Q1. NAME AND DESCRIBE THREE AUTHENTICATION METHODS.
Authentication is defined by Essentials Guide as is the process of determining whether someone or something is, in fact, who or what it is declared to be.
Authentication means verifying the identity of someone (a user, device, or an entity) who wants to access data, resources, or applications. Validating that identity establishes a trust relationship for further interactions.
Authentication is the first step in access control, and there are three common methods used for authentication:

What you have method: – Examples of this method includes keys, badges, ID, pass cards/smart card, tokens. These are physical objects and go towards identifying you by what you physically “own”. A smart card is credit card sized card that has an embedded certificate used to identify the holder. The obvious problem here is that objects can be taken and are not tied or "signed" to any particular person. This makes it easy to loan your verification for temporary uses like valet parking, but objects can be stolen. Keys can be duplicated and IDs can be faked,

What you are method: - DNA, fingerprints, voice match, cadence of your typing, your walk, talk, act. Your smell, shoeprints, aura, your retinal scan, your vein patterns. Anything that leaves the impression of YOU, but nothing that can come from someone else. These are things that can be taken from you. They cannot be faked but can be stolen. Secondary level of security, what you are is better than what you have, but is nothing compared to what you know.

What you know method:. Passwords, passphrases. Things that cannot be beaten out of you. Passwords cannot be compelled to be told, they cannot be stolen (from your mind), and they cannot be duplicated. Other examples include your memories. We've all thought about the time traveler trick. Imagine yourself from the future convincing yourself now that you are really the future you. You can name things that only you could possibly know, such as your 2nd pet's name, the number of girls you've slept with, etc.
Needless to say, this method of authentication is the most secure and the most unwieldly.

Q2. DESCRIBE THE ROLES OF FIREWALLS, INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEMS, AND ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE IN PROMOTING SECURITY.

Security refers to the policies, procedures, and technical measures that can be applied to prevent unauthorized access, alteration, theft, or physical damage to information systems. Some of the security systems used by firms are as follows:
A firewall is a combination of hardware and software that controls the flow of incoming and outgoing network traffic. Firewalls prevent unauthorized users from accessing internal networks. It helps screen out hackers, viruses and worms that try to reach computers over the internet. They protect internal systems by monitoring packets for the wrong source or destination, or by offering a proxy server with no access to the internal documents and systems, or by restricting the types of messages that get through, for example, e-mail. They act as a measure of control, enforcing the relevant components of the security policy. A firewall can be a number of different components such as a router or a collection of host machines. However, the basic function of a firewall is to protect the integrity of the network which is firewall controlled.

An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a device or software application that monitors network or system activities for malicious activities or policy violations and produces reports to a management station. IDS are not a preventive measure. They will not stop intruders breaking into a system. Neither will they prevent internal damage to a system. As the name clearly states, they are a detection system, thus implying that abuse of a system is reported as and when it happens.
IDS come in a variety of “flavors” and approach the goal of detecting suspicious traffic in different ways. There are network based (NIDS) and host based (HIDS) intrusion detection systems. Some systems may attempt to stop an intrusion but is neither required nor expected of a monitoring system. Intrusion detection systems monitor the most vulnerable points or “hotspots” in a network to detect and deter unauthorized intruders. These systems often also monitor events as they happen to look for security attacks in progress. Sometimes they can be programmed to shut down a particularly sensitive part of a network if it receives unauthorized traffic.

Antivirus software is a computer program that detects, prevents, and takes action to disarm or remove malicious software programs, such as viruses and worms. These tools are critical for users to have installed and updated because a computer without anti-virus software installed will be infected within minutes of connecting to the internet. Antivirus software is designed to check computer systems and drives for the presence of computer viruses and worms and often eliminates the malicious software, whereas antispyware software combats intrusive and harmful spyware programs. Often the software can eliminate the virus from the infected area. To be effective, antivirus software must be continually updated.

Q3. EXPLAIN HOW ENCRYPTION PROTECTS INFORMATION.

