Linux Server Security, Second Edition

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

Components of Risk

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then used to attack someone else’s systems, it may be worth spending some time and

effort protecting that system’s integrity after all.

In any given case, liability issues may or may not be significant; the point is that you

need to think about whether they are and must include such considerations in your

threat analysis and threat management scenarios.

Security Goals

Once you’ve determined what you need to protect, you need to decide what levels

and types of protection each asset requires. I call the types security goals. They fall

into several interrelated categories: data confidentiality and integrity, system integ-

rity, and system/network availability.

Data confidentiality

Some types of data need to be protected against eavesdropping and other inappropri-

ate disclosures. End-user data such as customer account information, trade secrets,

and business communications are obviously important; administrative data such as

logon credentials, system configuration information, and network topology are

sometimes less obviously important but must also be considered.

The ramifications of disclosure vary for different types of data. In some cases, data

theft may result in financial loss. For example, an engineer who emails details about

a new invention to a colleague without ...