Unit 5 Topic: Security

I Reading skills

1. Read and remember the following words and word combinations used in their specialized meanings.

deliberate or accidental damage	- спланована або випадкова шкода (пошкодження)
unauthorized person	- неповноважна особа
disaster	- лихо, катастрофа
security violations	- порушення захисту
data protection techniques	- методи захисту інформації
employee	- службовець, працівник, робітник
employer	- наймач, роботодавець
backup copy	- запасна, резервна копія
cryptography	- криптографія, шифрування
screening	- попередня перевірка; попередній відбір
compartmentalize information	- відокремлювати інформацію
scrambling the message	- шифрування (скремблювання) повідомлення
restrict access	- обмежений доступ
legitimate access	- законний (легітимний) доступ

2. Read and translate the following text into Ukrainian. Computer security

What is computer security? We may define it as follows: Security is a system of safeguards designed to protect a computer system and data from deliberate or accidental damage or access by unauthorized persons. That means safeguarding the system against such threats as burglary, vandalism, fire, natural disasters, theft of data for ransom, industrial espionage, and various forms of white-collar crime.

Computer installation of any kind can be struck by natural or man-made disasters that can lead to security violations.

Your first thoughts might be of the hardware, the computer and its related equipment. But loss of hardware is not a major problem in itself, hardware can be replaced. Loss of software should not be a problem if the organization has heeded industry warning – and used common sense – to make backup copies.

A more important problem is the loss of data. Some information industries, such as banking, could literally go out of business in a matter of days if their computer operations were suspended. Replacing lost data can be quite expensive.

Now let us consider the security of data is one of an organization’s most important assets. There must be planning for security. Usually, this is done by security offices, who are part of top management. There are several data protection techniques, these will not individually (or even collectively) guarantee security, but at least they make a good start.

Common means of protecting data are securing waste, separating employee functions and implementing password, internal control, auditors checks, cryptography, applicant screening, and copy protection (a software and hardware roadblock to piracy). Let us consider some of them.

Applicant screening. The weakest link in any computer system is the people in it. At the very least, employers should verify the facts that job applicants list on their resumes to help weed out dishonest applicants before they are hired.

Passwords are the secret words or numbers that must be typed on the keyboard to gain access to a computer system. In some installations, however, the passwords are changed so seldom that they become known to many people. And some users even tape paper with their password written on it right on the terminal. Good data protection systems change passwords often and also compartmentalize information by passwords, so that only authorized persons can have access to certain data.

Cryptography. Data being sent over communications lines can be protected by scrambling the messages – that is, putting them code that can be broken only by the person receiving the message. The process of scrambling messages is encryption.

Software protection can be built into operating system in ways that restrict access to the computer system. If a person does not get access, it is recorded that he or she tried to tap into some area to which they are not authorised. Another form of software protection is a user profile. Information is stored about each user, including the files to which the user has legitimate access.