Important documents are usually placed in a safe and are not scattered just anywhere. The safe definitely has locks which you never forget to fasten soon after you finish what it is that you have to do with the contents of the safe. You may sometimes ask yourself why you even bother to go through all these hassles just for those important documents.
The main reason behind all these compulsions to attain maximum security is confidentiality. Those documents contain information that is not supposed to be shared to everyone. You maintain the availability of the information but only to expected audiences. By also trying to conceal the information from irrelevant people, you ensure that it remains correct and unchanged unless such changes are appropriate and authorized.
Compare such scenario to your computer. As your computer is very essential in several aspects, it undoubtedly contains a lot of information, whether confidential or for everyone?s consumption. As owner of the computer, it is simply normal for you to regulate the access to all these important information.
ACLs or access control lists are usually used to establish control. ACLs clearly identify who can access a certain file or folder as a whole. They can indicate who can read or even edit a particular information.
ACLs may vary from computer to computer. Various systems mean various types of ACLs as well. Some have very specific controls while others do not have any at all. What you can do is to know and maximize the capacity of your computer.
For some computers, the access to information cannot be very limited such as those for online transactions or businesses. Under these cases, file encryption programs, which involve several mathematical processes, are more appropriate.
Encryption converts information from a readable one to an encrypted version. Those who know how to transform them back to their readable form are the only ones who can access the information.
However, the best file encryption programs are those which last for a considerable period of time. Schemes that are figured out easily after some time are poor ones. It can be compared to a kid eventually learning more words which allow him to understand what the adults are talking about which he used to not recognize before. If file encryption programs work this way, they are not, in any way, useful for pc security.
Whether you use simple ACLs or complicated file encryption programs, you have to remember that your main goal is to give your computer that much-needed security.
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