|
Pre-boot Authentication
Pre-boot authentication (PBA) or power-on authentication (POA) serves as an extension of the BIOS, UEFI or boot firmware and guarantees a secure, tamper-proof environment external to the operating system as a trusted authentication layer. The PBA prevents anything being read from the hard disk such as the operating system until the user has confirmed they have the correct password or other credentials including multi-factor authentication. Uses of pre-boot authentication * Full disk encryption outside of the operating system level * Encryption of temporary files * Data at rest protection *Encryption of cloud servers or instances Pre-boot authentication process A PBA environment serves as an extension of the BIOS, UEFI or boot firmware and guarantees a secure, tamper-proof environment external to the operating system as a trusted authentication layer. The PBA prevents any operating system from loading until the user has confirmed he/she has the correct password to unlock the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Network World
International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is a market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.’s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technology, and insights that help create and sustain relationships between businesses. IDG, Inc. is wholly owned by Blackstone and is led by Mohamad Ali, who was appointed CEO of the company in 2019. Ali serves on IDG, Inc.’s leadership team along with IDC President Crawford Del Prete, IDG, Inc.’s Chief Financial Officer Donna Marr, and Foundry President Kumaran Ramanathan. IDG, Inc. is headquartered in Needham, MA and is parent company to both International Data Corporation (IDC) and Foundry (formerly IDG Communications). History International Data Group was initially founded as International Data Corporate (IDC) in 1964 by Patrick Joseph McGovern, shortly after he had graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operating System
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of processor time, mass storage, printing, and other resources. For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to an OS function or is interrupted by it. Operating systems are found on many devices that contain a computer from cellular phones and video game consoles to web servers and supercomputers. The dominant general-purpose personal computer operating system is Microsoft Windows with a market share of around 74.99%. macOS by Apple Inc. is in second place (14.84%), and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graphical Identification And Authentication
The graphical identification and authentication (GINA) is a component of Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that provides secure authentication and interactive Logging (computer security), logon services. GINA is a replaceable dynamically linked library that is loaded early in the boot process in the context of Winlogon when the machine is started. It is responsible for handling the secure attention key, secure attention sequence, typically Control-Alt-Delete, and interacting with the user when this sequence is received. GINA is also responsible for starting initial processes for a user (such as the Windows Shell) when they first log on. GINA is discontinued in Windows Vista. Overview A default GINA library, MSGINA.DLL, is provided by Microsoft as part of the operating system, and offers the following features: *Authentication against Windows Windows Server domain, domain servers with a supplied user name/password combination. *Displayi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services. Initially, Active Directory was used only for centralized domain management. However, Active Directory eventually became an umbrella title for a broad range of directory-based identity-related services. A server running the Active Directory Domain Service (AD DS) role is called a domain controller. It authenticates and authorizes all users and computers in a Windows domain type network, assigning and enforcing security policies for all computers, and installing or updating software. For example, when a user logs into a computer that is part of a Windows domain, Active Directory checks the submitted username and password and determines whether the user is a system administrator or normal user. Also, it allows management and storage of information, provides authentication and authorization mec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trusted Platform Module
Trusted Platform Module (TPM, also known as ISO/IEC 11889) is an international standard for a secure cryptoprocessor, a dedicated microcontroller designed to secure hardware through integrated cryptographic keys. The term can also refer to a chip conforming to the standard. TPM is used for digital rights management (DRM), Windows Defender, Windows Domain logon, protection and enforcement of software licenses, and prevention of cheating in online games. One of Windows 11's system requirements is TPM 2.0. Microsoft has stated that this is to help increase security against firmware and ransomware attacks. History Trusted Platform Module (TPM) was conceived by a computer industry consortium called Trusted Computing Group (TCG). It evolved into ''TPM Main Specification Version 1.2'' which was standardized by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2009 as ISO/IEC 11889:2009. ''TPM Main Specification Version 1. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Full Disk Encryption
Disk encryption is a technology which protects information by converting it into unreadable code that cannot be deciphered easily by unauthorized people. Disk encryption uses disk encryption software or hardware to encrypt every bit of data that goes on a disk or disk volume. It is used to prevent unauthorized access to data storage. The expression ''full disk encryption (FDE)'' (or ''whole disk encryption'') signifies that everything on the disk is encrypted, but the master boot record (MBR), or similar area of a bootable disk, with code that starts the operating system loading sequence, is not encrypted. Some hardware-based full disk encryption systems can truly encrypt an entire boot disk, including the MBR. Transparent encryption Transparent encryption, also known as real-time encryption and on-the-fly encryption (OTFE), is a method used by some disk encryption software. "Transparent" refers to the fact that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted as it is loaded or s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initial Ramdisk
In Linux systems, initrd (''initial ramdisk'') is a scheme for loading a temporary root file system into memory, to be used as part of the Linux startup process. initrd and initramfs refer to two different methods of achieving this. Both are commonly used to make preparations before the real root file system can be mounted. Rationale Many Linux distributions ship a single, generic Linux kernel image one that the distribution's developers create specifically to boot on a wide variety of hardware. The device drivers for this generic kernel image are included as loadable kernel modules because statically compiling many drivers into one kernel causes the kernel image to be much larger, perhaps too large to boot on computers with limited memory, or in some cases to cause boot-time crashes or other problems due to probing for nonexistent or conflicting hardware. This static-compiled kernel approach also leaves modules in kernel memory which are no longer used or needed, and raises the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GUID Partition Table
The GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a standard for the layout of partition tables of a physical computer storage device, such as a hard disk drive or solid-state drive, using universally unique identifiers, which are also known as globally unique identifiers (GUIDs). Forming a part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) standard (Unified EFI Forum-proposed replacement for the IBM PC, PC BIOS), it is nevertheless also used for some BIOS systems, because of the limitations of master boot record (MBR) partition tables, which use 32 bits for logical block addressing (LBA) of traditional 512-byte disk sectors. All modern personal computer operating systems support GPT. Some, including macOS and Microsoft Windows on the x86 architecture, support booting from GPT partitions only on systems with EFI firmware, but FreeBSD and most Linux distributions can boot from GPT partitions on systems with either the BIOS or the EFI firmware interface. History The Master Boot Record (M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Master Boot Record
A master boot record (MBR) is a special type of boot sector at the very beginning of partitioned computer mass storage devices like fixed disks or removable drives intended for use with IBM PC-compatible systems and beyond. The concept of MBRs was publicly introduced in 1983 with PC DOS 2.0. The MBR holds the information on how the disc's sectors are divided into partitions, each partition notionally containing a file system. The MBR also contains executable code to function as a loader for the installed operating system—usually by passing control over to the loader's second stage, or in conjunction with each partition's volume boot record (VBR). This MBR code is usually referred to as a boot loader. The organization of the partition table in the MBR limits the maximum addressable storage space of a partitioned disk to 2 TiB . Approaches to slightly raise this limit assuming 32-bit arithmetics or 4096-byte sectors are not officially supported, as they fatally break co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BIOS
In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the booting process (power-on startup). The BIOS firmware comes pre-installed on an IBM PC or IBM PC compatible's system board and exists in some UEFI-based systems to maintain compatibility with operating systems that do not support UEFI native operation. The name originates from the Basic Input/Output System used in the CP/M operating system in 1975. The BIOS originally proprietary to the IBM PC has been reverse engineered by some companies (such as Phoenix Technologies) looking to create compatible systems. The interface of that original system serves as a ''de facto'' standard. The BIOS in modern PCs initializes and tests the system hardware components (Power-on self-test), and loads a boot loader from a mass storage device which then i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
