SECURITY VERSUS PERFORMANCE

 

In most cases, there is a fine line between high performance and high security. There is a dance that goes on between the two, because if you want a highly secure network, you usually have to sacrifice high performance, and vice versa. According to Zanoon, 2015, performance is an indicator to speed of exchange of data and implementation, whereas security indicates the protection from threats (Zanoon, 2015). On one hand, they both depend on system and hardware components, and on the other hand they depend on the service provider. It seems to be that the more secure a system gets, the slower the applications become, or even in some cases, stop working all together. One example of how security affects performance is when it comes to encryption. The process of encryption turns data into cipher text, while decryption reverses this effect (Malaudzi, 2017). This process requires CPU resources, and depending if the cryptographic algorithms are CPU intensive, causing a drop in the systems performance while this process takes place.

For security teams, they must determine whether to emphasize the security footprint, at the sake of the users computing experience, or highlight the user experience at the expense of security (Core Security, n.d.). Often time’s companies can focus more heavily on one side than the other; the trick is to treat both user efficiency and system security equally, while searching for a solution that takes both areas into account. Access and identity management is one example of how over security can negatively affect performance. For example, multiple levels of authentication, while seen as a security best practice, will eventually slow the employee down and start affecting their job performance.

Within a growing organization, with a growing number of employees, devices, and systems, the need for an identity and access management solution will only continue to grow. Identity, governance, and authentication (IGA) allows companies to do more by creating the correct balance between user efficiency and security (Core Security, n.d.). At a certain point, the organization will need to determine what level of risk they are willing to accept, while ensuring the users experience is not so negatively affected that it starts to affect their job performance, as well as system performance.

References

.com/article/3632146/steganography-explained-and-how-to-protect-against-it.html

Help Systems. (n.d.). How to Strike the Right Balance Between Prioritizing Security and Increasing Efficiency. Core Security. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.coresecurity.com/blog/how-strike-right-balance-between-prioritizing-security-and-increasing-efficiency

Malaudzi, B. (2017, October 24). How does security affect performance for desktop . QUORA. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.quora.com/How-does-security-affect-performance-for-desktop-and-mobile-applications

Zanoon, N. (2015, December). Toward Cloud Computing: Security and Performance. https://www.researchgate.net/. Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-relationship-between-performance-and-security-in-the-cloud_fig3_289554469#:~:text=Performance%20is%20an%20indicator%20to,provider%20on%20the%20other%20hand.