By: -

Sachin Shaw
RE3001A12
What is computer security ?
Core security concepts
Security concerns
Contributing factors
Basic security objective
Security Terms
Trends for 2011
Security Components
Certification Authority
Computer security is a branch of computer
technology known as information security as
applied to computers and networks. The objective of
computer security includes protection of information
and property from theft, corruption, or natural
disaster, while allowing the information and property
to remain accessible and productive to its intended
users
Vulnerability, Exploit, Threat

 Vulnerability – a weakness in some aspect of a system

 Exploit – a known method for taking advantage of a

vulnerability

 Threat – the likelihood of some agent using an exploit

to compromise security
Unauthorized access to resources.
Masquerade as authorized user or end system.
E-mail forgery.
Malicious attacks.
Monitoring and capture of network traffic.
Exploitation of software bugs.
 Increased Internet use:
 Home broadband,
 Greater coverage (wired and wireless):
 More ubiquitous on-line use:
 Education,
 Business,
 Games,
 Shopping…
 Lack of awareness of threats and risks.
 Wide-open network policies.
 Unencrypted network traffic.
 Complexity of security measurements and administration.
 Software bugs.
 Availability of cracking tools .
Confidentiality: prevent/detect/deter improper
disclosure of information.
Integrity: prevent/detect/deter improper modification
of information.
Availability: prevent/detect/deter improper denial of
access to services.
Authentication:
 The process by which a person or other entity proves that
it is who (or what) it says it is.
 Want to authenticate the person or entity that you are
dealing before transferring something valuable, such as
information or money, to or from, it.
 Authentication is achieved by presenting some unique
identifying entity to the endpoint that is undertaking the
process:
 An example of this process is the way you authenticate yourself
with an ATM: here you insert your bank card (something you
have) and enter your personal identification number (PIN,
something you know).
Being able to identify yourself to a computer is
absolutely essential:
 ATM, e-banking,
 Access to e-mail, computer accounts,
 Access to personal information (e.g., staff or student
portal).
Non-computer identification
• Bank teller knows you by sight (good).
• Bank teller checks your picture against a photo ID
(dodgy).
• Bank back office compares cheque signature to one
on record (dodgy).
How we identify a human to a computer?
 Username/Passwords (common),
 Token, e.g. ATM card,
 Cryptographic protocols,
 Combinations, e.g. token and password,
 Biometrics, e.g. face recognition, finger prints, and
retina/iris scans.
Most common identification technique:
 Variants: such as “PIN” (number), memorable date,
mothers maiden name.
Problem: we are not well-suited to remembering
passwords:
 Especially rarely used ones,
 We can also confuse passwords used in similar
contexts.
Users reveal passwords to outsiders.
Users reuse passwords.
Users choose “easy to guess” passwords.
Password observed on entry.
Password obtained from system files.
Biometric identification

• Passwords are pretty useless at identifying people.

• Can we identify them by their properties?
– Face, handwriting, retina, DNA, voice, signature, fingerprint…
• “How humans identify other humans”.
 Cost:
 Voice recognition is cheap,
 Eye (iris) scanning is expensive.
 User comfort:
 Face recognition is nice (look into camera),
 DNA matching is not (blood/skin sample).
 Theoretical accuracy:
 Iris is unique (determined while an embryo),
 DNA is shared by identical twins,
 Voice can be imitated.
 Excluded population:
 Voice does not work on mute people,
 Fingerprints do not work on amputees,
 DNA works on everyone!
 Variability:
 Dirty fingers, or sick (cold) for voice.
Integrity:
 This is the assurance that the data has not changed since it
was written:
 e.g., prevent a potential intruder-in-the-middle from changing
messages.
 Data integrity can be checked using:
 A check-sum, which is a simple error-detection scheme where
each transmitted message is accompanied by a numerical value
based on the number of set bits in the message:
 Checked by the receiving station - if different the receiver can assume
that the message has been garbled.
 Hash functions, any one-way function that reduces variable sized
data to a fixed length “hash code”:
 If the hashes of two documents differ, then the documents differ.
Confidentiality:
 This is the act of ensuring no one but authorised parties
(who know some secret) can understand the data.
 There are two mechanisms used to ensure data
confidentiality, the more common encryption, and
steganography:
 With encryption an algorithm or function (encrypt) that
transforms plain text to cypher text where the meaning is hidden,
but which can be restored to the original plain text by another
algorithm (decrypt).
 Steganography, on the other hand is where a message is hidden in
another message or image:
 It is used when it is necessary to conceal the fact that a secret message
is being transmitted.
 Malware, worms, and Trojan horses
 spread by email, instant messaging, malicious or infected websites
 Botnets and zombies
 improving their encryption capabilities, more difficult to detect
 Scare ware – fake/rogue security software
 Attacks on client-side software
 browsers, media players, PDF readers, etc.
 Ransom attacks
 malware encrypts hard drives, or DDOS attack
 Social network attacks
 Users’ trust in online friends makes these networks a prime target.
 Cloud Computing - growing use will make this a prime target for attack.
 Web Applications - developed with inadequate security controls
 Budget cuts - problem for security personnel and a boon to cyber criminals.
Encryption and Decryption:
 Encryption is the conversion of data into a form, called a ciphertext,
which cannot be easily understood by unauthorised entities.
 Decryption is the process of converting encrypted data back into its
original form, so it can be understood.
 Most security technologies rely, to some degree, on encryption
of text or data:
 For example, encryption is used in the creation of certificates and
digital signatures, for the secure storage of secrets or transport of
information.
 Encryption can be anything from a simple process of
substituting one character for another, in which case the key is
the substitution rule, to some complex mathematical algorithm.
Encryption and Decryption:
 We assume that the more difficult it is to decrypt the
cipher text, the better.
 Trade-off - if the algorithm is too complex and it takes too
long to use, or requires keys that are too large to store
easily, it becomes impractical to use:
 Need a balance between the strength of the encryption; that is,
how difficult it is for someone to discover the algorithm and the
key, and ease of use.
 There are two main types of encryption in use for
computer security, referred to as symmetric and
asymmetric key encryption.
CAs issue digital certificates after verifying that a
public key belongs to a certain owner:
 Driving licenses, identification cards and fingerprints
are examples of documentation required.
Some examples of CAs are:
Thank You