1

SECURITY IN
COMPUTING,

Introduction

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 2

Objectives
• Define computer security as well as basic computer
security terms

• Introduce the C-I-A Triad

• Introduce basic access control terminology

• Explain basic threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks

• Show how controls map to threats

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 3

What Is Computer Security?

• The protection of the assets of a computer
system
• Hardware
• Software
• Data

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 4

Assets

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 5

Values of Assets

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 6

Basic Terms
• Vulnerability
• Threat
• Attack
• Countermeasure or control

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Vulnerabilities, Threats, Attacks, Controls
• Vulnerability is a weakness in the security system
• (i.e., in procedures, design, or implementation), that might be exploited
to cause loss or harm.

• Threat to a computing system is a set of circumstances that

has the potential to cause loss or harm.
• a potential violation of security

• A human (criminal) who exploits a vulnerability perpetrates

an attack on the system.

• How do we address these problems?

• We use a control as a protective measure.
• That is, a control is an action, device, procedure, or technique that
removes or reduces a vulnerability.
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Threat and Vulnerability

Relationship among threats, controls, and vulnerabilities:
• A threat is blocked by control of a vulnerability.
• To devise controls, we must know as much about threats as possible.

The fact that the

violation might occur
means that the actions
that might cause it
should be guarder
against.

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 9

C-I-A Triad
• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Availability
• Sometimes two other desirable characteristics:
• Authentication
• the process or action of proving or showing something to be true,
genuine, or valid.
• Nonrepudiation
• is the assurance that someone cannot deny something.
• i.e. nonrepudiation refers to the ability to ensure that a party to a
contract or a communication cannot deny the authenticity of their
signature on a document or the sending of a message that they
originated
From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 10

Access Control

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 11

Types of Threats

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 12

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)

• Organized
• Directed
• Well financed
• Patient
• Silent
 13

Types of Attackers

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 14

Types of Harm

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Threats
• In an interception means that some unauthorized party
has gained access to an asset.

• In an interruption, an asset of the system becomes lost,

unavailable, or unusable.

• If an unauthorized party not only accesses but tampers

(forges) with an asset, the threat is a modification.

• Finally, an unauthorized party might create a fabrication

of counterfeit objects on a computing system.
 16

Method—Opportunity—Motive (MOM)

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Method, Opportunity, and Motive
• A malicious attacker must have three things (MOM):

• method: the skills, knowledge, tools, and other things with

which to be able to pull off the attack
• Knowledge of systems are widely available

• opportunity: the time and access to accomplish the attack

• Systems available to the public are accessible to them

• motive: a reason to want to perform this attack against this

system
 18

Controls/Countermeasures

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Security Goals
• When we talk about computer security, we mean that we are addressing
three important aspects of any computer-related system: confidentiality,
integrity, & availability (CIA)

• Confidentiality ensures that computer-related assets are

accessed only by authorized parties.
• i.e. reading, viewing, printing, or even knowing their existence
• Secrecy or privacy

• Integrity means that assets can be modified only by authorized

parties or only in authorized ways.
• i.e. writing, changing, deleting, creating

• Availability means that assets are accessible to authorized

parties at appropriate times.
• i.e. often, availability is known by its opposite, denial of service.
Relationship between Confidentiality
Integrity and Availability
• In fact, these three characteristics can be independent,
can overlap, and can even be mutually exclusive.

Confidentiality

Secure
Integrity Availability
 Slide #1-21

Goals of Security
• Prevention
• Prevent attackers from violating security policy

• Detection
• Detect attackers’ violation of security policy

• Recovery
• Stop attack, assess and repair damage
• Continue to function correctly even if attack succeeds
 Slide #1-22

Trust and Assumptions

• Trust underlies all aspects of security

• Policies
• Unambiguously partition system states
• Correctly capture security requirements

• Mechanisms
• Assumed to enforce policy
• Support mechanisms work correctly
 23

Different Types of Controls

From Security in Computing, Fifth Edition, by Charles P. Pfleeger, et al. (ISBN: 9780134085043). Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Controls Available
• Encryption
• We take data in their normal, unscrambled state, called:
• cleartext or plaintext, and transform them so that they are unintelligible
to the outside observer; the transformed data are called enciphered
text or ciphertext.

