrators to manage the security settings of the system through a single user interface. The System Policy Editor feature allowed administrators to easily manage configurations of multiple computers because configuration settings could be copied between systems. With the introduction of …
An Overview on Authentication and Smart Cards Administrators have to secure the network from attacks launched by hackers, spies, terrorists, thieves and criminals. Security encompasses numerous technologies, protocols, standards, policies, passwords, and secret keys. All these mechanisms typically focus on the following: Authentication Access Control Data Protection Auditing/Accountability Authentication is the process by which an …