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Pre-boot Authentication
Pre-boot authentication (PBA) or power-on authentication (POA) serves as an extension of the BIOS, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, UEFI or boot firmware and guarantees a secure, tamper-proof environment external to the operating system as a trusted authentication layer. The PBA prevents anything being read from the hard disk such as the operating system until the user has confirmed they have the correct password or other credentials including multi-factor authentication. Uses of pre-boot authentication * Full disk encryption outside of the operating system level * Encryption of temporary files * Data at rest protection *Encryption of cloud servers or instances Pre-boot authentication process A PBA environment serves as an extension of the BIOS, UEFI or boot firmware and guarantees a secure, tamper-proof environment external to the operating system as a trusted authentication layer. The PBA prevents any operating system from loading until the user has confirmed he/she ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Network World
International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is an American market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.'s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technology, and insights that help create and sustain relationships between businesses. IDG, Inc. is wholly owned by Blackstone and is led by Genevieve Juillard, who was appointed CEO of the company in 2023. Juillard serves on IDG, Inc.'s leadership team along with IDC President Crawford Del Prete and IDG, Inc.'s Chief Financial Officer Tiziana Figliolia. IDG, Inc. is headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts and is the parent company of both International Data Corporation (IDC) and Foundry (formerly IDG Communications). History International Data Group was initially founded as International Data Corporation (IDC) in 1964 by Patrick Joseph McGovern, shortly after he had graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operating System
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of Scheduling (computing), processor time, mass storage, peripherals, and other resources. For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to an OS function or is interrupted by it. Operating systems are found on many devices that contain a computerfrom cellular phones and video game consoles to web servers and supercomputers. , Android (operating system), Android is the most popular operating system with a 46% market share, followed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evil Maid
An evil maid attack is an attack on an unattended device, in which an attacker with physical access alters it in some undetectable way so that they can later access the device, or the data on it. The name refers to the scenario where a maid could subvert a device left unattended in a hotel room – but the concept itself also applies to situations such as a device being intercepted while in transit, or taken away temporarily by airport or law enforcement personnel. Overview Origin In a 2009 blog post, security analyst Joanna Rutkowska coined the term "Evil Maid Attack" due to hotel rooms being a common place where devices are left unattended. The post detailed a method for compromising the firmware on an unattended computer via an external USB flash drive – and therefore bypassing TrueCrypt disk encryption. D. Defreez, a computer security professional, first mentioned the possibility of an evil maid attack on Android smartphones in 2011. He talked about the Whis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. Windows Server operating systems include it as a set of processes and services. Originally, only centralized domain management used Active Directory. However, it ultimately became an umbrella title for various directory-based identity-related services. A domain controller is a server running the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) role. It authenticates and authorizes all users and computers in a Windows domain-type network, assigning and enforcing security policies for all computers and installing or updating software. For example, when a user logs into a computer which is part of a Windows domain, Active Directory checks the submitted username and password and determines whether the user is a system administrator or a non-admin user. Furthermore, it allows the management and storage of information, provides authentication and authorization mechanisms, and establishes a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trusted Platform Module
A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a secure cryptoprocessor that implements the ISO/IEC 11889 standard. Common uses are verifying that the boot process starts from a trusted combination of hardware and software and storing disk encryption keys. A TPM 2.0 implementation is part of the Windows 11 system requirements. History The first TPM version that was deployed was 1.1b in 2003. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) was conceived by a computer industry consortium called Trusted Computing Group (TCG). It evolved into ''TPM Main Specification Version 1.2'' which was standardized by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2009 as ISO/IEC 11889:2009. ''TPM Main Specification Version 1.2'' was finalized on 3 March 2011 completing its revision. On April 9, 2014, the Trusted Computing Group announced a major upgrade to their specification entitled ''TPM Library Specification 2.0''. The group continues work on the standard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Full Disk Encryption
