Data Communication and Computer

Networks (ITec 2102)

Chapter Seven
Computer Network Security Basics

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 Presentation outline

 Basic Security Measures

 Computer virus and a computer worm
 Standard System Attacks
 Cryptography
 Firewalls and VPN
 Security Policy Design Issues

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 What is Network Security?

• While computer systems today have some of the best security

systems ever, they are more vulnerable than ever before.

• This vulnerability stems from the world-wide access to computer

systems via the Internet.

• Network security is preventing attackers from achieving

objectives through unauthorized access or unauthorized use of
computers and networks.

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 Basic Security Measures
• The basic security measures for computer systems fall into the
following categories:
1. External security 8. Viruses/worms and
2. Operational security antivirus tools

3. Surveillance 9. Firewalls

4. Passwords/authentication 10. Encryption and

5. Auditing Decryption Techniques

6. Access rights 11. Digital Signature

7. Standard System attacks 12. Security Policy
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 External Security?

• Protection from environmental damage such as floods,

earthquakes, and heat.

• Physical security such as locking rooms, locking down computers,

keyboards, and other devices.

• Electrical protection from power surges.

• Noise protection from placing computers away from devices that

generate electromagnetic interference.

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 Operational Security?

1. Deciding who has access to what.

2. Limiting time of day access.

3. Limiting day of week access.

4. Limiting access from a location, such as not allowing a user to

use a remote login during certain periods or any time.

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 Surveillance

• Proper placement of security cameras can deter theft and

vandalism.

• Cameras can also provide a record of activities.

• Intrusion detection is a field of study in which specialists try to

prevent intrusion and try to determine if a computer system has
been violated.

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 Passwords and ID Systems

• Passwords are the most common form of security and the most
abused.

• Simple rules help support safe passwords, including:

1. Change your password often.
2. Pick a good, random password (minimum 8 characters, use
the combination of symbols, capital letters, small letters,
numbers).
3. Don’t share passwords or write them down.
4. Don’t select names and familiar objects as passwords.

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 Authentication

• Authentication is the process of reliably verifying the identity of

someone (or something) by means of:

 A secret (password [one-time], ...)

 An object (smart card, ...)

 Physical characteristics (fingerprint, retina, ...)

 Trust

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 Passwords and ID Systems - Authentication

• Many new forms of “passwords” are emerging:

 Fingerprints

 Face prints

 Retina scans and iris scans

 Voice prints

 Ear prints

 Nose recognition

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 Auditing

• Creating a computer or paper audit can help detect wrong doing.

• Auditing can also be used as a deterrent.

• Many network operating systems allow the administrator to audit

most types of transactions.

• Many types of criminals have been caught because of computer-

based audits.

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 Access Rights

• Two basic questions to access right: who and how?

• Who do you give access right to? No one, group of users, entire
set of users?

• How does a user or group of users have access? Read, write,

delete, print, copy, execute?

• Most network operating systems have a powerful system for

assigning access rights.

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 Computer virus and a computer worm?
• Viruses are computer programs that are designed to spread themselves
from one file to another on a single computer.
• A virus might rapidly infect every application file on an individual
computer, or slowly infect the documents on that computer, but it
does not intentionally try to spread itself from that computer to other
computers.
• We send e-mail document attachments, trade programs on diskettes, or
copy files to file servers. When the next unsuspecting user receives the
infected file or disk, they spread the virus to their computer, and so on.
• The computer worm is a program that is designed to copy itself from
one computer to another over a network (e.g. by using e-mail).
• The worm spreads itself to many computers over a network, and
doesn't wait for a human being to help.
• This means that computer worms spread much more rapidly than
computer viruses.
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 Standard System Attacks
1. Denial of service attacks or distributed denial of service attacks, bombard a
computer site with so many messages that the site is incapable of
answering valid request.
2. e-mail bombing, a user sends an excessive amount of unwanted e-mail to
someone.
3. Smurfing is a nasty technique in which a program attacks a network by
exploiting IP broadcast addressing operations.
4. Ping storm is a condition in which the Internet Ping program is used to
send a flood of packets to a server.
5. Spoofing is when a user creates a packet making them appear as though
they came from a trusted user within the network
6. Trojan Horse is a malicious piece of code hidden inside a seemingly
harmless piece of code.
7. Stealing, guessing, and intercepting passwords is also a tried and true form
of attack
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 Cryptography
• Is the science and art of transforming messages to make them
secure and immune to attacks.
• The original message, before being transformed, is called
plaintext. After the message is transformed, it is called ciphertext.
• An encryption algorithm transforms the plaintext into ciphertext;
a decryption algorithm transforms the ciphertext back into
plaintext.
• The sender uses an encryption algorithm, and the receiver uses a
decryption algorithm.

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 Cryptography
• A key is a number (or a set of numbers) that the cipher, as an
algorithm, operates on.
• To encrypt a message, we need an encryption algorithm, an encryption
key, and the plaintext. These create the ciphertext.
• To decrypt a message, we need a decryption algorithm, a decryption
key, and the ciphertext. These reveal the original plaintext.
• We can divide all the cryptography algorithms (ciphers) into two
groups: symmetric-key (also called secret-key) cryptography algorithms
and asymmetric (also called public-key) cryptography algorithms.

