NETWORK

SECURITY

EMESU EMMANUEL
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this chapter you
should be able to:
Understand the business need for
network security.
Understand a successful network
security program is the responsibility of
an organization’s general management
and IT management.
Understand the threats posed to
network security and the more common
attacks associated with those threats.
Differentiate threats from attacks.

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Network Security
The ideal state where all
information can be stored or
communicated across the
network secure from
unauthorized persons being
able to read it and/or
manipulate it.

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Aims of security
• Confidentiality
–The prevention of unauthorized
disclosure of information
• Integrity
–The prevention of anything that
will make information insecure
and unreliable

EMESU EMMANUEL
• Authentication
–The prevention of unauthorized
modification of information
• Non-repudiation
–Allows users the ability to
identify the sender or receiver
of information

EMESU EMMANUEL
• Access control
–The ability to limit and control
the access to host systems and
applications through
communications links by using
id and authentication
• Availability
–The prevention of unauthorised
withholding of information or
resources, that is, preventing
denial of service
EMESU EMMANUEL
 Definitions

1. Vulnerability: weakness in the

EMESU EMMANUEL
Backdoors
(Vulnerabilities)
Bypass normal means of
authentication
Hidden from casual
inspection
Installed separately or
integrated into software

EMESU EMMANUEL
Code Exploits
(Vulnerabilities)
Use of poor coding practices
left uncaught by testing
Defense: In depth unit and
integration testing

EMESU EMMANUEL
Eavesdropping
(Vulnerability)
Data transmitted without
encryption can be captured
and read by parties other
than the sender and receiver
Defense: Use of strong
cryptography to minimize
clear-text on the network

EMESU EMMANUEL
Indirect Attacks
(Vulnerabilities)
Internet users’ machines can
be infected with zombies and
made to perform attacks
The puppet master is left
undetected
Defense: Train internet users
to prevent zombies and
penalize zombie owners
EMESU EMMANUEL
Social Engineering (Vulnerability)
–Social engineering is a term that refers to the
ability of something or someone to influence
the behavior of a group of people.
–In the context of computer and network
security Social Engineering refers to a
collection of techniques used to deceive
internal users into performing specific actions
or revealing confidential information.
◦Pretexing (using phone to lure someone
to release confidential information
◦Vishing - using VOIP to lure someone to
release confidential information
◦Phishing - using e-mail to lure someone
to release confidential information etc
Defense: Train personnel to resist
the tactics of software engineering

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Hardware threats
Accident damage
Flood
Wind storm
Fire
Electrical
sparks
Earthquakes
Manufacturer errors

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Software threats
1.Data corruption
2.File/software deletion
3.Document alteration

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Methods of Attack
Describe viruses, worms, and
Trojan horses.

EMESU EMMANUEL
Viruses, Worms and Trojan
horses
 Viruses, Worms and Trojan horses. All of
these are types of malicious software
introduced onto a host.
 They can damage a system, destroy data,
as well as deny access to networks,
systems, or services.
 They can also forward data and personal
details from unsuspecting PC users to
criminals.
 In many cases, they can replicate
themselves and spread to other hosts
connected to the network.
EMESU EMMANUEL
 Viruses, Worms and Trojan

horses
Viruses
–A virus is a program that runs and spreads
by modifying other programs or files.
–A virus cannot start by itself; it needs to be
activated. Once activated, a virus may do
nothing more than replicate itself and spread.
–Though simple, even this type of virus is
dangerous as it can quickly use all available
memory and bring a system to a halt.
–In many cases, they can replicate
themselves and spread to other hosts
connected to the network.
EMESU EMMANUEL
 Viruses, Worms and Trojan
horses
 Worms
–A worm is similar to a virus, but unlike a virus
does not need to attach itself to an existing
program. A worm uses the network to send copies
of itself to any connected hosts.
–Worms can run independently and spread quickly.
 Trojan Horses
–A Trojan horse is a non-self replicating program
that is written to appear like a legitimate program,
when in fact it is an attack tool.
– A Trojan horse relies upon its legitimate
appearance to deceive the victim into initiating the
program.
EMESU EMMANUEL
 Methods of Attack
Denial of Service and Brute Force
attacks

