Security in Computing, 6th Edition

2. Toolbox: Authentication, Access Control, and Cryptography

Chapter topics:

• Authentication, capabilities, and limitations

• The three bases of authentication: knowledge, characteristics, possessions

• Strength of an authentication mechanism

• Implementation of access control

• Employing encryption

• Symmetric and asymmetric encryption

• Message digests

• Signatures and certificates

Just as doctors have stethoscopes and blood tests, and carpenters have measuring tapes and squares, security professionals have a set of tools they use frequently. Three key security tools are authentication, access control, and cryptography. In this chapter we introduce these tools, discussing what they are and how they work. In later chapters we use these tools ...