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 Cryptography
 Symmetric-Key Cryptography
• In symmetric-key cryptography, the same key is used by both
parties.
• The sender uses this key and an encryption algorithm to encrypt
data; the receiver uses the same key and the corresponding
decryption algorithm to decrypt the data

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 Cryptography
 SYMMETRIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
• Symmetric-key cryptography started thousands of years ago when people
needed to exchange secrets (for example, in a war).

• We still mainly use symmetric-key cryptography in our network security.

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 Cryptography
 SYMMETRIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
• A substitution cipher replaces one symbol with another.
• Example 1: The following shows a plaintext and its corresponding
ciphertext. Is the cipher mono-alphabetic?

• Solution
• The cipher is probably mono-alphabetic because both
occurrences of L’s are encrypted as O’s.

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 Cryptography
 SYMMETRIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
• Example 2: The following shows a plaintext and its corresponding
ciphertext. Is the cipher mono-alphabetic?

• Solution
• The cipher is not mono-alphabetic because each occurrence of L
is encrypted by a different character.
• The first L is encrypted as N; the second as Z.

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 Cryptography
 SYMMETRIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
• The shift cipher is sometimes referred to as the Caesar cipher.
• In this cipher, the encryption algorithm is "shift key characters
down," with key equal to some number.
• The decryption algorithm is "shift key characters up.”
• Example 1:
• Use the shift cipher with key = 15 to encrypt the message
“HELLO.”
• Solution
• We encrypt one character at a time. Each character is shifted 15
characters down. Letter H is encrypted to W. Letter E is
encrypted to T. The first L is encrypted to A. The second L is
also encrypted to A. And O is encrypted to D. The cipher text is
WTAAD.
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 Cryptography
 SYMMETRIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
• Example 2
• Use the shift cipher with key = 15 to decrypt the message
“WTAAD.”
• Solution
• We decrypt one character at a time.
• Each character is shifted 15 characters up.
• Letter W is decrypted to H.
• Letter T is decrypted to E.
• The first A is decrypted to L.
• The second A is decrypted to L. And, finally, D is decrypted to O.
The plaintext is HELLO.

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 Cryptography
 SYMMETRIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
• A transposition cipher reorders (permutes) symbols in a block
of symbols.

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 Cryptography
 SYMMETRIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
• Example
• Encrypt the message “HELLO MY DEAR,” using the key shown
in Figure above
• Solution
• We first remove the spaces in the message.
• We then divide the text into blocks of four characters.
• We add a bogus character Z at the end of the third block.
• The result is HELL OMYD EARZ.
• We create a three-block ciphertext ELHLMDOYAZER.

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 Cryptography
 Asymmetric-Key Cryptography
• In asymmetric or public-key cryptography, there are two keys: a private key
and a public key. The private key is kept by the receiver. The public key is
announced to the public.
• In public-key encryption/decryption, the public key that is used for encryption
is different from the private key that is used for decryption. The public key is
available to the public; the private key is available only to an individual.

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 Cryptography
 Keys used in Cryptography

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 Digital Signatures
• A digital signature is much like a hand signature in that it provides
proof that you are the originator of the message (Authentication);
assigns a code to a document.
• Used to bound the message originator with the exact contents of the
message through the use of key pairs. This allows for the feature of
non-repudiation (non-rejection) to be achieved - this is crucial for
electronic commerce.
• Non-repudiation is a property achieved through cryptographic methods
which prevents an individual or entity from denying having performed
a particular action related to data.
• The private key of the sender is used to compute a message digest.

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 Firewalls
• Used to control the flow of traffic (both inflows and outflows, but primarily
inflows) between networks

• The connected networks can be internal or a combination of internal and

external networks

• A system or combination of systems that supports an access control policy

between two networks.

• A firewall can limit the types of transactions that enter a system, as well as
the types of transactions that leave a system.

• Firewalls can be programmed to stop certain types or ranges of IP addresses,

as well as certain types of TCP port numbers (applications such as ftp, telnet,
etc.)
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 Characteristics of Good Firewalls
• All traffic from inside the corporate network to outside the network,
and vice-versa, must pass through it;

• Only authorized traffic, as defined by the security policy, is allowed to

pass through it; and the system itself is immune to penetration.

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 Types Firewalls
• A packet filter firewall is essentially a router that has been
programmed to filter out or allow to pass certain IP addresses or
TCP port numbers.

• A proxy server is a more advanced firewall that acts as a doorman

into a corporate network.

o Any external transaction that request something from the

corporate network must enter through the proxy server, this
server replaces the IP addresses of the packets going out by its
own address.

• Proxy servers are more advanced but make external accesses slower.

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 Firewall Functions

1. Protect the system from the hackers from logging into machines
on network.

2. Provide a single access point from where security and audit can
be imposed.

3. Act as an effective tracing tool.

4. Provide an important logging and auditing function

5. Provide information about the nature of traffic and the number

of attempts made to break into it.

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 Security Policy Design Issues

• What is the company’s desired level of security?

• How much money is the company willing to invest in security?

• If the company is serious about restricting access through an

Internet link, what about restricting access through all other
entry ways?

• The company must have a well-designed security policy.

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 10 Tips for Computer Network Security
1. Use a good anti-virus program.
2. Make sure your virus definitions are up-to-date.
3. Run regular virus scans.
4. Update your operating system regularly.
5. Configure and use a firewall.
6. Use your Web browser’s security features.
7. Enable your router’s security features.
8. Install an anti-spyware program.
9. Use strong, varied passwords.
10. Consider a computer network security suite and policy. .

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 Thank you
???
3/12/2024 By Mulatu D. 34