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Without collecting and analysing logfiles, it is impossible to know what is happening on a computer system or service. There will be no indication of faults and misuse and when they finally result in complaints from users, there will be no evidence to show the cause of the problem or how it can be cured. Failure to keep logfiles therefore leads rapidly to an unreliable system on which users will naturally be unwilling to rely for any critical function. Reliable systems can only be achieved if their performance is recorded and action taken to prevent or remedy problems.

GD/JANET/TECH/008 (10/10)

PB/INFO/022 (05/07) The role of a computer network should, in its simplest terms, be to carry commands and information from client software running on one computer to server software running on another computer, and to return information in response to those commands. Servers can be divided into two types: those that are freely available to any client and those where access is restricted by some test such as a password, a certificate or an IP address. In an ideal world this would be all the security that was needed: however, this ideal fails in reality for two reasons.

PB/INFO/004 (10/06) What is a digital certificate? It is a collection of electronic information, usually containing a statement of the identity of the owner and some additional data. This is generated using cryptography, not to conceal the statement, but to make it hard for anyone other than the owner to forge it. Digital certificates are usually stored as files, either on a computer disk or a smartcard.