Disk encryption is a technology which protects information by converting it into code that cannot be deciphered easily by unauthorized people or processes. Disk encryption uses disk encryption software or hardware to encrypt every bit of data that goes on a disk or disk volume. It is used to prevent unauthorized access to data storage. The expression ''full disk encryption (FDE)'' (or ''whole disk encryption'') signifies that everything on the disk is encrypted, but the master boot record (MBR), or similar area of a bootable disk, with code that starts the operating system loading sequence, is not encrypted. Some hardware-based full disk encryption systems can truly encrypt an entire boot disk, including the MBR. Transparent encryption Transparent encryption, also known as real-time encryption and on-the-fly encryption (OTFE), is a method used by some disk encryption software. "Transparent" refers to the fact that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted as it is loaded o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initial Ramdisk
In Linux systems, initrd (''initial ramdisk'') is a scheme for loading a temporary root file system into computer memory, memory, to be used as part of the Linux startup process. initrd and initramfs (from INITial RAM File System) refer to two different methods of achieving this. Both are commonly used to make preparations before the real root directory, root file system can be mount (Unix), mounted. Rationale Many Linux distributions ship a single, generic Linux kernel image one which the distribution's developers create specifically to boot on a wide variety of hardware. The device drivers for this generic kernel image are included as loadable kernel modules because statically compiling many drivers into one kernel causes the kernel image to be much larger, perhaps too large to boot on computers with limited memory, or in some cases to cause boot-time crashes or other problems due to probing for nonexistent or conflicting hardware. This static-compiled kernel approach also leaves ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GUID Partition Table
The GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a standard for the layout of partition tables of a physical computer storage device, such as a hard disk drive or solid-state drive. It is part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) standard. It has several advantages over master boot record (MBR) partition tables, such as support for more than four primary partitions and 64-bit rather than 32-bit logical block addressing, logical block addresses (LBA) for blocks on a storage device. The larger LBA size supports larger disks. Some BIOSes support GPT partition tables as well as MBR partition tables, in order to support larger disks than MBR partition tables can support. GPT uses universally unique identifiers (UUIDs), which are also known as globally unique identifiers (GUIDs), to identify partitions and partition types. All modern personal computer operating systems support GPT. Some, including macOS and Microsoft Windows on the x86 architecture, support booting from GPT partitio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Master Boot Record
A master boot record (MBR) is a type of boot sector in the first block of disk partitioning, partitioned computer mass storage devices like fixed disks or removable drives intended for use with IBM PC-compatible systems and beyond. The concept of MBRs was publicly introduced in 1983 with PC DOS 2.0. The MBR holds the information on how the disc's sectors (A.K.A. "blocks") are divided into partitions, each partition notionally containing a file system. The MBR also contains executable code to function as a loader for the installed operating system—usually by passing control over to the loader's second stage, or in conjunction with each partition's volume boot record (VBR). This MBR code is usually referred to as a boot loader. The organization of the partition table in the MBR limits the maximum addressable storage space of a partitioned disk to 2 Tebibyte, TiB . Approaches to slightly raise this limit utilizing 32-bit arithmetic or 4096-byte sectors are not officially s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BIOS
In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is a type of firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the booting process (power-on startup). The firmware comes pre-installed on the computer's motherboard. The name originates from the Basic Input/Output System used in the CP/M operating system in 1975. The BIOS firmware was originally proprietary to the IBM PC; it was reverse engineered by some companies (such as Phoenix Technologies) looking to create compatible systems. The interface of that original system serves as a ''de facto'' standard. The BIOS in older PCs initializes and tests the system hardware components ( power-on self-test or POST for short), and loads a boot loader from a mass storage device which then initializes a kernel. In the era of DOS, the BIOS provided BIOS interrupt calls for the keyboard, display, st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data At Rest
Data at rest in information technology means data that is housed physically on computer data storage in any digital form (e.g. cloud storage, file hosting services, databases, data warehouses, spreadsheets, archives, tapes, off-site or cloud backups, mobile devices etc.). Data at rest includes both structured and unstructured data. This type of data is subject to threats from hackers and other malicious threats to gain access to the data digitally or physical theft of the data storage media. To prevent this data from being accessed, modified or stolen, organizations will often employ security protection measures such as password protection, data encryption, or a combination of both. The security options used for this type of data are broadly referred to as data-at-rest protection (DARP). ''Data at rest'' is used as a complement to the terms '' data in use'' and '' data in transit'' which together define the three states of digital data (''see Figure 1''). Alternative definition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
