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Security Technologies
Security Issues When Connecting to the Internet
When you connect your private network to the Internet, you are physically connecting your network to more than 50,000 unknown networks and all their users. Although such connections open the door to many useful applications and provide great opportunities for information sharing, most private networks contain some information that should not be shared with outside users on the Internet. In addition, not all Internet users are involved in lawful activities. These two statements foreshadow the key questions behind most security issues on the Internet: Protecting Confidential Information
Confidential information can reside in two states on a network. It can reside on physical storage media, such as a hard drive or memory, or it can reside in transit across the physical network wire in the form of packets. These two information states present multiple opportunities for attacks from users on your internal network, as well as those users on the Internet. We are primarily concerned with the second state, which involves network security issues. The following are five common methods of attack that present opportunities to compromise the information on your network: Network Packet Sniffers
Because networked computers communicate serially (one information piece is sent after another), large information pieces are broken into smaller pieces. (The information stream would be broken into smaller pieces even if networks communicated in parallel. The overriding reason for breaking streams into network packets is that computers have limited intermediate buffers.) These smaller pieces are called network packets. Several network applications distribute network packets in clear text—that is, the information sent across the network is not encrypted. (Encryption is the transformation, or scrambling, of a message into an unreadable format by using a mathematical algorithm.) Because the network packets are not encrypted, they can be processed and understood by any application that can pick them up off the network and process them. IP Spoofing and Denial-of-Service Attacks
An IP spoofing attack occurs when an attacker outside your network pretends to be a trusted computer. This is facilitated either by using an IP address that is within the range of IP addresses for your network, or by using an authorized external IP address that you trust and to which you want to provide access to specified resources on your network. Password Attacks
Password attacks can be implemented using several different methods, including brute-force attacks, Trojan horse programs (discussed later in the chapter), IP spoofing, and packet sniffers. Although packet sniffers and IP spoofing can yield user accounts and passwords, password attacks usually refer to repeated attempts to identify a user account and/or password; these repeated attempts are called brute-force attacks. Distribution of Sensitive Information
Controlling the distribution of sensitive information is at the core of a network security policy. Although such an attack may not seem obvious to you, the majority of computer break-ins that organizations suffer are at the hands of disgruntled present or former employees. At the core of these security breaches is the distribution of sensitive information to competitors or others that will use it to your disadvantage. An outside intruder can use password and IP spoofing attacks to copy information, and an internal user can easily place sensitive information on an external computer or share a drive on the network with other users. Man-in-the-Middle Attacks
A man-in-the-middle attack requires that the attacker have access to network packets that come across the networks. An example of such a configuration could be someone who is working for your Internet service provider (ISP), who can gain access to all network packets transferred between your network and any other network. Such attacks are often implemented using network packet sniffers and routing and transport protocols. The possible uses of such attacks are theft of information, hijacking of an ongoing session to gain access to your internal network resources, traffic analysis to derive information about your network and its users, denial of service, corruption of transmitted data, and introduction of new information into network sessions. Protecting Your Network: Maintaining Internal Network System Integrity
Although protecting your information may be your highest priority, protecting the integrity of your network is critical in your ability to protect the information it contains. A breach in the integrity of your network can be extremely costly in time and effort, and it can open multiple avenues for continued attacks. This section covers the five methods of attack that are commonly used to compromise the integrity of your network: Network Packet Sniffers
As mentioned earlier, network packet sniffers can yield critical system information, such as user account information and passwords. When an attacker obtains the correct account information, he or she has the run of your network. In a worst-case scenario, an attacker gains access to a system-level user account, which the attacker uses to create a new account that can be used at any time as a back door to get into your network and its resources. The attacker can modify system-critical files, such as the password for the system administrator account, the list of services and permissions on file servers, and the login details for other computers that contain confidential information. IP Spoofing
IP spoofing can yield access to user accounts and passwords, and it can also be used in other ways. For example, an attacker can emulate one of your internal users in ways that prove embarrassing for your organization; the attacker could send e-mail messages to business partners that appear to have originated from someone within your organization. Such attacks are easier when an attacker has a user account and password, but they are possible by combining simple spoofing attacks with knowledge of messaging protocols. For example, Telnetting directly to the SMTP port on a system allows the attacker to insert bogus sender information. Password Attacks
Just as with packet sniffers and IP spoofing attacks, a brute-force password attack can provide access to accounts that can be used to modify critical network files and services. An example that compromises your network's integrity is an attacker modifying the routing tables for your network. By doing so, the attacker ensures that all network packets are routed to him or her before they are transmitted to their final destination. In such a case, an attacker can monitor all network traffic, effectively becoming a man in the middle. Denial-of-Service Attacks
Denial-of-service attacks are different from most other attacks because they are not targeted at gaining access to your network or the information on your network. These attacks focus on making a service unavailable for normal use, which is typically accomplished by exhausting some resource limitation on the network or within an operating system or application. Application Layer Attacks
Application layer attacks can be implemented using several different methods. One of the most common methods is exploiting well-known weaknesses in software commonly found on servers, such as sendmail, PostScript, and FTP. By exploiting these weaknesses, attackers can gain access to a computer with the permissions of the account running the application, which is usually a privileged system-level account. the attacker, such as monitoring login attempts to capture user account and password information. These programs can capture sensitive information and distribute it back to the attacker. They can also modify application functionality, such as applying a blind carbon copy to all e-mail messages so that the attacker can read all of your organization's e-mail.
