Module 1- Introduction

Module Detailed Contents Hrs

No.

01 1 Introduction : 03
Introduction to Information Security,
principles, services and attacks,
functional requirements of security,
current trends in security

Self learning topics:

Need for security, Security
approaches
 Introduction
“The art of war teaches us not on the
likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on
our own readiness to receive him; not on the
chance of his not attacking, but rather on the
fact that we have made our position
unassailable.”
-The Art of War, Sun Tzu
 Background
 Information Security requirements have
changed in recent times
 Traditionally provided by physical and
administrative mechanisms
 Computer use requires automated tools
to protect files and other stored
information
 Use of networks and communications
links requires measures to protect data
during transmission
 Definitions
 Computer Security - generic name for the
collection of tools designed to protect data
and to thwart hackers

 Network Security - measures to protect

data during their transmission

 Internet Security - measures to protect

data during their transmission over a
collection of interconnected networks
 Network Security

 Network security and information

security are often used interchangeably
 Network security is generally taken as
providing protection at the boundaries
of an organization
 authenticating any user, most likely a
username and a password
 An intrusion prevention system (IPS) helps
detect and prevent such malware.
C.I.A
 C.I.A
 Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability
 Information Systems are decomposed
in three main portions, hardware,
software and communications
 with the purpose to identify and apply
information security industry standards, as
mechanisms of protection and prevention,
at three levels or layers:

Physical, personal and organizational
 Aspects of Security

 Consider 3 aspects of information

security:
 Security Attack
 Security Service
 Security Mechanism
Attacks, Services and
Mechanisms
 Security Attacks
 Action compromises the information security
 Could be passive or active attacks

 Security Services
 Actions that can prevent, detect such attacks.
 Such as authentication, identification,
encryption, signature, secret sharing and so on.

 Security mechanism
 The ways to provide such services
 Detect, prevent and recover from a security
attack
 Security Attack
 Any action that compromises the security of
information owned by an organization
 Information security is about how to prevent
attacks, or failing that, to detect attacks on
information-based systems
 often threat & attack used to mean same
thing
 have a wide range of attacks
 can focus of generic types of attacks
 passive
 active
 General View Attack
 Criminal Attack: Fraud, Scam,
Destruction, Identity Theft, Intellectual
Property Theft, Brand Theft
 Publicity Attack
 Legal Attack
 Accidental Attack
 Technical View
 Theoretical Approach :
 Interception -> Context of
confidentiality
 Fabrication -> Context of
Authentication
 Modification -> Context of Integrity
 Interruption -> Context of Availability
 Attacks
 Passive attacks
 Interception

Release of message contents

Traffic analysis
 Active attacks
 Interruption, modification, fabrication

Masquerade

Replay

Modification

Denial of service
 Passive Attacks

“Interception causes
loss of message
Confidentiality”

c e p tion
Inter
Active Attacks

Interruption
Modification
Fabrication
Information Transferring
Attack: Interruption

Cut wire lines,

Jam wireless signals,
Drop packets,
Attack: Interception

Wiring, eavesdrop
Attack: Modification

Replaced info
intercept
Attack: Fabrication
Ali: this is …

Also called impersonation

Ali: this is …
Attacks, Services and
Mechanisms
 Security Attacks
 Action compromises the information security
 Could be passive or active attacks

 Security Services
 Actions that can prevent, detect such attacks.
 Such as authentication, identification, encryption,
signature, secret sharing and so on.

 Security mechanism
 The ways to provide such services
 Detect, prevent and recover from a security attack
 Important Services of
Security
 Confidentiality, also known as secrecy:
 only an authorized recipient should be able to
extract the contents of the message from its
encrypted form. Otherwise, it should not be
possible to obtain any significant information
about the message contents.
 Integrity:
 the recipient should be able to determine if the
message has been altered during transmission.
 Important Services of
security
 Authentication:
 the recipient should be able to identify the sender,
and verify that the purported sender actually did
send the message.
 Non-repudiation:
 the sender should not be able to deny sending the
message.
 Access Control:
 prevention of the unauthorized use of a resource
 Availability: Use authentication and encryption
 Security Services
 X.800:
“a service provided by a protocol layer of
communicating open systems, which ensures
adequate security of the systems or of data
transfers”

 RFC 2828:
“a processing or communication service provided by
a system to give a specific kind of protection to
system resources”
 Security Mechanism
 Feature designed to detect, prevent, or
recover from a security attack
 No single mechanism that will support
all services required
 However one particular element
underlies many of the security
mechanisms in use:
 cryptographic techniques
 Security Mechanisms
(X.800)
 specific security mechanisms:
 encipherment, digital signatures, access
controls, data integrity, authentication
exchange, traffic padding, routing control,
notarization

 pervasive security mechanisms:

 trusted functionality, security labels, event
detection, security audit trails, security
recovery
 Impacts On Security Loss
 Cause effect on degradation in
mission capability to perform
organizational primary operations
 Damage on organizational assets
 Financial loss
 Harm to individuals.
Levels Of Impacts On
Security Loss
Model for Network
Security
 Network Security Model
Trusted Third Party

Principal Principal
(sender) (receiver)

Security Security
transformation transformation

attacker
Model for Network
Security
 using this model requires us to:
1. design a suitable algorithm for the
security transformation
2. generate the secret information (keys)
used by the algorithm
3. develop methods to distribute and share
the secret information
4. specify a protocol enabling the principals
to use the transformation and secret
information for a security service
Model for Network Access
Security
Model for Network Access
Security
 using this model requires us to:
1. select appropriate gatekeeper
functions to identify users
2. implement security controls to
ensure only authorised users access
designated information or resources
 trusted computer systems may
be useful to help implement this
model
 There are several trends in information
security that are gaining in relevance.
 Three of these trends are:
 Wireless Security
 Mobile Security
 Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Good Enough Security

“Everything should be as secure

as necessary, but not securer”
References
 Atul Kahate, Cryptography and Network
Security,McGraw Hill
 Kaufman, c.,Perlman,R.,and
Speciner,M.,.Network Security,Private
Communication in a public world,2nd
ed.,Prentice Hall PTR.,2002
 Stallings,W.,. Cryptography and Network
Security:Principles and Practice,3rd ed.,
Prentice Hall PTR.,2003.
 Stallings,W.,. Network Security
Essentials:Applications and standards,Prentice
Hall 2000.