Network Security Issues - Essay Example

Data confidentiality entails allowing authorized users to access particular data while preventing unauthorized access to data by intruders. When access eavesdrops on particular data, the principle of confidentiality will not hold. In networks, encryption is the principal technique for maintaining data confidentiality. This process is achieved using encryption algorithms that are used to generate keys for encrypting and decrypting data.

Technical security controls are used to provide control mechanisms within systems to mitigate potential security risks that may affect the network. Technical security controls are made of three components: detective, corrective and preventive, which all work to mitigate risks within a system.

Switch(config)#line vty 0 15
Switch(config-line)#password admin
Switch(config-line)# login
Switch(config-line)#exit

Switch(config)#line console 0
Switch(config-line)#password adminpass
Switch(config-line)#login
Switch(config-line)#exit

routerOne(config)# login block-for 600 attempts 3 within routerOne(config)#login on-failure log every 2

In the first step, I will access the router through the web interface. This will allow me to configure encryption using the WPA2 or the pre-shared key. This will ensure that anyone who has all devices must provide this key before joining the network.

I will also configure the number of addresses to a defined number as well as allow the DHCP server to provide dynamic addresses based on certain main addresses.

After doing these configurations, I will also enable no broadcast of the SSID and save the configurations, and exit the router. 

The access list will permit traffic from the outside network to reach the inside network through port 80.

- TACACS uses TCP protocol which is more reliable than User Data Protocol used by RADIUS.
- RADIUS only encrypts the password section of an access-request packet. On the other hand, the TACACS+ encrypt the entire message thus offering better security.
- RADIUS offers a better extension for IPSec compared to TACACS+ which does not.
- RADIUS is well developed compared to TACACS but is not very well developed.

There are three IKE policy choices message encryption, message integrity hash algorithm and peer authentication method. The policies are satisfied by various encryption methods that are dependent on several factors such as the type of hardware in place. The key length available when using an encryption algorithm allows the definition of key length used in terms of bits. When it comes to choosing a message encryption algorithm, 3des is the strongest when compared to DES. The sha encryption offers a better encryption type as compared to md5 when it comes to the message integrity algorithm. For the peer authentication method, the rsa-sig offers stronger encryption.

An intrusion detection system has powerful features that provide notification when an attack occurs. On the other hand, a detective prevention system only uses limited functions to thwart attacks from taking place.

The detection system is also limited because it relies on copies of network packets, which must be received from another switch. This makes sensors operating in intrusion mode to be said as running in promiscuous mode.

Compared to a detection system, intrusion prevention is more robust and has better features because it operates in inline mode where it checks as packets flow in teatime. Therefore, it can prevent traffic from entering a given network in real time.