1. Introduction

So just what is security, anyway? When asked to define the word security, many people give a definition that deals with being protected from danger or malice. A common belief is that secure is a state of being: Something is secure, or it is not. Marketing departments, managers, and executives seem to like this definition. They make such press release statements as, "Our product is secure." We have seen requirements for a software release that included a checkbox for "product is secure," as if security is some magic configuration setting. If only security were that simple!

In this chapter, we consider some basic definitions of security.

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