Trusted, Untrusted, and Unknown Networks
As a network manager creates a network security policy, each network that makes up the topology must be classified as one of three types of networks: Trusted Networks
Trusted networks are the networks inside your network security perimeter. These networks are the ones that you are trying to protect. Often you or someone in your organization administers the computers that comprise these networks, and your organization controls their security measures. Usually, trusted networks are within the security perimeter. Untrusted Networks
Untrusted networks are the networks that are known to be outside your security perimeter. They are untrusted because they are outside your control. You have no control over the administration or security policies for these sites. They are the private, shared networks from which you are trying to protect your network. However, you still need and want to communicate with these networks although they are untrusted. Unknown Networks
Unknown networks are networks that are neither trusted nor untrusted. They are unknown quantities to the firewall because you cannot explicitly tell the firewall server that the network is a trusted or an untrusted network. Unknown networks exist outside your security perimeter. By default, all nontrusted networks are considered unknown networks, and the firewall applies the security policy that is applied to the Internet node in the user interface, which represents all unknown networks. However, you can identify unknown networks below the Internet node and apply more specialized policies to those untrusted networks. Establishing a Security Perimeter
When you define a network security policy, you must define procedures to safeguard your network and its contents and users against loss and damage. From this perspective, a network security policy plays a role in enforcing the overall security policy defined by an organization. Perimeter Networks
To establish your collection of perimeter networks, you must designate the networks of computers that you wish to protect and define the network security mechanisms that protect them. To have a successful network security perimeter, the firewall server must be the gateway for all communications between trusted networks and untrusted and unknown networks. Developing Your Security Design
The design of the perimeter network and security policies require the following subjects to be addressed. Know Your Enemy
Knowing your enemy means knowing attackers or intruders. Consider who might want to circumvent your security measures, and identify their motivations. Determine what they might want to do and the damage that they could cause to your network. Count the Cost
Security measures usually reduce convenience, especially for sophisticated users. Security can delay work and can create expensive administrative and educational overhead. Security can use significant computing resources and require dedicated hardware. Identify Any Assumptions
Every security system has underlying assumptions. For example, you might assume that your network is not tapped, that attackers know less than you do, that they are using standard software, or that a locked room is safe. Be sure to examine and justify your assumptions. Any hidden assumption is a potential security hole. Control Your Secrets
Most security is based on secrets. Passwords and encryption keys, for example, are secrets. Too often, though, the secrets are not all that secret. The most important part of keeping secrets is in knowing the areas that you need to protect. What knowledge would enable someone to circumvent your system? You should jealously guard that knowledge and assume that everything else is known to your adversaries. The more secrets you have, the harder it will be to keep them all. Security systems should be designed so that only a limited number of secrets need to be kept. Human Factors
Many security procedures fail because their designers do not consider how users will react to them. For example, because they can be difficult to remember, automatically generated nonsense passwords often are written on the undersides of keyboards. For convenience, a secure door that leads to the system's only tape drive is sometimes propped open. For expediency, unauthorized modems are often connected to a network to avoid onerous dial-in security measures. Know Your Weaknesses
Every security system has vulnerabilities. You should understand your system's weak points and know how they could be exploited. You should also know the areas that present the greatest danger and should prevent access to them immediately. Understanding the weak points is the first step toward turning them into secure areas. Limit the Scope of Access
You should create appropriate barriers in your system so that if intruders access one part of the system, they do not automatically have access to the rest of the system. The security of a system is only as good as the weakest security level of any single host in the system. Understand Your Environment
Understanding how your system normally functions, knowing what is expected and what is unexpected, and being familiar with how devices are usually used will help you detect security problems. Noticing unusual events can help you catch intruders before they can damage the system. Auditing tools can help you detect those unusual events. Limit Your Trust
You should know exactly which software you rely on, and your security system should not have to rely on the assumption that all software is bug-free. Remember Physical Security
Physical access to a computer (or a router) usually gives a sufficiently sophisticated user total control over that computer. Physical access to a network link usually allows a person to tap that link, jam it, or inject traffic into it. It makes no sense to install complicated software security measures when access to the hardware is not controlled. Make Security Pervasive
Almost any change that you make in your system may have security effects. This is especially true when new services are created. Administrators, programmers, and users should consider the security implications of every change they make. Understanding the security implications of a change takes practice; it requires lateral thinking and a willingness to explore every way that a service could potentially be manipulated. Summary
After reading this chapter, you should be able to evaluate your own network and its usability requirements, and weigh these requirements against the risk of compromise from unknown users and networks.
internet security is a big concern specially...specially for online transactions...inernet is quite vulnerable
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