Introduction

TechWorks is a start-up company that is 100% committed to leveraging innovative technologies as part of its repeatable business model and as a business growth facilitator. TechWorks has been suffering for many months from the limitations of its operating system, especially the system’s lack of security, which allows access to unauthorized and unauthenticated users. This problem reflects poorly on the company’s reputation. To address the security limitations, one of the company’s project managers decides to implement a new mode of protection that supports all of the operating systems the company’s users use, including iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android. A data scientist working for the company proposes two solutions. The first solution involves integrating an authorization method called two-factor authentication, which you’ll learn more about later in the chapter. This method adds another level of security by asking users for their cell phone number so that it can send a one-time code to verify their identity every time they try to log in using their username and password. The second solution involves adding a table that defines individual user privileges such as read (R), write (W), and execute (E). This solution regulates access by leveraging features that were already part of TechWorks’s operating system. One of the core features of an operating system is to manage and regulate access to the program components that are running on various machines. This is particularly important today as the program components that power modern solutions (e.g., advanced robotics, autonomous cars, and drones) are typically distributed across many different machines that communicate with each other to perform various functions. To ensure the security of such systems, a single sign-on capability is typically required to facilitate access to all the components involved.