16. Sneakaway Programs: Everybody’s Predicament

In-use IT system confidence becomes suspect every time an IT system is exposed to potential change-access. The elements of IT-system access control are introduced and discussed. Inadvertent change, due to clumsiness, or covert malicious change causes IT systems to sneakaway. All IT systems must be open to change; usually managed through passwords. Bio-metric access control, such as fingerprint matching, is a growing alternative to passwords. These avoid the memorisation task of many passwords but: successful duplication or simulation will open all doors (whereas use of multiple passwords can protect against this); we lose the convenience of giving (perhaps temporary) access to someone else; and matching to approve access becomes complicated (and thus error prone). Beyond the privacy concerns of read-only access, access to change IT systems must be closely controlled and monitored. This control is it odds with ease of access for essential system changes, e.g. just adding new information, or making corrections. Change-access control for an IT system may be a complex, multi-level procedure, i.e., different users require access to different system-modification possibilities. Further complication to the ever-present threat of malicious system access and modification is introduced through the convenience of computer networking, such as made possible by the Internet.