Tag Archives: records
Could A One Time Password Already Be Securing Your Industry?
Technology affects every aspect of our life, especially our security. Luckily there is always new technology being created to help keep our lives more secure. As our lives become digitized it seems that more and more sensitive information is being added to databases connected to networks or accessible from the web. This raises a red flag to anyone who has been affected by identity theft or fraud. With all of our personal data being stored in so many places it would seem that we more vulnerable to malicious attacks than ever. However this is not true, as technology begins to change the way we interact and share information it is also changing the way we secure our data.
Two- factor authentication utilizing a one-time password is technology that has been around for decades although the need for such security has risen lately. With many industries going paperless and wireless it opens the gate for hackers to siphon private data. Industries such as education, financial services and healthcare are all in need of higher security since they deal with important information that must be kept confidential.
OTP in Education
The education industry has been utilizing electronic records for a long time to manage students. These records are stored on a computer that is connected to a network for administrative use, the very same network that students are accessing from their laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Even on a password secured network these records are vulnerable since you do not need to be extremely computer savvy to use a key logger. Any student could simple attach a device to their teachers computer or install malicious software that operates discreetly behind the scenes to log keystrokes. Potentially stealing their teachers login credentials and gaining access to confidential information.
Any agency collecting, maintaining and storing sensitive information is responsible for managing that data responsibly as stated in “The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act” also known as FERPA. With security being their government appointed responsibility and malicious attacks becoming easier to perform, many education agencies are securing their confidential information with two-factor authentication through a one-time password.
OTP for Financial Services
Identity fraud is most apparent in the financial services industry for a good reason, it deals directly with money. Just like everything technology has affected the way we bank with online banking being offered by almost every bank. However this poses a threat to client identities. To keep account holders secure a one-time password is used to keep online banking customers safe by authenticating a user when they log in from different IP addresses. Two-factor authentication is also used to identify an account holder at almost every point of transaction through a bank card and PIN.
OTP in Healthcare
The healthcare industry is facing many changes in the future from regulations demanding increased security of patients confidential information. With more sensitive data being readily available over the internet for physicians the need to secure that information is extremely critical. Authorization to access a patients medical record is crucial and a one-time password provides that security by identifying the physician, issuing the OTP and allowing a single sign on. Even on mobile devices such as laptops and tablets, zero footprint security can allow access to records without leaving any data on the device.
Transmitting data securely is the future of security in almost every industry. Info is power and with almost every industry moving over to wireless interaction between tablets, laptops and smartphones hackers are using technology against us to gain power. Securing that information through two-factor authentication and one-time password services is the future of technology in order to protect the same users it was put in place to help.
Could A One Time Password Already Be Securing Your Industry?
Technology affects every aspect of our life, especially our security. Luckily there is always new technology being created to help keep our lives more secure. As our lives become digitized it seems that more and more sensitive information is being added to databases connected to networks or accessible from the web. This raises a red flag to anyone who has been affected by identity theft or fraud. With all of our personal data being stored in so many places it would seem that we more vulnerable to malicious attacks than ever. However this is not true, as technology begins to change the way we interact and share information it is also changing the way we secure our data.
Two- factor authentication utilizing a one-time password is technology that has been around for decades although the need for such security has risen lately. With many industries going paperless and wireless it opens the gate for hackers to siphon private data. Industries such as education, financial services and healthcare are all in need of higher security since they deal with important information that must be kept confidential.
OTP in Education
The education industry has been utilizing electronic records for a long time to manage students. These records are stored on a computer that is connected to a network for administrative use, the very same network that students are accessing from their laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Even on a password secured network these records are vulnerable since you do not need to be extremely computer savvy to use a key logger. Any student could simple attach a device to their teachers computer or install malicious software that operates discreetly behind the scenes to log keystrokes. Potentially stealing their teachers login credentials and gaining access to confidential information.
Any agency collecting, maintaining and storing sensitive information is responsible for managing that data responsibly as stated in “The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act” also known as FERPA. With security being their government appointed responsibility and malicious attacks becoming easier to perform, many education agencies are securing their confidential information with two-factor authentication through a one-time password.
OTP for Financial Services
Identity fraud is most apparent in the financial services industry for a good reason, it deals directly with money. Just like everything technology has affected the way we bank with online banking being offered by almost every bank. However this poses a threat to client identities. To keep account holders secure a one-time password is used to keep online banking customers safe by authenticating a user when they log in from different IP addresses. Two-factor authentication is also used to identify an account holder at almost every point of transaction through a bank card and PIN.
OTP in Healthcare
The healthcare industry is facing many changes in the future from regulations demanding increased security of patients confidential information. With more sensitive data being readily available over the internet for physicians the need to secure that information is extremely critical. Authorization to access a patients medical record is crucial and a one-time password provides that security by identifying the physician, issuing the OTP and allowing a single sign on. Even on mobile devices such as laptops and tablets, zero footprint security can allow access to records without leaving any data on the device.
Transmitting data securely is the future of security in almost every industry. Info is power and with almost every industry moving over to wireless interaction between tablets, laptops and smartphones hackers are using technology against us to gain power. Securing that information through two-factor authentication and one-time password services is the future of technology in order to protect the same users it was put in place to help.
File Processing Systems
Even the earliest business computer systems were used to process business records and produce information. They were generally faster and more accurate than equivalent manual systems. These systems stored groups of records in separate files, and so they were called file processing systems. Although file processing systems are a great improvement over manual systems, they do have the following limitations:
Data is separated and isolated.
Data is often duplicated.
Application programs are dependent on file formats.
It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. Data is separate and isolated. Recall that as the marketing manager you needed to relate sales data to customer data. Somehow you need to extract data from both the CUSTOMER and ORDER files and combine it into a single file for processing. To do this, computer programmers determine which parts of each of the files are needed. Then they determine how the files are related to one another, and finally they coordinate the processing of the files so the correct data is extracted. This data is then used to produce the information. Imagine the problems of extracting data from ten or fifteen files instead of just two! Data is often duplicated. In the record club example, a member’s name, address, and membership number are stored in both files. Although this duplicate data wastes a small amount of file space, that is not the most serious problem with duplicate data. The major problem concerns data integrity. A collection of data has integrity if the data is logically consistent. This means, in part, that duplicated data items agree with one another. Poor data integrity often develops in file processing systems. If a member were to change his or her name or address, then all files containing that data need to be updated. The danger lies in the risk that all files might not be updated, causing discrepancies between the files. Data integrity problems are serious. If data items differ, inconsistent results will be produced. A report from one application might disagree with a report from another application. At least one of them will be incorrect, but who can tell which one? When this occurs, the credibility of the stored data comes into question. Application programs are dependent on file formats. In file processing systems, the physical formats of files and records are entered in the application programs that process the files. In COBOL, for example, file formats are written in the DATA DIVISION. The problem with this arrangement is that changes in file formats result in program updates. For example, if the Customer record were modified to expand the ZIP Code field from five to nine digits, all programs that use the Customer record need to be modified, even if they do not use the ZIP Code field. There might be twenty programs that process the CUSTOMER file. A change like this one means that a programmer needs to identify all the affected programs, then modify and retest them. This is both time consuming and error-prone. It is also very frustrating to have to modify programs that do not even use the field whose format changed. It is difficult to represent complex objects using file processing systems. This last weakness of file processing systems may seem a bit theoretical, but it is an important shortcoming.