Concepts

To effectively create a security policy and plan security measures for your system, you need to understand the following security concepts, some of which are general concepts and some of which are specific to the hardware type.

A small system might have three to five users and a large system might have several thousand users. Some installations have all their workstations in a single, relatively secure area. Others have widely distributed users, including users who connect by dialing in and indirect users connected through personal computers or system networks. Security on this system is flexible enough to meet the requirements of this wide range of users and situations. You need to understand the features and options available so that you can adapt them to your own security requirements. This topic provides an overview of the security features on the system.

System security has three important objectives:

System security is often associated with external threats, such as hackers or business rivals. However, protection against system accidents by authorized system users is often the greatest benefit of a well-designed security system. In a system without good security features, pressing the wrong key might result in deleting important information. System security can prevent this type of accident.

The best security system functions cannot produce good results without good planning. Security that is set up in small pieces, without planning, can be confusing. It is difficult to maintain and to audit. Planning does not imply designing the security for every file, program, and device in advance. It does imply establishing an overall approach to security on the system and communicating that approach to application designers, programmers, and system users.

To facilitate installation, many of the security capabilities on your system are not activated when your system is shipped. Recommendations are provided in this topic to bring your system to a reasonable level of security. Consider the security requirements of your own installation as you evaluate the recommendations.

• Basic terminology
  This topic provides users with basic security terminology.
• Security levels
  Security on your system is arranged in a series of levels, with each level offering a greater degree of security and protection of your data than the previous level.
• Lockable security system values
  You can lock the security-related system values to prevent users and programs from changing those values.
• Global settings
  Global settings affect how work enters the system and how the system appears to other users.
• User profiles
  Every system user must have a user identity before they can sign on to and use a system. This user identity is called a user profile.
• Group profiles
  Group profiles define authority for a group of users.
• Authorization lists
  Like a group profile, an authorization list allows you to group objects with similar security requirements and associate the group with a list of users and user authorities.
• Validation list objects
  Validation list objects provide a method for applications to securely store user authentication information.
• Menu security
  Menu security controls which menu functions a user can perform.
• User security
  From a user's point of view, security affects how they use and complete tasks on the system.
• Resource security
  You can use resource security on the system to control the actions of authorized users after successful authentication.
• System security tools
  You can use security tools to manage and monitor the security environment on your system.
• Security audits
  This topic describes the purpose of security audits.
• Types of authority
  This article discusses the types of authority that can be authorized and used on the server.
• Intrusion detection
  Intrusion detection involves gathering information about unauthorized access attempts and attacks coming in via the TCP/IP network.