Chapter 1 Introduction

The art of war teaches us to rely 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
Standards Organizations
National Institute of Standards & Technology
(NIST)
Internet Society (ISOC)
International Telecommunication Union
Telecommunication Standardization Sector
(ITU-T)
International Organization for Standardization
(ISO)
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
Aim of Course
our focus is on Internet Security
which consists of measures to deter, prevent,
detect, and correct security violations that
involve the transmission & storage of
information

Computer Security
the protection afforded to an automated
information system in order to attain the
applicable objectives of preserving the
integrity, availability and confidentiality of
information system resources (includes
hardware, software, firmware,
information/data, and telecommunications)
Key Security Concepts
Examples of Security Requirements
confidentiality student grades
integrity patient information
availability authentication service
Security Violations
A transmits a file to B. User C who is not
authorized to read this file captures a copy
A network manager D transmits a message to
a computer, E, containing entries for new
users to be given access to E. F intercepts the
message and alters it and then forwards it to E
which accepts it and performs the updates; or
Security Violations
F constructs its own message and sends it to E
as if it is coming from D.
An employee is fired and a message is sent to
deactivate his account. He intercepts the
message, delays it and performs a final access
to sensitive information
A customer denies that he sent his stock
broker a message about transactions
Security Trends
CERT reports the security weaknesses in operating systems and in Internet
routers and other network devices
Security Trends
Incidents reported to CERT such as denial of service attacks, IP spoofing,
eavesdropping and packet sniffing.
Security Trends
IBM X-Force Threat Reports (2010)
In 2010, networks faced increasingly sophisticated attacks from a widening
variety of malicious sources.
2010 saw the largest number of vulnerability disclosures in history, an
increase of 27 %.
49% of the vulnerabilities disclosed in 2010 were web application
vulnerabilities. The majority of these were cross site scripting and SQL
injection issues.
Emerging trends like cloud computing and the proliferation of mobile
devices continue to raise security concerns. Security has become a major
influencer in the adoption of these technologies in corporate
environments.
Stuxnet is a Microsoft Windows computer worm discovered in July 2010
that targets industrial software and equipment (PLC)

Symantec Internet Security Threat Report
for 2010
A growing proliferation of Web attack toolkits drove a 93% increase
in the volume of Web-based attacks in 2010 over the volume
observed in 2009.
the average number of identities exposed in each of the data
breaches caused by hacking throughout the year: 260,000
A sharp rise in the number of reported new mobile operating
system vulnerabilitiesup to 163 from 115 in 2009
The 14 zero-day vulnerabilities in 2010 were found in widely used
applications such as Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader, and Adobe
Flash Player in addition to Industrial Control System software.
Symantec Internet Security Threat Report
for 2010

OSI Security Architecture
ITU-T X.800 Security Architecture for OSI
defines a systematic way of defining and
providing security requirements
Computer and communications vendors have
developed security features for their products
compliant with this architecture
for us it provides a useful, if abstract, overview
of concepts we will study
Aspects of Security
The OSI security architecture focuses on 3 aspects of
information security:
security attack
security mechanism
security service
often threat & attack used to mean same thing
Threat is a potential for violation of security
Attack is an assault on system security that derives from an
intelligent threat
Security Attacks
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
have a wide range of attacks
We can classify attacks generically as:
o passive
o active
Passive Attacks
They are in the nature of eavesdropping on or
monitoring of transmissions
Two types of passive attacks are release of
message and traffic analysis
Passive attacks are difficult to detect because
they do not alter the data
To prevent the success of such attacks, usually
encryption is used
Passive Attacks
Active Attacks
They involve alteration of the data stream or
the creation of a false stream. They can be
subdivided into 4 categories:
Masquerade takes place when one entity pretends
to be a different entity by capturing and replaying
an authentication sequence
Replay is the passive capture of a data unit and its
subsequent retransmission to produce an
unauthorized effect
Active Attacks
Modification of messages
Denial of service prevents the normal use or management
of communications facilities
o Suppress all messages directed to a destination
o Overloading the network with messages to degrade its
performance
It is difficult to prevent active attacks absolutely because of
the wide variety of potential physical, software, and network
vulnerabilities
It is important to detect active attacks and to recover from
them
Active Attacks
Security Services
enhance security of data processing systems and
information transfers of an organization
intended to counter security attacks
using one or more security mechanisms
often replicates functions normally associated
with physical documents
which, for example, have signatures, dates; need
protection from disclosure, tampering, or destruction;
be notarized or witnessed; be recorded or licensed
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 Services (X.800)
Authentication - assurance that the communicating
entity is the one claimed
Access Control - prevention of the unauthorized use
of a resource
Data Confidentiality protection of data from
unauthorized disclosure
Data Integrity - assurance that data received is as
sent by an authorized entity
Non-Repudiation - protection against denial by one
of the parties in a communication




Security Mechanisms
features 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
hence our focus on this topic

Security Mechanisms (X.800)
specific security mechanisms provide some of the
OSI security services:
encipherment
digital signatures (appending to prevent forgery)
access controls
data integrity
authentication exchange
traffic padding (insertion of bits to frustrate traffic analysis)
routing control (selection of secure routes and possibility
of route change)
notarization (make use of a trusted third party)
Security Mechanisms (X.800)
pervasive security mechanisms are not specific to
any OSI security service or protocol layer:
trusted functionality (perceived to be correct with
respect to some criteria)
security labels (designate a security attribute)
event detection (detection of security-relevant
events)
security audit trails (data collected for security
audit)
security recovery (deals with requests from other
mechanisms and takes recovery actions)
Model for Network Security
Model for Network Security
All the techniques for providing security have
two components
A transformation on the information such as
encryption and the addition of a code based on
the contents of the message to verify the sender
Some secret information shared by the two
principals and hopefully not known to the
opponent such as an encryption key
Model for Network Security
There are 4 basic tasks in designing a security
service:
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 (password-based)
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

Summary
have considered:
definitions for:
computer, network, internet security
X.800 standard
security attacks, services, mechanisms
models for network (access) security