Information Protection, Reliability

and Cryptography
Basics of Information Security
Professor dr.sc.ing. Viktor Gopejenko
Department of Computer Technologies and Natural Sciences
ISMA University of Applied Science, Riga, Latvia
Lecture 1
Overview
 Learning Objectives

 The key security requirements of confidentiality, integrity and

availability

 The types of security threats and attacks that must be dealt with
and examples of the security threats and attacks that apply to
different categories of computer and network assets

 The functional requirements for computer security

 X.800 security architecture for OSI

 Key trends in security threats and countermeasures

 Detailed Content:

 Computer Security Concepts

 Threats, Attacks and Assets

 Security Functional Requirements

 Security Architecture for Open Systems

 Computer Security Trends

 Computer Security Strategy

Computer Security Overview

The NIST Computer Security Handbook defines

the term Computer Security as:
“The protection afforded to an automated
information system in order to attain the
applicable objectives of preserving the integrity,
availability and confidentiality of information
system resources” (includes hardware, software,
firmware, information/data, and
telecommunications).
The CIA Triad
Confidentiality
- data confidentiality
- privacy

Integrity
- data integrity
- system integrity

Availability
 Key Security Concepts

Confidentiality Integrity Availability

• preserving • guarding against • ensuring timely

authorized improper and reliable access
restrictions on information to and use of
information access modification or information
and disclosure, destruction,
including means for including ensuring
protecting personal information
privacy and nonrepudiation
proprietary and authenticity
information
 Key Security Concepts

Authenticity Accountability

• The property of being • The security goal that generates

genuine and being able the requirement for actions of an
to be verified and trusted entity to be traced uniquely to that
• This means verifying entity
that users are who they • This supports nonrepudiation,
say they are and that deterrence, fault isolation,
each input arriving at the intrusion detection and
system came from a prevention, and after-action
trusted source recovery and legal action
 Computer Security Challenges
 computer security is not as  attackers only need to find a
simple as it might first appear single weakness, the
to the novice developer needs to find all
 potential attacks on the weaknesses
security features must be  users and system managers
considered tend to not see the benefits of
 procedures used to provide security until a failure occurs
particular services are often  security requires regular and
counterintuitive constant monitoring
 physical and logical placement  is often an afterthought to be
needs to be determined incorporated into a system
 additional algorithms or after the design is complete
protocols may be involved  thought of as an impediment
to efficient and user-friendly
operation
 Table 1.1

Computer
Security
Terminology
RFC 2828, Internet
Security Glossary,
May 2000
Security Concepts and Relationships

Figure 1.2
 Vulnerabilities, Threats
and Attacks
 categories of vulnerabilities
 corrupted (loss of integrity)
 leaky (loss of confidentiality)
 unavailable or very slow (loss of availability)

 threats
 capable of exploiting vulnerabilities
 represent potential security harm to an asset

 attacks (threats carried out)

 passive – does not affect system resources
 active – attempt to alter system resources or affect their operation
 insider – initiated by an entity inside the security perimeter
 outsider – initiated from outside the perimeter
Countermeasures

• prevent
means used to deal with • detect
security attacks • recover

may introduce new

vulnerabilities

residual vulnerabilities
may remain

goal is to minimize residual

level of risk to the assets
 Table 1.2

Threat
Consequences
Scope of Computer Security

Figure 1.3
Computer and Network Assets
Examples of Threats

Table 1.3 Computer and Network Assets, with Examples of Threats. Table 1.3
 Passive and Active Attacks
 Passive attacks attempt to learn or make use of information
from the system but does not affect system resources
 eavesdropping/monitoring transmissions
 difficult to detect
 emphasis is on prevention rather than detection
 two types:
 release of message contents
 traffic analysis

 Active attacks involve modification of the data stream

 goal is to detect them and then recover
 four categories:
 masquerade
 replay
 modification of messages
 denial of service
Security Requirements (FIPS PUB 200)
Security Functional Requirements

functional areas that functional areas that functional areas that overlap
primarily require computer primarily require computer security technical
security technical measures management controls and measures and management
include: procedures include: controls include:

• access control; • awareness & training; audit • configuration management;

identification & & accountability; incident response; and
authentication; system & certification, accreditation, media protection
communication protection; & security assessments;
and system & information contingency planning;
integrity maintenance; physical &
environmental protection;
planning; personnel
security; risk assessment;
and systems & services
acquisition
 Security Architecture For
Open Systems
 ITU-T Recommendation X.800, Security Architecture for
OSI
 systematic way of defining the requirements for security and
characterizing the approaches to satisfying them
 was developed as an international standard
 focuses on:
 security attacks – action that compromises the security of
information owned by an organization
 security mechanism – designed to detect, prevent, or recover
from a security attack
 security service – intended to counter security attacks
 Security Services
X.800 RFC 2828
 defines a security service  defines a security service
as a service that is as a processing or
provided by a protocol communication service
layer of communicating that is provided by a
open systems and ensures system to give a specific
adequate security of the kind of protection to
systems or of data system resources;
transfers security services
implement security
policies and are
implemented by security
mechanisms
Table 1.5

