Security

Information system security is a difficult problem and must be tackled at all levels. That is, the application must be secure from exploitation and the infrastructure on which applications are hosted must also be secure.

Security by Design

Any system that needs to be secure needs to incorporate the security measures into the system design. Stated differently, security is an aspect of the system that needs to be considered during the conception of the system rather than being added at a latter point in time. Gethos works with clients to help them understand their risk profile and then weave the subsequent security requirements into the system being built.

Cryptographic expertise

To secure applications and information transmitted over open networks, one often needs to employ cryptographic tools. This can be as simple as using web servers that support SSL to encrypt world wide web traffic. In other cases it may require using trusted cryptographic routines as part of applications, or even developing custom cryptographic solutions.

For all of these tasks it is important to know the concepts involved in cryptography and to understand the implications of various techniques.

For an introduction to the key concepts of cryptography, Stewart Gebbie's Mathematics Masters Cryptography Report is available to read.

Host and Network security

To secure the infrastructure, you must secure the individual machines as well as services that can be accessed remotely via a network. To do this Gethos follows a number of best practises as well as drawing on knowledge of common risks and exploits that are often used to break into systems. In conjunction with this security auditing tools are employed to automatically find many common network security holes.