PUTTING SECURITY INTO PERSPECTIVE

Managing the security of any database must involve weighing matters of security against performance, productivity, and accessibility (Fig. 13). Tactics to accomplish effective security must be based on the realities of paleontology. Specifically, we are a small, rather closely knit community of researchers. We have little incentive to steal each other’s data, even less incentive to vandalize them, and a great deal of professional and social pressure weighing in against either sort of activity. On the other hand, paleontology is unlikely ever to have sufficient fiscal resources to provide state-of-the-art security or to pay key computer-related staff members sufficient salaries to ensure that we retain them. Finally, such high-tech security means as biometrics and encryption are likely to retain their low priority among paleontologists, at least until security becomes much more of a problem than it is at present.

For the foreseeable future, the key to security of paleontological databases is likely to remain backup. One needs to develop protocols that ensure that data files and database management systems are frequently backed up. Copies of files should be stored off line so that they are electronically inaccessible. Furthermore, they should be stored off site as a hedge against natural disasters.