Salale University
College Of Natural Science
Department Of Computer
1
Science
Chapter 5
Computer Security
Outline
2
Computer Security
Backup
Encryption
What is a “Secure” Computer System?
3
To decide whether a computer system is “secure”, you
must first decide what “secure” means to you, then
identify the threats you care about.
You Will Never Own a Perfectly Secure System!
Threats - examples
Viruses, Trojan horses, etc.
Denial of Service
Stolen Customer Data
Modified Databases
Identity Theft and other threats to personal privacy
Equipment Theft
Espionage in cyberspace
Hack-tivism
Cyberterrorism
Basic Components of Security:
4
Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA)
Confidentiality: Who is authorized to use C I
data? S
Integrity: Is data good?
Availability: Can access data whenever A
need it?
S = Secure
CIA or CIAAAN…
(other security components added to CIA)
Authentication
Authorization
Non-repudiation …
Need to Balance CIA
5
Example 1: C vs. I+A
Disconnect computer from Internet to increase
confidentiality
Availability suffers, integrity suffer due to lost updates
Example 2: I vs. C+A
Have extensive data checks by different
people/systems to increase integrity
Confidentiality suffers as more people see data,
availability suffers due to locks on data under
verification)
…
6
Confidentiality
prevention of unauthorized disclosure of information.
keeping information private or safe.
Confidentiality may be important for military, business or
personal reasons. cy.
Integrity
Integrity is the prevention of unauthorized writing or
modification of information.
Availability
Availability is the prevention of unauthorized with-
holding of information.
…
7
We can say that an asset (resource) is available
if:
Timely request response
Fair allocation of resources (no starvation!)
Fault tolerant (no total breakdown)
Easy to use in the intended way
Provides controlled concurrency (concurrency control,
deadlock control, ...)
Vulnerabilities, Threats and
Controls
8
Understanding Vulnerabilities, Threats and Controls
Vulnerability: a weakness in a security system
Threat:circumstances that have a potential to
cause harm
Controls: means and ways to block a threat, which
tries to exploit one or more vulnerabilities
Q: What were city vvulnerabilities, tthreats, and
controls?
A: Vulnerabilities: location below water level,
geographical location in hurricane area, …
Threats: storm, dam damage, terrorist
attack, …
Controls: dams and other civil
infrastructures, emergency response plan, …
9
Attack (materialization of a vulnerability/threat
combination)
exploitation of one or more vulnerabilities by a threat; tries to
defeat controls
Attack may be:
Successful (a.k.a. an exploit)
• resulting in a breach of security, a system penetration, etc.
Unsuccessful
• when controls block a threat trying to exploit a vulnerability
Threat Spectrum
10
Local threats
Recreational hackers
Institutional hackers
Shared threats
Organized crime
Industrial espionage
Terrorism
National security threats
National intelligence
Info warriors
Kinds of Threats
11
Kinds of threats:
Interception
an unauthorized party (human or not) gains access to an
asset
Interruption
an asset becomes lost, unavailable, or unusable
Modification
an unauthorized party changes the state of an asset
Fabrication
an unauthorized party counterfeits an asset
A) Hardware Level of Vulnerabilitylities/
Threats
12
Add / remove a h/w device
Ex: Snooping, wiretapping
Snoop = to look around a place secretly in order to
discover things about it or the people connected with
it. [Cambridge Dictionary of American English]
Ex: Modification, alteration of a system
Physical attacks on h/w => need physical
security: locks and guards
Accidental (dropped PC box) or voluntary
(bombing a computer room)
Theft / destruction
Damage the machine (spilled coffe, mice, real bugs)
Steal the machine
B) Software Level of Vulnerabilities / Threats
13
Software Deletion
Easy to delete needed software by mistake
To prevent this: use configuration management software
Software Modification
Trojan Horses, , Viruses, Logic Bombs, Trapdoors,
Information Leaks (via covert channels), ...
Software Theft
Unauthorized copying
via P2P, etc.
Types of Malicious Code
14
Bacterium - A specialized form of virus which does not attach to a
specific file. Usage obscure.
Logic bomb - Malicious [program] logic that activates when
specified conditions are met. Usually intended to cause denial of
service or otherwise damage system resources.
Trapdoor - A hidden computer flaw known to an intruder, or a
hidden computer mechanism (usually software) installed by an
intruder, who can activate the trap do or to gain access to the
computer without being blocked by security services or
mechanisms.
Types of Malicious Code
15
Trojan horse - A computer program that appears to have a useful function,
but also has a hidden and potentially malicious function that evades
security mechanisms, sometimes by exploiting legitimate authorizations of
a system entity that invokes the program.
Virus - A hidden, self-replicating section of computer software, usually
malicious logic, that propagates by infecting (i.e., inserting a copy of itself
into and becoming part of) another program. A virus cannot run by itself;
it requires that its host program be run to make the virus active.
Worm - A computer program that can run independently, can propagate a
complete working version of itself onto other hosts on a network, and may
consume computer resources destructively.
Types of Attacks on Data CIA
16
Disclosure
Attack on data confidentiality
Unauthorized modification / deception
E.g., providing wrong data (attack on data integrity)
Disruption
DoS –denied of service (attack on data availability)
Usurpation
Unauthorized use of services (attack on data confidentiality,
integrity or availability)
Ways of Attacking Data CIA
17
Examples of Attacks on Data Confidentiality
Tapping / snooping
Examples of Attacks on Data Integrity
Modification: salami attack -> little bits add up
E.g/ „shave off” the fractions of cents after interest calculations
Fabrication: replay data -> send the same thing again
E.g., a computer criminal replays a salary deposit to his account
Examples of Attacks on Data Availability
Delay vs. „full” DoS
Backup
18
A file backup is a copy of a file that is stored in a
separate location from the original.
Backing up is making copies of data which may be
used to restore the original after a data loss event.
You can have multiple backups of a file if you want
to track changes to the file.
Cont. …
19
Types of Backup
Full backup - All files specified for backup are copied to
the backup device regardless of the state of the archive
flag.
All archive flags are set to “off” during this process.
Incremental backup - Only files that have changed since
the last backup process are processed.
The archive flag is checked for the “on” state before
processing.
It is set to the “off” state after processing
Differential backup - Common with image backups.
Used with large files (i.e. databases) in file backups.
Introduction to Encryption
20
• Plaintext - the original form of a message
• Cipher text - the coded/encrypted form of a message
• Cipher – is the algorithm for transforming plaintext to
cipher text
•Key - info used in cipher known only by the
sender/receiver
– The key which is an input to the algorithm is secret
– Key is a string of numbers or characters
– If same key is used for encryption & decryption
the algorithm is called symmetric
– If different keys are used for encryption &
decryption the algorithm is called asymmetric
Asymmetric Encryption
21
Controls: Encryption
22
Primary controls!
Cleartext scambled into ciphertext (enciphered text)
Protects CIA:
confidentiality – by „masking” data
integrity – by preventing data updates
availability – by using encryption-based protocols
e.g., protocols ensure availablity of resources for different
users
Controls: Physical Controls
23
Walls, locks
Guards, security cameras
Backup copies and archives
Cables an locks
Natural and man-made disaster protection
Fire, flood, and earthquake protection
Accident and terrorism protection