Technology+Report


 * Network Security **

Today’s corporate organizations are not the same as it was in the past. At any given time an organizations network will be attacked or try to be attacked several hundred times in one day. According to “The Security Network”, in larger more well-known organizations this number could grow significantly. To ensure your organization is not one whose vulnerable to these issues, you must ensure that you have proper security practices in place to secure your network. Most people in the security field agree that good security policies are necessary to keep hackers out and keep the users along with the information on their network safe. The best way to do this is to have some kind of written security policy. This policy should be made available for anyone to see and read. When it comes to networking and the security of networks, there are several different methods of protecting networks. Of these differing methods, some of them sound similar, but provide differing levels of security. According to “The Security Networ”k, logging is a simple way of keeping a record of activity on a network. One example of this process is using historical logging. This method allows you to keep a record of all data passing through a particular network device. The record kept can then be analyzed at a later date and hopefully provide insight on the security of the network. Another method of security is the use of firewalls. Firewalls provide a barrier between internal networks and the outside world. Firewalls can be used anywhere there is data transferred between two systems. Individual computers can each have their personal firewall for filtering data. Firewalls are a filtering system to determine information that is allowed and what is not allowed to pass through it. One common use of a firewall is to determine which ports can have data sent through them and to the internal network. File security is about setting permissions for people on individual files and folders, giving them more options than others. They may be given read-only permissions, but not the ability to write to files. This insures that users cannot overwrite or delete files. Others may have full writing and editing rights. File security protects the integrity of the files and provides version controlling on files and documents. Encryption is another method of safety. This method can be useful in keeping sensitive information out of the hands of those not authorized and for maintaining the security of a network. Some encryption schemes utilize a secret key and a public key. Each person on the protected network has both a public and a secret key. Everyone who wants to be able to send encrypted information to another person on the network uses the public key. The recipient then uses a secret key to decrypt the information sent. A user must have a secret key to unlock the information. Symmetric encryption is another method of security. According to “The Code Project” with symmetric keys, both the sender and the receiver use the same secret key for encryption and decryption. One of the drawbacks with symmetric keys is that if the key is compromised on one end, it is compromised on both ends. With asymmetric keys, also known as public key encryption, the sender and the receiver each use a different key for encryption and decryption. These keys are known as the public key and a secret key. The public key is used to encrypt data, which the recipient can then decrypt using the secret key. Last, a digital postmark is another useful security method. A digital postmark is a network security measure that can allow organizations to trace the origins of unwanted spam or other forms of malicious attacks. According to “Digital Postmark.com” this process works by placing identifying data onto messages much like a conventional postmark, hence the name. Because the information is added at the router level, there is no way for hackers or other intruders to falsify IP addresses or other information that might be used to bypass security on a network.

As you can see, there are different types of network security. Each type protects the network and files on it in a different way. It is up to the network manager to decide which methods work best for his organization’s needs.

Works Cited: [|www.securitynetwork.com] [|www.codeproject.com] [|www.digitalpostmark.com]