Book Description

This monograph on Security in Computing Systems: Challenges, Approaches and Solutions aims at introducing, surveying and assessing the fundamentals of se- rity with respect to computing. Here, “computing” refers to all activities which individuals or groups directly or indirectly perform by means of computing s- tems, i. e. , by means of computers and networks of them built on telecommuni- tion. We all are such individuals, whether enthusiastic or just bowed to the inevitable. So, as part of the ‘‘information society’’, we are challenged to maintain our values, to pursue our goals and to enforce our interests, by consciously desi- ing a ‘‘global information infrastructure’’ on a large scale as well as by approp- ately configuring our personal computers on a small scale. As a result, we hope to achieve secure computing: Roughly speaking, computer-assisted activities of in- viduals and computer-mediated cooperation between individuals should happen as required by each party involved, and nothing else which might be harmful to any party should occur. The notion of security circumscribes many aspects, ranging from human qua- ties to technical enforcement. First of all, in considering the explicit security requirements of users, administrators and other persons concerned, we hope that usually all persons will follow the stated rules, but we also have to face the pos- bility that some persons might deviate from the wanted behavior, whether ac- dently or maliciously.