ABSTRACT
Distributed environments constantly evolve in unpredictable directions, further complicating the implementation of centralized security procedures. Authentication services provide an effective way to implement password protection in the distributed environment. Authentication services can be configured to perform a variety of useful access functions. Related to authentication services are authorization services. Access control lists, widely used in standalone systems, are the basis for distributed authorization services. There are two levels of authorization: discretionary control and mandatory control. Auditing services give users the means to enforce accountability in a distributed environment or to do a back-track analysis to discover the source of a security breach or a data base integrity compromise. There are two factors to consider when deciding to implement distributed auditing services: the cost of auditing and the administrative interface to distributed auditing. Auditing services in a distributed system usually record more information than standalone auditing systems.
