Senior PaperTomhave 4

analogy of this definition is as such:If you have a letter that you want to mail to your

mother, you are likely satisfied that by putting it in an envelope with the correct postage

and address, it will arrive unharmed and uncompromised. At the same time, the letter

likely does not contain information that is so sensitive that it requires much in the way

of security. In contrast, if a financial institution regular makes large transactions (such

as transferring currency to and from the Federal Reserve via Brinks truck), many more

precautions will be taken to keep the money secure. Thus, the money is counted and

marked, locked in a large truck with ample strength to resist attack and is guarded by

armed personnel. There is much more at risk, so much more money is expended on

protection.

Using this definition of security -- one that considers Cost vs. Risk and Cost vs.

Investment -- we can then progress to citing what challenges currently exist to

reaching a level of sound electronic security. Before I do that, let me first reinforce

something just said. In this paper, security does not refer to physical security so much

as it does electronic security. The techniques that I think of when speaking of

computer security range from taking measures as a system administrator to lock down

any unused functionality in a system to implementing a firewall or network monitoring

system to protect against penetration attacks. Other related techniques include

encryption, authentication and verification, or the use of tunneling. This paper will not

discuss hands-on approaches to implementing security, however. Instead, the focus

here will be on how to change the mind sets of students and administrators in an effort

to exact security from the ground up. More will be said about this later in the paper.

The three main challenges to security today are learning how to transform

information into knowledge, learning to consider security before problems arise, and

learning how to bridge the gap between business and technology. Transformation of

information into knowledge is key in the current age. We are constantly bombarded