• Encryption clearly addresses the need for confidentiality of data.

• Additionally, it can be used to ensure integrity;

• data that cannot be read generally cannot easily be changed in a
meaningful manner.
Controls Available
• Encryption does not solve all computer security
problems, and other tools must complement its use.
• if encryption is not used properly, it may have no effect on security
or could even degrade the performance of the entire system.

• Weak encryption can actually be worse than no

encryption at all,
• because it gives users an unwarranted sense of protection.

• Therefore, we must understand those situations in which

encryption is most useful as well as ways to use it
effectively.
 Controls Available
• Software/Program Controls
• Programs must be secure enough to prevent outside attack
• They must also be developed and maintained so that we can be confident
of the programs' dependability.

• Program controls include the following:

• Internal program controls: parts of the program that enforce security
restrictions,
• i.e. access limitations in a database management program

• Operating system and network system controls: limitations enforced by

the operating system or network to protect each user from all other users
• i.e. chmod on UNIX: (Read, Write, Execute) vs. (Owner, Group, Other)

• Independent control programs: application programs,

• i.e. password checkers, intrusion detection utilities, or virus scanners, that
protect against certain types of vulnerabilities
Controls Available
• Development controls:
• quality standards under which a program is designed, coded
(implementation), tested, and maintained to prevent software
faults from becoming exploitable vulnerabilities
• i.e. Penetration testing (pen testing or ethical hacking), is the practice
of testing a computer system, network or web application to find security
vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit.

• Software controls frequently affect users directly ?

• i.e. when the user is interrupted and asked for a password before
being given access to a program or data.
• Because they influence the usability of the system, software
controls must be carefully designed.
• Ease of use and capabilities are often competing goals in the design of
a collection of software controls.
Controls Available
• Hardware Controls
• Numerous hardware devices have been created to
assist in providing computer security. These devices
include a variety of means, such as
• hardware or smart card implementations of encryption
• locks or cables limiting access or deterring theft
• devices to verify users' identities
• firewalls
• intrusion detection systems
• circuit boards that control access to storage media
Controls Available
• Policies and Procedures
• Sometimes, we can rely on agreed-on procedures or policies
among users rather than enforcing security through hardware or
software means
• i.e. frequent changes of passwords
• We must not forget the value of community standards and
expectations when we consider how to enforce security.

• Physical Controls
• i.e. locks on doors,
• guards at entry points,
• backup copies of important software and data, and
• physical site planning that reduces the risk of natural disasters.
Effectiveness of Controls
• Awareness of Problem
• People using controls must be convinced of the need for security.
That is, people will willingly cooperate with security requirements
only if they understand
• why security is appropriate in a given situation.
 Effectiveness of Controls
• Likelihood of Use
• Of course, no control is effective unless it is used

• Principle of Effectiveness:
• Controls must be used properly to be effective.
• They must be efficient, easy to use, and appropriate.

• This principle implies that computer security controls

• must be efficient enough, in terms of time, memory space,
human activity, or other resources used,
• using the control does not seriously affect the task being
protected.
• Controls should be selective so that they do not exclude
legitimate accesses.
Effectiveness of Controls
• Overlapping Controls
• Several different controls may apply to address a single
vulnerability.

• Periodic Review
• Just when the security specialist finds a way to secure assets
against certain kinds of attacks, the opposition doubles its efforts in
an attempt to defeat the security mechanisms. Thus, judging the
effectiveness of a control is an ongoing task.
Principle of Weakest Link
• Security can be no stronger than its weakest link !!!
• Whether it is the power supply that powers the firewall or the
operating system under the security application or the human who
plans, implements, and administers controls, a failure of any
control can lead to a security failure.
 34

Summary
• Vulnerabilities are weaknesses in a system;
• threats exploit those weaknesses;
• controls protect those weaknesses from exploitation

• Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are the three basic

security primitives

• Different attackers pose different kinds of threats based on

their capabilities and motivations

• Different controls address different threats; controls come in

many flavors and can exist at various points in the system