The Interdependent and Infinite Aspects of Cybersecurity
When we consider what’s at stake in computer network security, two concepts become hard to avoid: Interdependent and Infinite.
The data networks and information systems on which we depend today – for everything from the food on our grocery store shelves and the water at our fingertips in the kitchen, to the vital awareness derived from our national security and intelligence apparatus – are certainly interdependent even when they appear unrelated. Where would the large-scale networks be without computer network security protecting the successful operation of even the more mundane systems?
As to the infinite, the human understanding of the very concept expanded when computer networks linked the physicists and mathematicians who daily explore the very nature of reality. We thought we knew what we meant, and then we came to understand that the truth appears to lie beyond what we even imagined. So, too, as our dependence on the vast “Internet of everything” continues to grow, our reliance on effective computer network security is pervasive and implicit. Yet, implicit must not mean overlooked, because although few things seem certain or permanent in computer network security, one sure thing is that it doesn’t take care of itself.
Unlike history’s previous turning points, today’s ongoing revolution in global awareness seems to be one in which technology leads and human understanding lags, rather than the other way around. For those who stop for a moment to think carefully about it, it’s humbling. Certainly, human invention is required to create or adapt technology; what lags is our understanding of the significance, effects, and implications that come with it.
Viewed in this light, the stakes for computer network security are as high as they come.
The Appearance of Anomaly
Many realizations from science about the nature of reality no longer seem to conform with our centuries-old paradigms of Newtonian physics. The visible world appears to tell a story that turns out to be different when we look behind it into the world of the very small. An early clue was the finding that energy did not emanate from processes on a continuum, but rather seemed to come in discrete increments. Planck’s Constant was applied first as a crutch to make the math work. Even luminaries such as Einstein and Bohr considered it a temporary solution. It turned out to be the keyhole through which quantum mechanics emerged.
So, too, in the development of computer network security, we have seen anomaly and even paradox play a role. Elaborate and resourceful measures are taken every day – to the tune of an estimated $170 billion a year spent on cyber-security programs and software – while leaving utterly unguarded the physical points of access to the components that make up our vital data networks and information systems.
What does get the attention in computer network security? One of the first expeditions into cyber-security, of course, was to establish user access privileges. Perhaps the most basic level of computer network security, control of user access simply had to be assured before people and enterprises would entrust their data, their operations, or their transactions to the Web. The issue seems long-settled, but few would call that resolution a smooth one, much less a measure we think of as trouble-free even a quarter-century later.
The curious part is this: In view of the long-standing attention to controlling access on the Web, how is it possible that computers, components, servers, switches, routers, and devices of all kinds in the workplace offer open data ports and cable connections to the visible world?
Antivirus and antimalware software is abundant and much in use. Who would underestimate the importance of protecting vital data systems from malicious software like viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware and ransomware? And still there are those open ports and connectors.
Application security, cognitive threat analytics, and data loss prevention technologies are some of the more important computer network security measures deployed today – almost always in environments where physical points of access to the data system still remain unguarded.
Computer Network Security Risks and Rewards
The risks of these unguarded physical access points should be obvious, but evidently this risk bears repeating. Disruption of operations and compromise of sensitive data await any kind of physical intrusion or intervention, whether by malicious attack or through the possibly more numerous instances of casual contamination.
The images of sinister hackers, foreign agents, and even state-sponsored malware launches are vivid enough. What might be missing from most threat assessments is the significance of behavior from inside your own operation. “Innocent” contamination is as common as the ubiquitous personal mobile device – something that even the most trusted associates don’t hesitate to sync or charge at work. Individual data storage devices such as the common flash drive can bypass most computer network security solutions and wreak havoc in a data network. In fact, history’s best-known and most impactful cyber-attacks were launched from “found” flash drives, and research shows that even highly trained, security-clearance-qualified personnel don’t hesitate to plug one in.
Yes, the risks of the unguarded physical sector of the cyber-defense perimeter – the open front door of cyber-security – are just as substantial as they are curiously unrecognized. The rewards of eliminating these physical access risks are just as high as the stakes, which is to say, the highest we can imagine.
At The Connectivity Center, our mission is to protect the ports and connectors that guard the physical points of entry that that turn computers into data networks and information systems. Our Smart Keeper collection of computer network security devices protect the vital data network connections that empower your information systems and still permit the controlled access that moves your enterprise forward day after day.
Our Link Lock connectors, the Link Lock Hub, and a variety of locking 4K high-speed cables secure ubiquitous USB ports and network connections, and also lock your devices so that they cannot be removed without authorized access. For unlocking them, we offer two kinds of keys, the Enterprise and Professional series of the Smart Keeper USB Port Lock Key.
As a convenient and efficient option, the Professional Series key offers you an ergonomic, retractable housing with anti-static rubber grip, LED light for low visibility work areas, and dual-retractors – main and peripheral – for access to any angle of installation. The Professional Series provides effective control to reach port locks in confined spaces. Key patterns are strictly controlled, yet you can order duplicate keys to suit your own security authorization structure.
Securing the open front door of computer network security – the physical points of access – is what we do at The Connectivity Center. Our perspective for accomplishing this reaches back to the beginnings of widespread computer access, when computing power came out of the control room and into the hands of us all. The quality, variety, value, and versatility that result from that experience are at your service here.
