Security Fundamentals

Security is more than a set of techniques; it is a mindset. The information your clients or company stores on computers can be highly damaging to those organizations or to society at large if it falls into the wrong hands. When you understand that fact, you understand why the gamut of security techniques discussed in the following sections is necessary to protect that information.

Secure and Insecure File Systems

The decisions made about the file system used to set up a computer have a big effect on how secure that computer is against intruders. Windows 2000, XP, and Vista are designed to use the New Technology File System (NTFS) as the default file system. NTFS was designed from the start as a much more secure file system than the FAT file systems used on MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 9x/Me.