From Wikipedia: Encryption is the process of transforming information (referred to as plaintext) using an algorithm (called a cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. Encryption, the coding and scrambling of messages, is a widely used technology for securing electronic transmissions over the Internet and over Wi-Fi networks. Encryption offers protection by keeping messages or packets hidden from the view of unauthorized readers.
Encryption is crucial for ensuring the success of electronic commerce between the organization and its customers and between the organization and its vendors. Encryption is the security technology which protects the privacy of information sent over a network (e.g. your bank details). A person’s credentials (password and username) is protected using encryption. If no encryption is used to protect the information as it is sent over the network, an attacker could capture those credentials and assume the identity of the originator. In a well-designed system, only the intended recipient is able to decrypt the encrypted data stream to recover the information. However, encryption does not guarantee trust and authentication. Encryption can be used to protect data "at rest", such as files on computers and storage devices (e.g. USB flash drives). In recent years there have been numerous reports of confidential data such as customers' personal records being exposed through loss or theft of laptops or backup drives. Encrypting such files at rest helps protect them should physical security measures fail.
Encryption is also used to protect data in transit, for example data being transferred via networks (e.g. the Internet, e-commerce), mobile telephones, wireless microphones, wireless intercom systems, Bluetooth devices and bank automatic teller machines. Q4. DISTINGUISH BETWEEN FAULT-TOLERANT AND HIGH-AVAILABILITY COMPUTING, AND BETWEEN DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING. Fault-tolerant computer systems contain redundant hardware, software, and power supply components that can back a system up and keep it running to prevent system failure. Some systems simply cannot be allowed to stop, such as stock market systems or some systems in hospitals. A fault tolerant environment has no service interruption but a significantly higher cost, while a highly available environment has a minimal service interruption
Fault-tolerant computers contain extra memory chips, processors, and disk storage devices to back up a system and keep it running. They also can use special software routings or self-checking logic built into their circuitry to detect hardware failures and automatically switch to a backup device. Fault tolerance means you don't lose the in-memory application state in the event of a failure such as a host crash. Fault Tolerance is much harder than high availability in a virtual environment because you have to maintain two copies of a virtual machine, each on separate hosts. As memory and device state change on the primary, these changes have to be recorded and replayed on the secondary copy at the same time.
High-availability computing: is commonly thought of as a way to ensure a resource stays available, but the resource may suffer from some minor downtime. It is also designed to maximize application and system availability, and help firms recover quickly from a crash, but Fault tolerance promises continuous availability and the elimination of recovery time altogether. High-availability computing environments are a minimum requirement for firms with heavy electronic commerce processing requirements or for firms that depend on digital networks for their internal operations.
From an article in IBM knowledge centre, High availability views availability not as a series of replicated physical components, but rather as a set of system-wide, shared resources that cooperate to guarantee essential services. High availability combines software with industry-standard hardware to minimize downtime by quickly restoring essential services when a system- component or application fails. While not instantaneous, services are restored rapidly, often in less than a minute.
High availability systems are an excellent solution for applications that must be restored quickly and can withstand a short interruption should a failure occur. Some industries have applications so time-critical that they cannot withstand even a few seconds of downtime. Many other industries, however, can withstand small periods of time when their database is unavailable. For those industries, HACMP™ can provide the necessary continuity of service without total redundancy.
Disaster recovery planning (DRP): This devises plans for the restoration of computing and communications services after they have been disrupted by an event such as an earthquake, flood, or terrorist attack. Disaster recovery plans focus primarily on the technical issues involved in keeping systems up and running, such as which files to back up and the maintenance of backup computer systems or disaster recovery services. As part of the business continuity process an Organisation will normally develop a series of DRPs. These are more technical plans that are developed for specific groups within an Organisation to allow them to recover a particular business application. The most well-known example of a DRP is the Information Technology (IT) DRP. The typical test for a DR Plan for IT would be; "if we lost our IT services how would we recover them?"
IT DR plans only deliver technology services to the desk of employees. It is then up to the business units to have plans for the subsequent functions.
Business Continuity Planning (BCP): This is best described as the processes and procedures that are carried out by an Organisation to ensure that essential business functions continue to operate during and after a disaster. By having a BCP, organizations seek to protect their mission critical services and give themselves their best chance of survival. This type of planning enables them to re-establish services to a fully functional level as quickly and smoothly as possible. BCPs generally cover most or all of an organization’s critical business processes and operations. Business continuity planning focus on how the company can restore business operations after a disaster strikes. The business continuity plan identifies critical business processes and determines action plans for handling mission-critical functions if systems go down.
Reference
1. Article by Darril Gibson, (2011), Pearson it Certification – Understanding the Three Factors of Authentication Retrieved from http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/articles

2. Article by Standby Consulting Limited, Retrieved from http://www.standbyconsulting.com/continuity-planning/bcp-vs-drp 3. Article by Universal Securities, (2007) Retrieved from http://unisec.blogspot.com/2007/11/three-types-of-authentication.html

4. Chad Cook (ccook@illusive.org), Retrieved from http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/introduction-encryption

5. Essentials Guide. Retrieved from http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/authentication 6. Julie Greensmith and Uwe Aickelin (2005), Computer Science Technical Report No. NOTTCS-TR – 2005-1, Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems and Anti-Virus Scanners. Retrieved from http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/TR/2005/2005-1.pdf 7. Kafka Khan Tutorial, IBM Knowledge Center, Retrieved from http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter.