Information and Systems Security - Assignment Example

Information and Systems Security Network Security Network Security is one of the most highly debated topics in the present day world. Network Security has many dimensions. Securing any network is like securing a country's access points with several defense mechanisms. Network Security has become a very essential part of each and every network present on this planet- be it the Internet which we use or the LANs (Local Area Networks) and MANs (Metro Area Networks). It deals with stopping attacks on a network from outer entities such as hackers and from non-intentional attacks. As more and more networks are being introduced every single day, the implementation of network security has become very important. The interconnection of networks has made flow of information easier between organizations or individuals (Curtin, 1997). But with this ease of information access comes the issue of security. With the increase of information flow, there has been an increase in the number of attacks on information by hackers. Attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Spoofs, Sniffing, etc. have increased with the increase in the availability of hacking tools which are free of cost. Valuable information is lost in the process. For example, if a customer buys a product of a particular organization through their web-site and a hacker presents himself as the organization and receives the money from the customer, valuable information such as the ID of the customer, his credit card numbers, his passwords are all stolen by the hacker. Therefore such information has to be transferred securely over the Internet. Encryption is the most common way of securing valuable information while transmitting over the Internet (Rahman, 2003). Networks are secured in a different manner. They are secured using tools called "Firewalls". Whenever transactions or information between a customer and an organization are being carried out, a particular pattern is followed. Firewalls recognize and allow only these transactions or processes to be carried out and block out all the unrecognized patterns. By implementing Firewalls, most of the attacks from the hackers can be kept out. Securing a network just does not happen. There are many issues to be considered when making policies for network security. The three main issues back in the earlier days were Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. Due to the advances in the technologies, these issues have been mostly resolved. But in the present day Networks, other issues have appeared. These issues will eventually result in the breaching of confidentiality, integrity and availability thereby defeating the cause of coming up with Network Security policies. Security Factors Confidentiality: Confidentiality is ensuring that sensitive information does not fall into the hands of those who are not authorized to have it (Dhillon, 2001). Confidentiality is also known as secrecy or privacy. Integrity: Integrity means that the information is protected against unauthorized changes that are not detectable to authorized users (Kinkus, nd). Authenticity: Authentication means that the parties involved in communication first prove their identity before communication can begin (Tipton & Krause, 2007). Threats Risk to Data Data is the most crucial asset of a company. Remote Data Backups Inc, a leader in data security mentions the following possible reasons for threats to data (RemoteDataBackups.com, 2007): Hard Drive Failures: Hard drives are mechanical magnetic storage devices that are extremely susceptible to failure. Head crashes, circuit board shorts, electrostatic shocks, power surges, etc. can all lead to immediate crash of the hard drives. Viruses: Dangerous viruses can easily wipe out tones of data in matter of seconds. They are designed to affect nearly all parts of an IT system such as Operating Systems, Applications, Networks and Databases. System Changes: Making any inadvertent changes to an IT system may render the system useless. Power Failure: Power surges, sags and failures can damage hard drives and corrupt operating systems, databases and other programs and services that need to be shut down safely. Media Degradation: The media used for data backups must be of excellent quality. Degradation in the storage or backup media can lead to total data loss. Human Errors: The results of human mistakes can be small as well as catastrophic. The cost of lost data due to human error can go beyond mere dollars. Time, productivity, employee morale and customer confidence all get affected. Natural Disasters: Natural Disasters such as fires, earthquakes, floods and lightening can destroy the complete data storage within a second. Risk of Computer Crime A computer crime or an electronic crime is regarding activities that are illegal where a computer or often a network is the one seriously affected for that crime (Jacobson, 2002). Basically all the criminal activities have a detrimental affect to variants in the field of Information Technology and its infrastructure. These include unauthorized access, inception, illegal transmission of data to/from a computer (interruption), damaging, alteration or deletion of data, which is interference which can be both through data and system, forgery, misusing devices and the list goes on. (Ronald, 2002) Risk to a business organization can be of the following type: A business is prone to computer crimes if a computer is used, even if not connected to Internet. Hijacking customer pretending that the criminals are the people running business. Websites and systems being destroyed by hackers. Criminals attacking unprotected Internet connections. An unprotected Internet connection serves as a highway for cyber crimes. Business is prone to thefts of data in PDA's or Laptops. Business sensitive data is lost and that undoubtedly damages the business. (Jacobson, 2002) All this leads to loss of reputation of the business and that ultimately leads to public embarrassment and loss of revenue. This general listing can be categorized as: Theft of data transfer: This happens where the bandwidth used by the business is stolen across