Certified Office Administrator Learning Resources Data Security

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Data Security


Data Security means protecting a database from destructive forces and the unwanted actions of unauthorised users.

Data Security Technologies

Disk Encryption
Disk encryption refers to encryption technology that encrypts data on a hard disk drive. Disk encryption typically takes form in either software (see disk encryption software] or hardware (see disk encryption hardware). Disk encryption is often referred to as on-the-fly encryption ("OTFE") or transparent encryption.

Hardware based Mechanisms for Protecting Data
Software based security solutions encrypt the data to prevent data from being stolen. However, a malicious program or a hacker may corrupt the data in order to make it unrecoverable or unusable. Similarly, encrypted operating systems can be corrupted by a malicious program or a hacker, making the system unusable. Hardware-based security solutions can prevent read and write access to data and hence offers very strong protection against tampering and unauthorized access.

Backups
Backups are used to ensure data which is lost can be recovered.

Data Masking
Data Masking of structured data is the process of obscuring (masking) specific data within a database table or cell to ensure that data security is maintained and sensitive information is not exposed to unauthorized personnel. This may include masking the data from users (for example so banking customer representatives can only see the last 4 digits of a customers national identity number), developers (who need real production data to test new software releases but should not be able to see sensitive financial data), outsourcing vendors, etc.

Data Erasure
Data erasure is a method of software-based overwriting that completely destroys all electronic data residing on a hard drive or other digital media to ensure that no sensitive data is leaked when an asset is retired or reused.

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