Security
Services

Source: From X.800, Security Architecture for OSI

  Data Origin Authentication
 provides for the corroboration of the
source of a data unit
Authentication  does not provide protection against
the duplication or modification of
Service data units
 this type of service supports
applications like email where there
are no prior interactions between the
communicating entities

 concerned with assuring that a  Peer Entity Authentication

communication is from the  provides for the corroboration of the
source that it claims to be from identity of a peer entity in an
association
 provided for use at the
 must assure that the connection
establishment of, or at times during
is not interfered with by a third the data transfer phase of, a
party masquerading as one of connection
the two legitimate parties  attempts to provide confidence that
an entity is not performing either a
masquerade or an unauthorized
replay of a previous connection
 Access Control Nonrepudiation
Service Service

 prevents either sender or

 the ability to limit and control the
receiver from denying a
access to host systems and
transmitted message
applications via communications
links
 receiver can prove that the
alleged sender in fact sent
 each entity trying to gain access the message
must first be identified, or
authenticated, so that access rights  the sender can prove that
can be tailored to the individual the alleged receiver in fact
received the message
  protects the traffic flow from analysis
 this requires that an attacker not
be able to observe the source and
Data destination, frequency, length, or
Confidentiality other characteristics of the traffic
on a communications facility
Service
 connectionless confidentiality
 protection of all user data in a
single data block
 the protection of transmitted
data from passive attacks  selective-field confidentiality
 confidentiality of selected fields
 the broadest service protects all within the user data on a
user data transmitted between connection or a single data block
two users over a period of time
 traffic-flow confidentiality
 connection confidentiality
 protection of the information that
 the protection of all user data might be derived from observation
on a connection of traffic flows
  a connection-oriented integrity
service assures that messages are
received as sent, with no
Data duplication, insertion
Integrity modification, reordering, or
Service replays
 destruction of data is also
covered under this service
 addresses both message
stream modification and denial
of service
 can apply to a stream of
messages, a single message,
 need to make a distinction
or selected fields within a
between the service with and
message
without recovery
 concerned with detection
 a connectionless integrity rather than prevention
service generally provides  the incorporation of automated
protection against message recovery mechanisms is the
modification only more attractive alternative
  a variety of attacks can result in
the loss of or reduction in
availability
 some of these attacks are
Availability amenable to authentication
Service and encryption
 some attacks require a
physical action to prevent or
recover from loss of
availability

 X.800 treats availability as a

 a service that protects a property to be associated with
system to ensure its various security services
availability
 defined as the property of a  addresses the security
system or a system concerns raised by denial-of-
resource being accessible
and usable upon demand service attacks
by an authorized system
entity, according to  depends on proper
performance specifications
of the system
management and control of
system resources
 Table 1.6
X.800
Security
Mechanisms
 Figure
1.4

Security
Trends

Types of attacks experienced by respondents

Figure 1.5

Security
Technologies
Used
Computer Security Strategy

specification/policy implementation/mechanisms correctness/assurance

what is the
how does it do does it really
security scheme
it? work?
supposed to do?
 Security Policy
 formal statement of rules and practices that specify or
regulate how a system or organization provides security
services to protect sensitive and critical system resources

 factors to consider:  trade-offs to consider:

 value of the assets being  ease of use versus security
protected
 cost of security versus cost of
 vulnerabilities of the system failure and recovery
 potential threats and the
likelihood of attacks
 Security Implementation

prevention response
detection response
• secure encryption • upon detection,
•algorithms
intrusion detection •being
uponable
detection,
to halt
systems being able to halt
an attack and
• prevent an attack
prevent and
further
•unauthorized
detection of denial prevent further
of service damage
access to attacks damage
encryption keys
involves four
complementary
courses of action:
detection
recovery
• intrusion detection prevention
•systems
use of backup involves four
systems of denial • secure encryption
complementary
• detection
algorithms
of service attacks courses of
• prevent
action:
unauthorized
access to
encryption keys
 Assurance and Evaluation

 assurance
 the degree of confidence one has that the security measures
work as intended to protect the system and the information
it processes
 encompasses both system design and system
implementation

 evaluation
 process of examining a computer product or system with
respect to certain criteria
 involves testing and formal analytic or mathematical
techniques
 Summary
 security concepts  security architecture
 CIA triad  security services – enhances the
security of systems and information
 confidentiality – preserving the
transfers, table 1.5
disclosure of information
 security mechanisms – mechanisms
 integrity – guarding against
designed to detect, prevent, or
modification or destruction of recover from a security attack, table
information 1.6
 availability – ensuring timely and  security attack – any action that
reliable access to information compromises the security of
 terminology – table 1.1 information owned by an
 threats – exploits vulnerabilities
organization
 attack – a threat carried out  security trends
 countermeasure – means to deal  figure 1.4
with a security attack  security strategy
 assets – hardware, software,  policy, implementation,
data, communication lines, assurance and evaluation
networks  functional requirements
 table 1.4