Cryptography and

Network Security
Chapter 1
Cryptographic algorithms and
protocols
Symmetric encryption: Used to conceal
the contents of blocks or streams of data
of any size, including messages, files,
encryption keys, and passwords.

Asymmetric encryption: Used to conceal

small blocks of data, such as encryption
keys and hash function values, which are
used in digital signatures.
Cryptographic algorithms and
protocols
Data integrity algorithms: Used to protect
blocks of data, such as messages, from
alteration.

Authentication protocols: These are

schemes based on the use of
cryptographic algorithms designed to
authenticate the identity of entities.
Network and Internet Security
The field of network and Internet security
consists of measures to deter, prevent,
detect, and correct security violations that
involve the transmission of information.
 A Definition of Computer
Security

The protection provided to an automated

information system in order to satisfy the
objectives of preserving the integrity,
availability, and confidentiality of
information system resources (includes
hardware, software, firmware, information /
data and telecommunications).
 Objectives of computer
security
1. Confidentiality
• Data confidentiality
• Privacy
2. Integrity
• Data integrity
• System integrity
3. Availability
Refereed as CIA Traid
 Additional CIA Traids
Authenticity - verifying that users are who they say
they are and that each input arriving at the system came
from a trusted source.

Accountability - The security goal that generates

the requirement for actions of an entity to be traced
uniquely to that entity. This supports nonrepudiation,
deterrence, fault isolation, intrusion detection and
prevention, and after action recovery and legal action.
 Background
Information Security requirements have changed
in recent times
traditionally provided by physical and
administrative mechanisms
computer use requires automated tools to
protect files and other stored information
use of networks and communications links
requires measures to protect data during
transmission
 Definitions
Computer Security - generic name for the
collection of tools designed to protect data and
to thwart hackers
Network Security - measures to protect data
during their transmission
Internet Security - measures to protect data
during their transmission over a collection of
interconnected networks
 Chapter 1 – Introduction

The art of war teaches us to rely not on the

likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but
on our own readiness to receive him; not
on the chance of his not attacking, but
rather on the fact that we have made our
position unassailable.
—The Art of War, Sun Tzu
Security Trends
 OSI Security Architecture
ITU-T X.800 “Security Architecture for OSI”
defines a systematic way of defining and
providing security requirements
for us it provides a useful, if abstract,
overview of concepts we will study
 OSI Security Architecture
The three aspects of information security:
● security attack
● security mechanism
● security service
 Threats and Attacks
Threat - A potential for violation of security,
which exists when there is a circumstance,
capability, action, or event that could
breach security and cause harm. That is, a
threat is a possible danger that might
exploit a vulnerability.
 Threats and Attacks
Attack - An assault on system security that
derives from an intelligent threat; that is,
an intelligent act that is a deliberate
attempt (especially in the sense of a
method or technique) to evade security
services and violate the security policy of a
system.
 Security Attack
Any action that compromises the security of
information owned by an organization
Information security is about how to prevent
attacks, or failing that, to detect attacks on
information-based systems
Often threat & attack used to mean same thing
 Types of Attack
Passive Attack - A passive attack attempts to learn
or make use of information from the system but does not
affect system resources
• Release of Message Contents
• Traffic Analysis

Active Attack - An active attack attempts to alter

system resources or affect their operation
• Masquerade
• Replay
• Modification of Messages
• Denial of service
Passive Attacks
 Passive Attacks
Release of Message Contents - A telephone
conversation, an electronic mail message, and a transferred file may
contain sensitive or confidential information.

Traffic analysis - The opponent could determine the

location and identity of communicating hosts and could observe the
frequency and length of messages being exchanged. This
information might be useful in guessing the nature of the
communication that was taking place.

Passive attacks are very difficult to detect,

because they do not involve any alteration
of the data
 Active Attacks
Active attacks involve some modification
of the data stream or the creation of a
false stream and can be subdivided into
four categories:
● masquerade
● Replay
● modification of messages
● denial of service.
 Masquerade
A masquerade takes place when one
entity pretends to be a different entity
 Replay
Involves the passive capture of a data unit
and its subsequent retransmission to
produce an unauthorized effect
 Modification of messages
Some portion of a legitimate message is
altered, or that messages are delayed or
reordered, to produce an unauthorized
effect
 Denial of service
prevents or inhibits the normal use or
management of communications facilities
(This attack may have a specific target; for
example, an entity may suppress all messages
directed to a particular destination
Another form of service denial is the disruption
of an entire network, either by disabling the
network or by overloading it with messages so
as to degrade performance.
Active Attacks
 Security Services
● Enhance security of data processing systems
and information transfers of an organization
● Intended to counter security attacks
● Using one or more security mechanisms
● Often replicates functions normally associated
with physical documents
• which, for example, have signatures, dates; need
protection from disclosure, tampering, or
destruction; be notarized or witnessed; be
recorded or licensed
 Security Services
X.800:
“a service provided by a protocol layer of
communicating open systems, which ensures
adequate security of the systems or of data
transfers”

RFC 2828:
“a processing or communication service
provided by a system to give a specific kind of
protection to system resources”
 Security Services (X.800)
Authentication - assurance that the
communicating entity is the one claimed
Access Control - prevention of the
unauthorized use of a resource
Data Confidentiality –protection of data from
unauthorized disclosure
Data Integrity - assurance that data received is
as sent by an authorized entity
Non-Repudiation - protection against denial by
one of the parties in a communication
 Security Mechanism
feature designed to detect, prevent, or
recover from a security attack
no single mechanism that will support all
services required
however one particular element underlies
many of the security mechanisms in use:
● cryptographic techniques
hence our focus on this topic
Security Mechanisms (X.800)
specific security mechanisms:
● encipherment, digital signatures, access
controls, data integrity, authentication
exchange, traffic padding, routing control,
notarization
pervasive security mechanisms:
● trusted functionality, security labels, event
detection, security audit trails, security
recovery
Model for Network Security
 Model for Network Security
using this model requires us to:
1. design a suitable algorithm for the security
transformation
2. generate the secret information (keys) used
by the algorithm
3. develop methods to distribute and share the
secret information
4. specify a protocol enabling the principals to
use the transformation and secret
information for a security service
Model for Network Access
Security
 Model for Network Access
Security
using this model requires us to:
1. select appropriate gatekeeper functions to
identify users
2. implement security controls to ensure only
authorised users access designated
information or resources
trusted computer systems may be useful
to help implement this model
 Summary
have considered:
● definitions for:
• computer, network, internet security
X.800 standard
security attacks, services, mechanisms
models for network (access) security