The most important elements of information security are those techniques that are used to safeguard data and protect privacy of people and organizations.
To understand why these elements are important, it is first necessary to know what information security is and what it is for. For this reason, we have prepared this article for you so that you can find all the information related to this topic.
We will also explain what the main elements are that you must take into account to better understand what this type of security is. Don’t miss out on anything.
What is information security and what is it for?
It’s called information security to the group of actions that are carried out to anticipate and protect the data found on computer equipment, in a set of them or in any other way. It is used for both individuals and organizations. Information security consists of taking all necessary measures to strengthen weaknesses of the computer system. This is done to correct errors and improve any aspect that prevents third-party attack.
That is, it has a proactive approach -before the fact happens- and another reagent -Measures are taken after the problem occurs- in all security techniques. But the data can not only be stored in a computer programming system. Therefore, the concept of information security also covers all aspects and modes related to the storage and protection of the privacy of people’s data.
Put more simply, Information security is the group of techniques used to strengthen the computer system and any method of saving data. In this way it is sought protect information from intruder attack and the damage that natural forces can do, such as rain, earthquakes and other action related to nature.
List of the main elements of information security
To differentiate information security IT security is necessary analyze the main elements that is inside the first concept.
So we will show you below which are those elements that you must take into account when protecting your data:
Confidentiality
The confidentiality of the information is an aspect that deals with the measures that are used to protect and not allow access by any unauthorized user to private or sensitive data that may harm people or companies.
That is, for information security to be efficient it is necessary that entities in individuals who manage it do not disclose data related to people and operations that they carry out. These techniques are common in online stores, because they must protect and avoid the disclosure of all customer bank account and credit card information.
Integrity
These elements refer to the security measures that are taken to protect modification and alteration, intentional or not, of data and information. The goal is to achieve precision and also the indivisibility of these. This is used for both private and public data. You should not forget that free data is available to everyone and that these can be modified without prior authorization from their owner.
Therefore, integrity is concerned with ensuring that this information is unalterable and accurate so that it can fulfill its function for which it was created. Further, if it is not free data it is also necessary to keep the saved information unaltered. Since it is understood that the information is the property of the person or company linked to its own creation and that a modification could bring significant damage to its owner.
Availability
Availability is a very important element in information protection. Managers work to make data available for use anytime by people or by computer processes that require it.
To achieve this in computer processes, measures must be taken to avoid DoS or DDoS attacks. This will ensure that there is no denial of service to users who are authorized at different levels of a network. If there is no information available, the security system is imperfect, since the main objective is to safeguard the data in the best way so that it can be used when the user needs it.
To achieve this objective, it is necessary to incorporate a good control system, which must guarantee that the information is delivered in a timely manner to the different levels of services that need it. This control system is varied and will depend on those levels of users that it has a network in question and the existence of mirror servers, data replication and the quality of the equipment involved in the safeguarding.
Authentication
Authentication is the process that is responsible for establishing whether a user is authorized to access the protected information. For this reason, this element is related to the integrity that we saw in previous points because it is necessary to find efficient methods and take correct measures to determine and guarantee the ownership of the user who generates the data or accesses them.
With these information security elements identity theft is fought. You should not forget that this method causes a lot of damage in organizations and in any home device.
Security Services
Security services are methods that are used in any company, through the design of networks, to process the information and transfer it in and out of this. This is intended avoid interruption in communication and that it reaches the recipient without alterations.
To carry out this element, it is necessary to implement a logical order in the structure and sequence of the messages that need to be sent. In these elements different techniques are used, both at the sender and at the receiver, so that service is not denied. The most frequent is the implementation test of the authenticity of the transferred data. Another technique is end-to-end data encryption so that through cryptography it can be decrypted only by the authorized person.
Within the security service there are two large groups:
- Of no rejection: also known as de I do not repudiate. They are mechanisms used so that both the sender and the receiver of the message do not deny that they have intervened in the communication process. This is standardized in the norms ISO-7498-2.
- Poles in data transmission: It is necessary to establish rules and mechanisms that ensure that the data can be sent confidentially, in full, and that it is not repudiated by any of the intervening users. For this cryptography is used, the logical structure to follow a sequence and the identification of users.
Certification
The certifications are standards endorsed by entities world-renowned in terms of security. Through these techniques, technology standards for the protection of information. This helps people who work as managers, auditors and as independent professionals to develop skills and can be validated through these regulations.
The most important certifications are:
- Certified Ethical Hacker.
- Certified Information Security Manager, ISACA.
- Certified Information Security Manager.
- Certified Information Systems Auditor, ISACA
- Certified Information Systems Security Officer.
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional Certification.
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional.
- Certified Penetration Testing Consultant.
- Certified Penetration Testing Engineer.
- Certified Professional Ethical Hacker.
- Certified Security Leadership Officer.
- Computing Technology Industry Association.
- Global Information Assurance Certification.
- Lead Auditor ISO27001.
- PCI Data Security Standard.
- SECURITY +.