Information security is essential to any company and its operations. Data security is key as companies try to outdo each other in the market by obtaining data from their competition using dubious means. There are several types of software that have been developed to curb the practice. This is mainly done by limiting the number of employees who have access to the company’s vital information. Some companies assign rights while others assign certificates to specific employees to access the system.
In public key infrastructure, companies tend to use public administered resources to foster their operations. There has also been complemented by cloud computing and several software companies have started offering these services as they are cheaper and more reliable as opposed to each company maintaining its own data security software (Trček, Denis (2006).
Active directory information services strive to protect data using domain services, rights services, federation services, certificate services, and lightweight directory services. These are key as they are managed from a closed center in an organization. This allows the organization full control of its data and the operation of its own data. In case of data leak or loss, the company is squarely responsible for it as there are key staff assigned to monitor and control the data. (Peter Schmidt 2008)
Public key infrastructure is a system consisting of software, hardware, and people policies that allow users to communicate and share data in a secure mode using a public or unsecured public network. Every user is issued with a user certificate that is unique from the other user. Responsibility is assigned to each user certificate issued.
Cryptography is a public key infrastructure that binds the users using certificate authority. The issuance is well controlled using registration authority. The digital certificates are used to distinguish each entity from the other. And is a sign of ownership and identity for each entity (LPKI – A Lightweight, (2008).
In the issuance of certificates, companies can issue two main types of certificates;
Temporary certificate
This involves issuing of certificate based on a single sign-in or log-off policy. The user accumulates several sign INS as they continue using the public key infrastructure.
Web of trust
This is where the user assigns him or herself the user certificates. The PKI does not necessarily mean that the user is temporary or single as they may be multiple.
Simple public key infrastructure
This is where a user can log in from multiple interfaces and does not require authentication or being assigned or approved by anyone. It tries to overcome the challenges of the temporary and web of trust PKI’s (Adams, Carlisle & Lloyd, Steve (2003).
In conclusion, data and information security are key and focal to the success of the organization. Both forms of data security try positively to enhance data security. The windows server 2008 is a secure mode of data and information protection as is fully under the control of the organization, the only challenge relates to the cost of acquiring the software, and maintaining it requires qualified staff to operate and maintain it. On the other hand, the PKI is also a secure mode of protecting data and also safe for large and small, and middle-sized companies. It’s cheap to outsource and does not need qualified staff to administer internally in the organization (Viega, John et al. (2002).
It’s recommended that a company first evaluate its data needs before deciding on which data protection software will meet its needs, this will enable the company to carefully assess and acquire data protection software that deals with all its concerns per its needs.
References
Adams, Carlisle & Lloyd, Steve (2003). Understanding PKI: concepts, standards, and deployment considerations. Addison-Wesley Professional. pp. 11–15.
LPKI – A Lightweight, (2008), Public Key Infrastructure for the Mobile Environments“, pp.162-166, Guangzhou, China.
Trček, Denis (2006). Managing information systems security and privacy. Birkhauser. p. 69.
Peter Schmidt (2008) Public key infrastructure: building trusted applications and Web services. CRC Press.
Viega, John et al. (2002). Network Security with OpenSSL. O’Reilly Media.