Elementary Information Security, 3rd Edition

▶ 3.1 The File System

Data sharing poses a problem: If people can look at some information on a computer, how do we prevent them from seeing all the information? This is the same problem as RAM protection. If any user can read any information inside the computer, we can’t prevent users from reaching any of its contents.

For most people, important information assets reside in files. Modern file systems keep the hard drive organized so we may reliably locate and save our data.

All modern systems use a hierarchical directory to organize files into groups. The directory forms an inverted tree growing from the topmost directory, called the root directory. Many users think of files as living in file folders instead of directories. In practice, we ...