many users illegally. Even when the business transactions are off, the intruders can continue using the systems pretending as if it were the employees themselves. Unauthorized Access/Misuse of computer time: Employees using systems for their private purposes without proper authorization. This includes manipulating computer records etc. Theft of Output: Stealing the private information of company for the sake of personal interest. This is commonly done by tracking the systems, mailing lists, customer list, printouts etc. Forging Desktop: Thieves often use desktop publishing programs in order to steal documents, passports, cash receipts etc. (Ronald, 2002) Intentional False Programming: Crackers affect business by using computer programs to manipulate and induce unnecessary changes for data or a network or a personal computer. Apart from these other risks are spamming, spoofing, theft of intellectual property, materials, spreading viruses/worms etc are a few computer crimes (Ronald, 2002) associated with a business organization. Identity Theft: (A Hacker's new Weapon) Identity Theft is not a very new concept. People have been doing it over ages. However, due to advancements in technology, hackers have shifted their interest towards identity theft. Identity theft refers to stealing another person's identity and using it for your own purpose. In IT terms, identity theft refers to posing as a different person whose identity has been stolen. It becomes very difficult to identify the theft and thereby difficult to identify the information stealer. Due to Internet, Identity Theft has become a signature threat in todays digital world (O'Brien, 2000). The number of Identity Thefts are increasing day by day all over the world. Identity Theft has become a very common issue to every organization since they have to protect their customers' information from threats. Identity Thefts occur through different media like the mailboxes, through trojans and spy-ware (Levy & Stone, 2005). Steps to Prevent Identity Theft Identity Theft has left many people in a dilemma as to what and whom to trust. Even though there have been many attempts to remove or completely stop Identity Theft, it could not be completely prevented or stopped. This is mainly due to the fact that Identity Theft consists of not only the technological entities, but also the social entities which are generally not possible to control (Emigh, 2005). However, the risk of Identity Theft can be reduced by applying the following principles: Any malicious activity such as usage of web-site, registration of domains, etc. should be monitored thoroughly to ensure detection and prevention of Identity Theft attacks on computers like the phishing attacks even before the attack could be initiated. All email messages being sent in and out of an organization or on the computer should be authenticated. This helps in restricting any unauthenticated message or email coming in from another source. Detecting the unauthorized use of trademarks, logos and other proprietary imagery. Improving the security patching infrastructure to increase resistance to malware. Authenticating the email directly to the user is a good method of preventing Identity attacks. This can further be improved by personalizing the information and then using it to authenticate the email. The user can be intimated of the reliability of the web-site he is browsing through the use of phishing filters in web browsers. Using a mutual authentication protocol. Establishing a trusted path between the user and a web site to ensure that information can be used only by its intended recipient. Using two-factor authentication. Forcing passwords to be site-specific. Encoding credentials with restrictions on their validity, using public key cryptography. Tools to Implement Information Security There are many tools available for analyzing the strength of the information security of an organization. Many of these tools are open source. The most widely used tool is Nessus. It is widely used to test the vulnerability of UNIX environment. Nessus provides remote and local (authenticated) security checks, a client/server architecture with a GTK graphical interface and an embedded scripting language for writing your own plugins or understanding the existing ones (sectools, 2006). Snort is another widely used tool for analyzing vulnerabilities of the network of an organization and is an intrusion detection tool. Spiceworks is yet another such security tool which helps administrators in monitoring the network security assessment. References Curtin, Matt. (1997), "Introdcution to Network Security", pp: 3-15, http://www.interhack.net/pubs/network-security.pdf Rahman, B. S. Abdul (2003), "Current Issues in Network Security Management", pp: 2-22, http://www.aptsec.org/meetings/2003/nsm/Malaysia-Sem/Session-1_Malaysia-MCMC.ppt Gurpreet Dhillon (2001), "Information Security Management: Global Challenges in the New Millennium", IGI Press, Chapter 1. Jane F. Kinkus, "Science and Technology Resources on the Internet: Computer Security", Purdue University, Found at: http://www.istl.org/02-fall/internet.html. Harold Tipton & Micki Krause (2007), "Information Security Management Handbook", Auerbach Publications, 6th Edition. RemoteDataBackups.com (2007), "Articles on Data Risks and Solutions", Online Web Content Found at: http://www.remotedatabackups.com/why/risks.htm Jacobson, "Computer Crimes", (2002) Vol. 39 American Criminal Law Review, 273. Standler,Ronald B., (2002), "Computer Crime". O'Brien Timothy L. (2000), "Aided by Internet, Identity Theft Soars", Online Article, found at: http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/rfrost/courses/SI110/readings/Privacy/IDtheft.pdf Levy Steven, Stone Brad., (2005), "Grand Theft Identity", Online News Article, found at: http://www.glasshousepartnership.com/viewpoint/downloads/newsweek-grand-theft.pdf Emigh Aaron., (2005), "Online Identity Theft: Phishing Technology, Chokepoints and Countermeasures", Radix Labs, found at: http://www.phishcops.com/librarian.aspdoc=Phishing-dhs-report.pdf sectools., (2006), "Top Hundred Network Security Tools", Online Article, found at: http://sectools.org/ Read More