Danny Smith

Enhancing Security of Unix Systems

Biography:

Danny Smith is the Operational Manager of the Security Emergency Response Team which was formed as a cooperative venture of The University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, and Griffith University in March 1993. He has been involved with data security since 1985, and has consulted both in Australia and overseas on security related topics. He chaired the working group that developed the Access Control mechanism for the X.500 Directory Service, and was the Australian defect editor of that standard for a number of years.

Abstract:

This paper examines the common threats to data security in open systems highlighting some of the more recent threats, and looks at some of the tools and techniques that are currently available to enhance the security of a Unix system. Since many programs are written without security issues in mind, the topic of secure programming methodologies is also discussed, with some examples of coding techniques to avoid security vulnerabilities.