Many industrial enterprises and institutions nowadays use DP systems to store and process data of the utmost importance either to individuals or to entire organizations. As a result the world of data processing has seen the emergence of a new focal point, ranking in importance alongside functionality and performance: the security of DP systems.
Users of DP systems have a legitimate interest in the confidentiality and integrity of the data stored - be it the technical know-how gathered over many years that has given an industrial enterprise the edge over its competitors, the data concerning a specific group of persons held by a fiscal authority, or the balance of a client’s savings account kept by a bank. The reasons why “security in DP systems” has become a major issue are manifold, and they are being made increasingly clear by the continuing efforts of hardware and software suppliers in this field.
These efforts are aimed at preventing the misuse, falsification or loss of confidential data stored and processed in DP systems.
Security impairments can have various causes:
human errors such as pressing the wrong key, starting the wrong program, losing a storage medium, etc.
playful experimentation on the part of the user
criminal activities, from the teenage hacker wishing to make a name for himself by a clever piece of infiltration to the professional spy team trying to winkle out industrial or military secrets
hardware or software errors such as CPU malfunctions, transmission errors, program errors etc.
Acts of God such as power cuts, fire, flooding, earthquakes etc.
German legislation therefore turned its attention to the subject of security some time ago. The Federal and Regional Data Protection Acts and numerous other legal regulations lay down rules governing the handling of personal data. Security criteria define the security policy to be enforced by DP systems. Hardware and software suppliers today are confronted with the task of providing and further developing the technical basis for the security of DP systems and thus for the implementation of data privacy - a task which will continue to grow in importance in the future.
However, any technical security mechanisms provided by a supplier are doomed to remain largely ineffective unless they are reinforced by organizational measures on the part of the user. Final responsibility for safeguarding data privacy rests ultimately with the actual user of a DP system. This means that, in addition to his normal DP activities, he is duty bound
to comply with the legal regulations governing data privacy
to comply with the data protection rules and guidelines laid down by the body by which he is employed
to act with all due consideration for the possible problems involved when handling sensitive data.