SCENARIO -
It should be the most secure location housing data in all of Europe, if not the world. The Global Finance Data Collective (GFDC) stores financial information and other types of client data from large banks, insurance companies, multinational corporations and governmental agencies. After a long climb on a mountain road that leads only to the facility, you arrive at the security booth. Your credentials are checked and checked again by the guard to visually verify that you are the person pictured on your passport and national identification card. You are led down a long corridor with server rooms on each side, secured by combination locks built into the doors. You climb a flight of stairs and are led into an office that is lighted brilliantly by skylights where the GFDC Director of Security, Dr. Monique
Batch, greets you. On the far wall you notice a bank of video screens showing different rooms in the facility. At the far end, several screens show different sections of the road up the mountain
Dr. Batch explains once again your mission. As a data security auditor and consultant, it is a dream assignment: The GFDC does not want simply adequate controls, but the best and most effective security that current technologies allow.
`We were hacked twice last year,` Dr. Batch says, `and although only a small number of records were stolen, the bad press impacted our business. Our clients count on us to provide security that is nothing short of impenetrable and to do so quietly. We hope to never make the news again.` She notes that it is also essential that the facility is in compliance with all relevant security regulations and standards.
You have been asked to verify compliance as well as to evaluate all current security controls and security measures, including data encryption methods, authentication controls and the safest methods for transferring data into and out of the facility. As you prepare to begin your analysis, you find yourself considering an intriguing question: Can these people be sure that I am who I say I am?
You are shown to the office made available to you and are provided with system login information, including the name of the wireless network and a wireless key.
Still pondering, you attempt to pull up the facility's wireless network, but no networks appear in the wireless list. When you search for the wireless network by name, however it is readily found.
Why would you recommend that GFC use record encryption rather than disk, file or table encryption?