EMESU EMMANUEL
Denial of Service and Brute
Force

attacks
Denial of Service (DoS)
–DoS attacks are aggressive attacks on an
individual computer or groups of computers
with the intent to deny services to intended
users. DoS attacks can target end user
systems, servers, routers, and network links.
 In general, DoS attacks seek to:
–Flood a system or network with traffic to
prevent legitimate network traffic from
flowing
–Disrupt connections between a client and
server to prevent access to a service
EMESU EMMANUEL
 Denial of Service and Brute
Force attacks
 Two common DoS attacks are:
 SYN (synchronous) Flooding
–A flood of packets are sent to a server
requesting a client connection. The packets
contain invalid source IP addresses.
–The server becomes occupied trying to
respond to these fake requests and therefore
cannot respond to legitimate ones.
 Ping of death
–A packet that is greater in size than the
maximum allowed by IP (65,535 bytes) is sent
to a device.
–This can cause the receivingEMESU
system
EMMANUELto crash.
 Denial of Service and Brute
Force attacks
 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
–DDoS is a more sophisticated and
potentially damaging form of the DoS attack.
–It is designed to saturate and overwhelm
network links with useless data. DDoS
operates on a much larger scale than DoS
attacks. Typically hundreds or thousands of
attack points attempt to overwhelm a target
simultaneously.

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Denial of Service and Brute
Force attacks
 Brute Force
–A Brute force attack is another type of
attack that may result in denial of services.
–With brute force attacks, a fast computer is
used to try to guess passwords or to
decipher an encryption code. The attacker
tries a large number of possibilities in rapid
succession to gain access or crack the code.

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Methods of Attack
Describespyware, tracking cookies,
adware and pop-ups.

EMESU EMMANUEL
Spyware, Tracking cookies, Adware and Pop-
ups.
 Many threats are designed to collect information
about users which can be used for advertising,
marketing and research purposes.
 These include Spyware, Tracking Cookies, Adware
and Pop-ups. While these may not damage a
computer, they invade privacy and can be
annoying.
 Spyware
◦Spyware is any program that gathers personal
information from your computer without your
permission or knowledge. This information is
sent to advertisers or others on the Internet and
can include passwords and account numbers.
EMESU EMMANUEL
Spyware, Tracking cookies, Adware and Pop-ups.
 Tracking Cookies
◦Cookies are a form of spyware but are not always bad.
They are used to record information about an Internet
user when they visit websites.
 Adware
◦Adware is a form of spyware used to collect information
about a user based on websites the user visits. That
information is then used for targeted advertising.
 Pop-ups and pop-unders
◦Pop-ups and pop-unders are additional advertising
windows that display when visiting a web site. Unlike
Adware, pop-ups and pop-unders are not intended to
collect information about the user and are typically
associated only with the web-site being visited.
EMESU EMMANUEL
 Methods of Attack
Describe Spam

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Spam
 Another annoying by-product of our increasing
reliance on electronic communications is
unwanted bulk email.
 This widely distributed approach to marketing on
the Internet is called spam.
 Spam is a serious network threat that can
overload ISPs, email servers and individual end-
user systems.
 A person or organization responsible for sending
spam is called a spammer. Spammers often make
use of unsecured email servers to forward email.

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Attacks
Password Cracks: Brute Force
Trying all combinations of legal
symbols
as username/password pairs in order to
gain access to system
Password Cracks: Dictionary
Attack
Trying all entries in a collection of
strings in order to gain access to
system, faster than brute force Reference 8
EMESU EMMANUEL
Password Cracks: Hybrid Attack
Trying all entries in a collection of
strings adding numbers and
symbols concatenating them with
each other and or numbers in
order to gain access to system,
faster than brute force.
Web Attacks: Database Attack
Sending dangerous queries to
database this causes denial of
service Reference 8
EMESU EMMANUEL
Physical Attack: Damage
Attack the computer with an axe
Physical Attack: Disconnect
Interrupt connection between two
elements of the network

EMESU EMMANUEL
Physical Attack: Reroute
Pass network signal through
additional devices in order to
monitor traffic or spoof a
portion of the network
Physical Attack: Spoof MAC &
IP
Identify MAC address of target
and replicate so as to deny
target from receiving traffic
EMESU EMMANUEL
Unauthorised use
Hacker: Hackers are often described as
individuals who seek to break into systems as
a test of their abilities. Few hackers attempt
to cause damage to systems they access and
few are interested in gaining any sort of
financial profit.
Cracker: A person who gains access to an
information system for malicious reasons is
often termed a cracker rather than a hacker.
This is because some people draw a
distinction between ‘ethical’ hackers and
malicious hackers.

