That security must counteract threats as well as make the data secure in it s location. Protection applied to counter threats is known as a countermeasure or safeguard . The purpose of countermeasures is to guard against unwanted intrusions on the protected data. Countermeasures are defined as the actions taken to keep information assets safe. The elements of countermeasures include those actions taken to safeguard that information.
Avoidance is the measure that attempts to avoid the threat altogether, such as firewalls.
Transfer is the measure that transfers the threat away from an asset, such as fake files to tempt intruders away from the real asset. Reduction of vulnerability is the measure that reduces the asset s vulnerability to the threat, such as server redundancy that allows another server to take over one server goes down. Reduction of impact measures reduce the impact of the threat on the asset, even if the threat is successful, such as periodic automatic save on a word processor. Real-time recovery measures are those that recover the asset as the threat is being realized, such as mirrored or duplexed drives on a file server. As can be seen from this listing of security measures, they are not just for the large corporate entity, but can be applied to any individual computer system or network in the SOHO or home.