Network Security Essays -- Computers Technology Communications Essays

Network Security In the last decade, the number of computers in use has exploded. For quite some time now, computers have been a crucial element in how we entertain and educate ourselves, and most importantly, how we do business. It seems obvious in retrospect that a natural result of the explosive growth in computer use would be an even more explosive (although delayed) growth in the desire and need for computers to talk with each other. For quite some time, businesses were primarily interested in sharing data within an office or campus environment, this led to the development of various protocols suited specifically to this task. Within the last five years, businesses have begun to need to share data across wide areas. This has prompted efforts to convert principally LAN-based protocols into WAN-friendly protocols. The result has spawned an entire industry of consultants who know how to manipulate routers; gateways and networks to force principally broadcast protocols across point-to-point links. Frequently the protocol of choice has been TCP/IP which is also the primary protocol run on the Internet. The emerging ubiquitous ness of TCP/IP allows companies to interconnect with each other via private networks as well as through public networks. In today’s world businesses, governments, and individuals, all are communicating with each other across the world. While reality is rapidly approaching this utopian picture, several relatively minor issues have changed status from low priority to extreme importance. Security is probably the most well known of these problems. When businesses send private information across the net, they place a high value on it getting to its destination intact and without being intercepted by someone other than the intended recipient. Individuals sending private communications obviously desire secure communications. Finally, connecting a system to a network can open the system itself up to attacks. If a system is compromised, the risk of data loss is high. It can be useful to break network security into two general classes: †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Methods used to secure data as it transits a network †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Methods which regulate what packets may transit the network While both significantly affect the traffic going to and from a site, their objectives are quite different. Transit Security Currently, there are no systems in wide use... ... monitor all activity, and very easy to quickly control what gets in and out of a network. Conclusion There are two basic types of network security, transit security and traffic regulation, which when combined can help guarantee that the right information is securely delivered to the right place. It should be apparent that there is also a need for ensuring that the hosts that receive the information will properly process it, this raises the entire specter of host security: a wide area which varies tremendously for each type of system. With the growth in business use of the Internet, network security is rapidly becoming crucial to the development of the Internet. Soon, security will be an integral part of our day-to-day use of the Internet and other networks. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Avaya Inc. â€Å"Secure and Continuous Communications† www.avaya.com [Online] Available: http://www1.avaya.com/security/?agy=Google&cmp=Security&ctv=network+security&rfr=Google.com&typ=p4p&ovchn=GGL&ovcpn=Security&ovcrn=network+security&ovtac=PPC (October 13, 2004) Net Library. â€Å"Network Security† www.netlibary.com [Online] Available: http://www.netlibrary.com/Search/SearchResults.aspx (October 15, 2004)