EMESU EMMANUEL
 General Protection
Installfirewalls and virus detection
software to be used as a protective
shield between your computer and
the internet. These software are
able to protect against hackers,
virus attacks or malicious "Trojan
Horse" programmes
These security programmes are
capable of preventing and
detecting authorised access to
your system.
EMESU EMMANUEL
Avoid using shared/public PCs for
extremely personal tasks such as
Internet banking.
Constantly back up your files to a
removable disk or another computer,
this minimizes some of the physical
risk such as accidental deletion,
system problem or theft of your
computer.
Store backup in a different and
secure location for added protection.
EMESU EMMANUEL
Never download programmes
unless you know the website is
reputable and do not open e-mail
messages with suspicious
attachments which could have
malicious programs.
Update your virus protection
software constantly to be current
with new malicious programmes.

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Design locks or physical locks limiting
the access
 Devices to verify the user
identities(Biometric controls )
 Hiding signatures in the design files
 Intrusion detection
 Policies and procedures
 Passwords
 Hidden signs and procedures
 File encryption

EMESU EMMANUEL
 Data backup
Data backup is the practice of
copying data from a primary to a
secondary location, to protect it in
case of a disaster, accident or
malicious action. Data is the lifeblood
of modern organizations, and losing
data can cause massive damage and
disrupt business operations. This is
why backing up your data is critical
for all businesses, large and small.

EMESU EMMANUEL
Types of data backups
Full backups
 Asthe name implies, this type of backup
makes a copy of all data to a storage
device, such as a disk or tape. The primary
advantage is that a complete copy of all
data is available with a single set of
media. This results in a minimal time to
restore data. However, the disadvantages
are that it takes longer to perform a full
backup than other types (sometimes by a
factor of 10 or more), and it requires more
storage space.
EMESU EMMANUEL
Differential backup
Differential backup focuses only on
the files that have changed since the
last full backup. For example, suppose
you do a full backup on Sunday. On
Monday, you back up only the files
that changed since Sunday; on
Tuesday, you back up only the files
that changed since Sunday; and so on,
until the next full backup. Differential
backups are quicker than full backups
because so much fewer data is backed
EMESU EMMANUEL
Incremental backups
 These also back up only the changed
data, but they only back up the data
that has changed since the last backup
— whether a full or incremental backup.
These are sometimes called "differential
incremental backups."
 If you do an incremental backup on
Tuesday, you only back up the data that
changed since the incremental backup
on Monday.

EMESU EMMANUEL
Backing up a file system
 Using File History (Windows 10 and 11)
 Connect an External Drive: Plug in an external
hard drive or USB drive to your computer.
 Open Settings: Go to Start > Settings.
 Select Update & Security: Then click on Backup.
 Choose Backup Drive: Select the external drive
you connected.
 Turn on File History: Toggle the switch to turn
on File History.
 Select Folders: Choose which folders you want to
back up.
 Run Backup: File History will start backing up
your files automatically.

EMESU EMMANUEL
Using Backup and Restore (Windows
10 and 11)
 Open Control Panel: Go to Start > Control
Panel.
 Select Backup and Restore (Windows 7):
Even though it’s labeled for Windows 7, it works
for Windows 10 and 11.
 Create a System Image: Click on “Create a
system image”.
 Choose Backup Location: Select where you
want to save the backup (external drive, DVDs,
etc.).
 Select Drives: Choose the drives you want to
back up.
 Start Backup: Click on Start backup and wait
for the process to complete.
EMESU EMMANUEL
Using OneDrive (Cloud Backup)
Open Settings: Go to Start >
Settings.
Select Accounts: Then click on
Backup.
Manage Backup: Toggle the switch
to back up your folders to OneDrive.
Select Folders: Choose which folders
to back up (Documents, Pictures,
Desktop, etc.).
Sync: Your files will automatically
sync to OneDrive.
EMESU EMMANUEL