Physical information security deals with physically protecting data. Generally, many companies and organizations as well as individuals place great importance in protecting data by use of a software or via a network. Unfortunately, physical attacks to acquire data are common and are sometimes classified as social engineering attacks. The need to protect information cannot be overemphasized, financial, competition, privacy reasons are among the many reasons behind it. Computer hackers, corporate spies and other malicious individuals will however spare no expense if the information is going to benefit them in some way.
Well, enough of talking about the need for protection. Lets talk about solutions to these problems. What can you do in computer hardware security to ensure that your data and information is well protected? One is to purchase and install a firewall security appliance. Physical firewalls offer protection from spam mail, spyware and central policy management that makes the entire process easy. A hardware firewall is positioned between the computer and the modem. Some routers also have an inbuilt firewall and can be used to offer protection to multiple computers on a network. Hardware based firewalls have the advantage of having their own operating system running independent of the computer operating system, thus offering an additional line of defense should the computers operating system and security settings be compromised.
Computer hardware security by use of devices called dongles is also considered more secure than implementing a purely software-based security option. For dongles to be compromised, physical access is required, thus they offer one of the best protections. Another advantage of using hardware devices like dongles is the fact that read and write access to data is usually very difficult if not impossible. Unauthorized access and tampering is very strictly prohibited thus offering a high level of protection.
Computer hardware security also has the advantage of sometimes requiring a user to log in, log out and set other privilege levels only on a manual level. Sometimes, this access is only permitted by use of biometric technology. Sometimes this access is permitted based on the current state of the users hard disk and DVD controller. This high level of protection in computer hardware security offers protection that software cannot override.
Computer hardware security can offer high level protection when well implemented and when combined with a software component. However, no system is full proof. You can be sure however that with computer hardware security, your data just got a little more safety.