UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION
Basics of cryptography, conventional and public-key
cryptography, hash functions, authentication, and digital
signatures.
2- Mark Question and Answers
1. Define Network Security.
Network security consists of the provisions and policies adopted by a network administrator to
prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network
and network-accessible resources.
2. What is the CIA Triad?
The CIA Triad constitutes the three core principles of security:
Confidentiality: Ensuring only authorized users access data.
Integrity: Maintaining the consistency and accuracy of data, ensuring it is not altered.
Availability: Ensuring authorized users have reliable access to information and resources.
3. Define Passive Attack.
A passive attack attempts to learn or make use of information from the system but does not affect
system resources. Examples include traffic analysis and monitoring of transmissions.
4. Define Active Attack.
An active attack attempts to alter system resources or affect their operation. Examples include
masquerade, replay, modification of messages, and Denial of Service (DoS).
5. Define Cryptography and Cryptanalysis.
Cryptography: The science of using mathematics to encrypt and decrypt data, ensuring
confidentiality and integrity.
Cryptanalysis: The process of attempting to break cryptographic systems to recover the plaintext
without knowing the key. .
6. Define Non-repudiation.
Non-repudiation ensures that the sender of a message cannot later deny having sent the message,
and the recipient cannot deny having received it, providing proof of integrity and origin.
7. Define Message Authentication.
Message authentication is a mechanism to verify that received messages are authentic, meaning
they originated from the claimed sender and have not been altered in transit.
5. What is the OSI Security Architecture?
The OSI security architecture (ITU-T X.800) provides a systematic framework for security,
defining security attacks, mechanisms, and services to protect communication systems.
8. Define Security Service and Security Mechanism.
Security Service: A service that enhances the security of data processing systems and
information transfers (e.g., authentication, access control).
Security Mechanism: A mechanism designed to detect, prevent, or recover from a security
attack (e.g., encryption, digital signatures).
9. Define Traffic Analysis.
Traffic analysis is a type of passive attack where an adversary observes the frequency and length
of messages, as well as the identities of communicating parties, to infer information, even if the
content is encrypted.
10. What is Access Control?
Access control is a security technique that regulates who or what can view or use resources in a
computing environment.
[Link] are the three key objectives of network security (CIA Triad)?
Confidentiality: Ensuring that data is accessible only to authorized users.
Integrity: Maintaining the accuracy and reliability of data by preventing unauthorized
modification.
Availability: Ensuring that information and resources are accessible to authorized users when
needed.
12. What is the OSI Security Architecture?
The OSI security architecture (ITU-T X.800) provides a systematic framework for security,
defining security attacks, mechanisms, and services to protect communication systems.
13. What is the difference between Security Attack and Security Policy?
Attack: An action that violates security (e.g., hacking).
Policy: A set of rules that define how an organization protects its assets.
12. What is the difference between Symmetric and Asymmetric Encryption?
Symmetric: Uses the same key for both encryption and decryption (e.g., DES, AES).
Asymmetric: Uses a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption (e.g., RSA).
13. Define Key Space.
The total number of possible keys for a particular cryptographic algorithm. A larger key space
makes brute-force attacks harder.
14. What is a "Trapdoor One-way Function"?
It is a function that is easy to calculate in one direction but difficult to calculate in the reverse
direction, unless specific, secret information (the "trapdoor") is known.
15. Define Transposition Cipher with an example.
A transposition cipher rearranges the positions of the plaintext characters based on a specific,
logical rule, without changing the characters themselves.