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Information Security - Lecture 1

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36 views35 pages

Information Security - Lecture 1

Uploaded by

edieali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Information Security

Course supervisor: Athar Ali


Information Security
Foundations
Information security refers to the processes and methods designed to protect information
from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction. It's
crucial for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) of data.
Example:
Imagine a library. The books (information) need to be protected:
1. Confidentiality: Only authorized people can read certain books.
2. Integrity: Data and Information Integrity refers to the accuracy, consistency, and
reliability of data and information over its lifecycle. Each book's title, author, ISBN,
availability status, and location in the library must be accurately recorded. If data
integrity is compromised (e.g., if a book's status shows as "available" when it is
actually checked out), this could cause confusion and inefficiency for both librarians
and patrons.
3. Availability: The books are always accessible when someone needs to read them.
Security Design Principles:
Security design principles are strategies used
when building systems to make them secure from
the beginning. These principles ensure systems
are robust against attacks and can withstand
potential threats.
Security Design Principles:
Key Principles:
1. Least Privilege: Give users only the access they need.
o Example: A receptionist only has access to appointment scheduling software, not
financial records.
2. Defense in Depth: Use multiple layers of security.
o Example: A bank has locks on the doors (physical security), guards (personnel
security), and an alarm system (technology security).
3. Fail-Safe Defaults: Deny access by default, unless explicitly allowed.
o Example: A security system locks the doors automatically when no one is inside.
4. Economy of Mechanism: Keep the design simple to minimize errors.
o Example: A password system only requires input of the password, not complex
steps.
Why we need to protect data
• Keeping data safe is extremely important for a
number of reasons. It may be personal data that
you want to keep within your family or your
close friends, or commercial data, such as
passwords and bank account details, which need
to be kept safe to protect your money.
Threats
Data and Information Integrity
• Data and Information Integrity refers to the accuracy, consistency,
and reliability of data and information over its lifecycle. Maintaining
data integrity means ensuring that data is complete, unaltered, and
free from errors, whether it’s stored in a database, transmitted over a
network, or processed by applications. High data integrity is essential
for making reliable decisions, as compromised data can lead to
incorrect conclusions or ineffective actions.
Data and Information Integrity and its
Relation to Error Detection Methods

• Error detection methods play a key role in maintaining data integrity.


These methods help identify errors that might have occurred during
data entry, storage, or transmission, thus allowing for correction and
preserving data accuracy.
Error detection and
correction methods
• When data is transmitted, there is always a
risk that it may be corrupted,
lost or even gained.
The need to check for
errors
• Errors can occur during data transmission due to:
» interference (all types of cable can suffer from electrical
interference, which can cause data to be corrupted or even
lost)
» problems during packet switching (this can lead to data
loss – or it is even possible to gain data!)
» skewing of data (this occurs during parallel data
transmission and can cause data corruption if the bits arrive
out of synchronisation).
Basics of Data
representation
• In order to understand data security we
need to understand some basics of how the
data is represented internally in the
computer.
[a quick revision of number systems]
Methods for error
checking
• There are a number of ways data can be checked for
errors following
• transmission:
• » parity checks
• » checksum
• » echo check.
• » ARQ
Parity bit
• Parity checking is one method used to check whether
data has been changed or
• corrupted following data transmission. This method is
based on the number of 1-bits in a byte of data.
Types of Parity bit

Before data is transferred, an agreement is made between


sender and receiver
regarding which type of parity is being used. Parity checks are
therefore being
used as a type of transmission protocol.
Sending end:
• There are a number of ways data can be checked for
errors following
• transmission:
• » parity checks
• » checksum
• » echo check.
• » ARQ
Receiving end:
Activity:
Limitations of Parity bit:
If two of the bits change value following data
transmission, it may be impossible to locate the
error using parity checking.
Let us imagine we are transmitting the following
byte, using even parity.
Checksum
One of the limitations of parity bit is that it
can detect one bit of error. This limitation is
overcome by checksum.

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