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
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
SECURITY TRENDS
OSI SECURITY ARCHITECTURE
ITU-T X.800 Security Architecture for OSI
defines a systematic way of defining and providing security
requirements
for us it provides a useful, if abstract, overview of concepts we
will study
ASPECTS OF SECURITY
consider 3 aspects of information security:
security attack
security mechanism
security service
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
PASSIVE ATTACKS
ACTIVE ATTACKS
SECURITY SERVICE
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 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
hence our focus on this topic