“Network Security”

Presented to the

College of Computer Studies

(Information Assurance and Security)

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

By

Apple Mae P. Esquejo

Mark Anthony Casimsiman

Jonel Lopez

Professor

Sir Mc Jay Mangculintas

Introduction

The use of internet is increasing day- by- day, thereby, causing the security of network more and
more crucial. The flow of data often faces several problems. The data is often corrupted,
fabricated, modified and/or lost. When people use the internet, they have certain expectation.
They expect confidentiality and data integrity. If they receive any message, they want identify
who sent it so that in any case if sender denies then they can prove that the message infact has
been sent by him or her.

Stenght: Advantage and Weakness: Disadvantage

Network security is basically securing your network. Networks can be private, like a network
within a company, or public. Securing the network involves preventing any misuse or
unauthorized access of the network or its resources. For this, every user is given a unique user ID
and password to access data pertaining to them. Without this authentication, no user is permitted
to access the network. The network administrator oversees the operations of the network. Let us
see some of the advantages and disadvantages of network security.

Advantages of Network Security

Protect data

As discussed, network security keeps a check on unauthorized access. A network contains a lot
of confidential data like the personal client data. Anybody who breaks into the network may
hamper these sensitive data. So, network security should be there in place to protect them.

Prevents cyber attack

Most of the attack on the network comes from internet. There are hackers who are experts in this
and then there are virus attacks. If careless, they can play with a lot of information available in
the network. The network security can prevent these attacks from harming the computers.
Levels of access

The security software gives different levels of access to different users. The authentication of the
user is followed by the authorization technique where it is checked whether the user is authorized
to access certain resource. You may have seen certain shared documents password protected for
security. The software clearly knows which resources are accessible by whom.

Centrally controlled

Unlike the desktop security software, the network security software is controlled by a central
user called network administrator. While the former is prone to worms and virus attacks, the
latter can prevent the hackers before they damage anything. This is because the software is
installed in a machine having no internet.

Centralized updates

It is very important that the anti-virus software is timely updated. An old version may not offer
you enough security against attackers. But it is not guaranteed that every user of the network
follows it religiously. A network security system which is centralized offers this advantage of
timely updates without even the knowledge of the individuals.

Disadvantages of Network Security

Network security is a real boon to the users to ensure the security of their data. While it has many
advantages, it has lesser disadvantages. Let us discuss some of them.

Costly set up

The set up of a network security system can be a bit expensive. Purchasing the software,
installing it etc can become costly especially for smaller networks. Here we are not talking about
a single computer, but a network of computers storing massive data. So, the security being of
prime importance will definitely cost more. It cannot be ignored at any cost!
Time consuming

The software installed on some networks is difficult to work with. It needs authentication using
two passwords to ensure double security which has to be entered every time you edit a
document. It also requires the passwords to be unique with numbers, special characters and
alphabets. The user may have to type a number of sample passwords before one is finalized
which takes a lot of time.

Requires skilled staff

To manage large networks is not an easy task. It requires highly skilled technicians who can
handle any security issue that arises. A network administrator needs to be employed to ensure
smooth working of the network. He must be trained adequately to meet the requirement.

Careless admin

When the best software is installed and everything required is done, it is natural for the admin to
be careless at times. It is his job to check the logs regularly to keep a check on the malicious
users. But sometimes, he just trusts the system and that is when the attack happens. So, it is very
important that the admin remains vigilant always.

Visualize Data

This paper present a review of how to secure our computer network. Today's attacks are
succeeding far too frequently, all due to the limitations of legacy security tools. Because many
security technologies arose in an earlier era—when attacks targeting sensitive information were
fairly straightforward to identify—these tools fail when they cannot recognize a previously
unknown attack or threat vector. In the last few years, the scale and sophistication of IT security
threats have grown at an explosive rate. Organizations have to contend with industrialized
attacks, which, in some cases, rival the size and sophistication of the largest legitimate
computing efforts. In addition, they also have to guard against a more focused adversary with the
resources and capabilities to target highly sensitive information, often through long-term attack
campaigns.
Significant of Security

Purpose of network:-The ability to connect any computer anywhere to any other computer
anywhere is a mixed blessing. For individuals at home, wandering around the internet is lost of
fun. For the corporate security managers, it is nightmare. Most company have large amount of
confidential information on-line, trade secrets, product development plans, marketing strategies,
financial analysis etc. Disclosure of this information to a competitor could have terrible
consequences. In addition to dangers of information leaking out, there is also a danger of
information leaking in. In particular, viruses, worms and other digital pests can breach the
security, destroy the valuable data and waste lost of time of database administrator to clean up
the mess.

Threats of Network:-Commercial and Government Enterprises are reluctant to use the internet
because of security concerns. During the past several year, attacks on routers have become
frequent. The internet currently uses BGP(Border Gateway Protocol) for inter - domain routing.
Also, because BGP sessions use TCP to transmit data between routers, the recent increase in
TCP based attacks is an additional threats to BGP security. In the past, internet community used
SNMP( Simple Network Management Protocols) to monitor the health of the network and to
debug operational problems.

Benefits

Main Objectives of Data Security are Protections against:- Interception:- The unauthorized
person gets access to the system and capture the data in the network. The protection against
interception is to confidentiality of data. Modification:- The unauthorized person gets access to
the system and modifies the data in network. The protection against modification is to integrity
the data. Fabrication:- The unauthorized person insert spurious data in network or adds records in
the files. The protection against Fabrication is to authenticate the data. Interruption:- The whole
data or same parts of data are destroyed. The protection is to ensure availability of data. Non-
repudiation:- The sender and receiver are prevented from denying the data sent and received
respectively. Its means that a receiver must be able to prove that a specific message come from
right source.

Some people who cause security problems and why.

Adversary Goal
Student To have fun snooping on people’s e-mail
Cracker To test out someone’s security system;steal data
Sales rep To claim to represent all of europe not just Andorra
Businessman To discover a competitor’s strategic marketing plan
Ex-employee To get revenge for being fired
Accountant To embezzle money from a company
Stockbroker To deny a promise made to a costomer by e-mail
Con man To steal credit card numbers for sale
Spy To learn an enemy’s military or industrial secrets
Terrorist To steal germ warfare secrets

Uniqueness

Network - A network is a collection of computers, servers, mainframes, network devices,

peripherals, or other devices connected to one another to allow the sharing of data. An excellent
example of a network is the Internet, which connects millions of people all over the world.
Security - A thing deposited or pledged as a guarantee of the fulfillment of an undertaking or the
repayment of a loan, to be forfeited in case of default.

Network security consists of the policies and practices adopted to prevent and monitor
unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-
accessible resources. ... Networks can be private, such as within a company, and others which
might be open to public access.