Computer System Security: More Facets Than a Diamond
Computer system security calls for protecting the hardware, the software, the data within, and the cloud-based, non-physical space on which data are increasingly stored against theft, damage, contamination, and the misdirection or disruption of the vital functions that our information systems perform. It doesn’t take much space here to summarize computer system security. Yet to say this description is deceptively simple would be a vast understatement. And to say that the stakes are high would not begin to cover it, because everything today – business, government, defense, finance, utilities, public services, and even the arts and sciences – depends on effective computer system security.
The true scale of the challenge seems to dwarf anything in prior human experience. Perhaps a comparison would begin to give a sense of the scale of the real challenge to computer system security.
In the historic Age of Exploration – the time of Magellan, da Gama, Drake, Cabral, and Columbus – human beings threw wide the boundaries of the known world. They did it by traveling physical space, observing visible features and phenomena, and carefully recording their findings in maps, charts, and journals. They took more than 300 years to do it.
In stark contrast, today’s computer system security landscape emerged like its own Big Bang. The Web was not so much invented as discovered. The universality of our sudden connection, and the speed with which it came upon us, were both unprecedented, almost unimaginable. And the discovery called for an entirely new way of thinking, because this new world was invisible. The nexus between digital language, electronic connection, and the microwave spectrum was bigger, faster, and more far-reaching in its ultimate impact than all the voyages and expeditions in previous human experience. And it was just as full of hazards, maybe more so. And this new world was one we couldn’t see.
Overcoming the Bias of the Invisible
Against this vast and urgent backdrop, it becomes somewhat easier to understand why so much of today’s effort and investment in computer system security is devoted to software, programs, and platforms. Even within this non-physical sector of cybersecurity, many solutions are designed to react to an incursion, rather than to prevent it. Focusing on invisible solutions for invisible threats might seem logical, but it has led to a peculiar and illogical condition. The overwhelming majority of the $170 billion annual investment in cyber defense and computer system security is devoted to non-physical threats, while the billions of actual data ports and connectors that turn computers into networks and systems are unguarded.
Most enterprises and operations have left the front door of cybersecurity wide open. This error is not without fair warnings and corrective lessons from actual experience. Multiple research studies find that even the most disciplined, indoctrinated associates don’t hesitate to plug in their smart phone at work, or even to pick up and use unidentified USB flash drives and storage devices. One study found that the first “found” flash drive was plugged-in within minutes, and that the usage of the planted flash drives was greater than 100%. In other words, not only were all the research decoy drives used in the agency’s data system, but many were used more than once.
The safe space of research projects is not the only place where the reality of the front-door threat has been demonstrated. The Iran nuclear development program was set back by a factor of years using an attack virus that was planted in flash drives dropped in a few parking lots. Russian intelligence was found to have implanted reporting bugs in a much-used U.S. defense and intelligence computer network, also using “innocent” found flash drives.
Addressing the Critical Gap in Computer System Security
So, the vital importance of defending the physical sector of the computer system security perimeter is amply demonstrated. But how and where can you address this critical gap in computer system security?
The Connectivity Center offers an array of products and knowledge that can help you secure the front door of cybersecurity, and they are ready today. The experience, perspective, and expertise you’ll find at The Connectivity Center was built with care, from the time when servers began replacing mainframes, through the time when personal computing and dispersed computer operations expanded the exposure to mishaps and threats exponentially, through today and tomorrow, in a continuum of awareness and expertise.
From our hundreds of computer system security solutions, examples include the Smart Keeper collection of computer and laptop security devices, to protect the ports through which some of the biggest, most historic cyber-attacks were perpetrated, and where even casual contamination occurs somewhere every hour of every day.
Our Link Lock connectors and the Link Lock Hub serve not only as secure USB connections, but also lock your devices so that they cannot be removed without authorized access. The Link Lock Hub is secured using a Smart Keeper USB Port Lock Professional in conjunction with a Smart Keeper USB Port Lock Key. The Professional Series key comprises an ergonomic, retractable housing with anti-static rubber grip, LED light for low visibility work areas, and dual-retractors – main and peripheral – for reaching port locks in confined spaces. The key patterns are strictly controlled, yet you can order duplicate keys to suit your own security authorization structure.
