Describe the access control methods and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
Explain the differences between dedicated, shared, and virtual devices.
Explain which of these access control methods you would select for a highly secure system with several files and several users. Provide justification for your choice.
Explain how blocking and buffering can improve I/O performance.
Sample solution
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
Sample Answer
Sample Answer
Access Control Methods: Advantages and Disadvantages
Access control methods are crucial for managing and controlling user access to resources in a system. There are several access control methods, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Let’s explore some of the commonly used access control methods:
1. Mandatory Access Control (MAC)
Advantages:
Provides high-level security by assigning sensitivity labels to both users and resources.
Offers strict control over access permissions based on predefined security policies.
Reduces the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches.
Disadvantages:
Can be complex to implement and manage, requiring a dedicated administrator.
May limit flexibility and hinder productivity due to rigid access control rules.
Difficult to update or change access permissions without administrative involvement.
2. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Advantages:
Simplifies access management by assigning roles to users based on their job responsibilities.
Allows for more efficient administration and reduces administrative overhead.
Enhances scalability as new users can be assigned roles easily.
Disadvantages:
May not provide granular control over individual permissions within roles.
Difficult to handle exceptional cases that do not fit neatly into predefined roles.
Requires careful planning and design to avoid role explosion.
3. Discretionary Access Control (DAC)
Advantages:
Offers flexibility by allowing users to control access permissions to their own resources.
Easier to implement and manage compared to MAC or RBAC.
Supports collaboration and sharing of resources among users.
Disadvantages:
Prone to security vulnerabilities if users are not diligent in managing their access permissions.
Difficult to enforce consistent security policies across the system.
May lead to excessive permissions or unauthorized access if not carefully monitored.
Dedicated, Shared, and Virtual Devices: Differences
Dedicated Devices: These devices are exclusively assigned to a single user or application. They provide dedicated resources, ensuring high performance and security. Dedicated devices are ideal for critical applications that require maximum reliability, privacy, and performance. However, they can be costly and less flexible in terms of resource utilization.
Shared Devices: Shared devices are accessed by multiple users or applications simultaneously. They allow for better resource utilization, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility. However, sharing resources may lead to potential performance degradation or security risks due to shared access.
Virtual Devices: Virtual devices are created by partitioning a physical device into multiple virtual instances. Each virtual instance appears as a separate device, providing isolation and dedicated resources to users or applications. Virtual devices offer a balance between dedicated and shared devices, providing flexibility, resource optimization, and better security. However, they require additional management overhead and may introduce performance overhead due to virtualization.
Access Control Method for a Highly Secure System
For a highly secure system with several files and several users, I would recommend using Mandatory Access Control (MAC) as the access control method. Here’s the justification for this choice:
High-Level Security: MAC provides a strong security framework by enforcing strict access control policies based on sensitivity labels. This ensures that only authorized users can access specific resources, reducing the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches.
Rigid Access Control: In a highly secure system, it is crucial to have strict control over access permissions. MAC offers predefined security policies that cannot be easily modified or bypassed, ensuring that access is granted based on well-defined rules.
Reduced Administrative Overhead: While MAC requires a dedicated administrator, it reduces the burden of managing access permissions for multiple users and files. Once the policies are set, the system automatically enforces them, minimizing the potential for human error or oversight.
Protection against Insider Threats: MAC is effective in preventing insider threats by limiting the privileges of individual users and ensuring that sensitive resources can only be accessed by authorized personnel.
Auditing and Accountability: MAC provides a robust auditing mechanism, allowing administrators to track all access attempts and monitor any violations of security policies. This enhances accountability and facilitates forensic investigations in case of security incidents.
Overall, MAC offers the highest level of security and control over access permissions in a highly secure system with multiple files and users. Although it may require additional setup and management effort, the benefits in terms of protection against unauthorized access and potential breaches outweigh the drawbacks.
Blocking and Buffering in I/O Performance Improvement
Input/Output (I/O) operations involve transferring data between an input/output device and the memory of a computer system. Blocking and buffering are two techniques used to improve I/O performance:
1. Blocking
Blocking involves pausing the execution of a program until a particular I/O operation is completed. The program waits until the operation finishes before proceeding with other tasks.
Advantages:
Simplifies programming, as it allows sequential handling of I/O operations.
Ensures data integrity by ensuring that data is fully transferred before proceeding.
Disadvantages:
May lead to idle CPU time if I/O operations take longer than expected.
Can result in delays in processing other tasks if an I/O operation takes an extended period.
2. Buffering
Buffering involves temporarily storing data in a buffer before it is transferred between the I/O device and memory.
Advantages:
Reduces the number of I/O operations by batching data transfers, resulting in improved efficiency.
Minimizes the impact of speed disparities between I/O devices and memory.
Disadvantages:
May introduce latency if data needs to be transferred between buffer and memory.
Requires additional memory resources for buffering operations.
Blocking and buffering can work together to improve I/O performance by reducing idle time and optimizing data transfer. Blocking ensures sequential handling of I/O operations, while buffering allows for efficient batching of data transfers, minimizing overhead caused by frequent interactions with I/O devices.
