Computer Security:

Principles and Practice

Chapter 1 – Overview

First Edition
by William Stallings and Lawrie Brown

Lecture slides by Lawrie Brown

 Overview
Computer Security: 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).
Key Security Concepts
 Internet security -Security Requirement Triad

The CIA triad is so foundational to

information security that anytime data is
leaked, a system is attacked, a user takes
a phishing bait, an account is hijacked, a
website is maliciously taken down, or
any number of other security incidents
occur, you can be certain that one or
more of these principles has been
violated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch
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 Confidentiality
⮚ refers to an organization’s efforts to keep their
data private or secret. In practice, it’s about
controlling access to data to prevent
unauthorized disclosure. Typically, this
involves ensuring that only those who are
authorized have access to specific assets and
that those who are unauthorized are actively
prevented from obtaining access.
 Integrity

⮚ In everyday usage, integrity refers to the

quality of something being whole or complete.
In InfoSec, integrity is about ensuring that
data has not been tampered with and,
therefore, can be trusted. It is correct,
authentic, and reliable.
 Availability
⮚ Systems, applications, and data are of little
value to an organization and its customers if
they are not accessible when authorized
users need them. Quite simply, availability
means that networks, systems, and
applications are up and running. It ensures
that authorized users have timely, reliable
access to resources when they are needed.
Computer Security Challenges
Computer security is both fascinating and complex.
Some of the reasons follow:
⮚ 1. Computer security is not as simple as it might first
appear to the novice. The requirements seem to be
straightforward, but the mechanisms used to meet
those requirements can be quite complex and subtle.
⮚ 2. In developing a particular security mechanism or
algorithm, one must always consider potential attacks
(often unexpected) on those security features.
⮚ 3. Hence procedures used to provide particular
services are often counterintuitive.
⮚ 4. Having designed various security
mechanisms, it is necessary to decide where to
use them.
⮚ 5. Security mechanisms typically involve more
than a particular algorithm or protocol, but
also require participants to have secret
information, leading to issues of creation,
distribution, and protection of that secret
information.
⮚ 6. Computer security is essentially a battle of
wits between a perpetrator who tries to find
holes and the designer or administrator who
tries to close them.
⮚ 7. There is a natural tendency on the part of
users and system managers to perceive little
benefit from security investment until a
security failure occurs.
⮚ 8. Security requires regular monitoring,
difficult in today's short-term environment.
⮚ 9. Security is still too often an afterthought -
incorporated after the design is complete.
⮚ 10. Many users / security administrators view
strong security as an impediment to efficient
and user-friendly operation of an information
system or use of information.
Security Terminology
 Vulnerabilities and Attacks
⮚ system resource vulnerabilities may
● be corrupted (loss of integrity)
● become leaky (loss of confidentiality)
● become unavailable (loss of availability)
⮚ attacks are threats carried out and may be
● Passive- attempts to learn or make use of
information from the system but does not affect
system resources
● Active- attempts to alter system resources or affect
their operation
We can also classify attacks based on the origin of
the attack:
● Insider -Initiated by an entity inside the security
perimeter (an "insider)
● Outsider -: Initiated from outside the perimeter,
by an unauthorized or illegitimate user of the
system (an "outsider").
 Countermeasures
⮚ means used to deal with security attacks
● prevent
● detect
● recover
⮚ may result in new vulnerabilities
⮚ will have residual vulnerability
⮚ goal is to minimize risk given constraints
 Threat Consequences
⮚ unauthorized disclosure
● exposure, interception, inference, intrusion
⮚ deception
● masquerade, falsification, repudiation
⮚ disruption
● incapacitation, corruption, obstruction
⮚ usurpation
● misappropriation, misuse
 Malware
⮚ Malware (short for “malicious software”) is
a file or code, typically delivered over a
network, that infects, explores, steals or
conducts virtually any behavior an attacker
wants. And because malware comes in so
many variants, there are numerous
methods to infect computer systems.
Common type of Malware

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Scope of Computer Security
 Network Security Attacks
⮚ A useful means of classifying network security attacks is in terms of:
⮚ Passive attacks are eavesdropping on, or monitoring of, transmissions to
obtain information that is being transmitted. Two types of passive attacks
are:
• release of message contents - opponent learns contents of sensitive
transmissions
• traffic analysis - can occur even when contents of messages are masked,
e.g using encryption, but an opponent can still observe the pattern of
messages and determine location and identity of communicating hosts,
frequency and length of messages being exchanged, and hence guess
nature of communications.
⮚ Passive attacks are very difficult to detect because they do not involve any
alteration of the data. However, it is feasible to prevent the success of these
attacks, usually by means of encryption. Thus, emphasis is on prevention
rather than detection.
⮚ Active attacks involve modification of data stream or creation
of false data:
• masquerade - when one entity pretends to be another.
• replay passive capture of data and subsequent retransmission.
• modification of messages a legitimate message is altered,
delayed or reordered.
• denial of service prevents or inhibits the normal use or
management of communications facilities, or the disruption of
an entire network
⮚ Active attacks present the opposite characteristics of passive
attacks. It is quite difficult to prevent active attacks absolutely.
Instead, the goal is to detect them and to recover from any
disruption or delays caused by them.
 Security Functional
Requirements
Here we view countermeasures in terms of functional
requirements, and we follow the classification defined in FIPS
PUB 200 (Minimum Security Requirements for Federal
Information and Information Systems). This standard enumerates
seventeen security-related areas, and are defined in Table 1.4 in
the text.
The requirements listed in FIP PUB(Federal Information
Processing Standard Publication) encompass a wide range of
countermeasures to security vulnerabilities and threats. Each of
the functional areas may involve both computer security
technical measures and management measures.
Functional areas that are primarily require computer security
technical measures include access control; identification and
authentication; system and communication protection; and system
and information integrity. Functional areas that primarily involve
management controls and procedures include awareness and
training; audit and accountability; certification, accreditation, and
security assessments; contingency planning; maintenance; physical
and environmental protection; planning; personnel security; risk
assessment; and systems and services acquisition. Functional areas
that overlap computer security technical measures and management
controls include configuration management; incident response; and
media protection.
Security Taxonomy
 X.800 Security Architecture
defines a systematic way of defining the
requirements for security and characterizing the
approaches to satisfying those requirements. The
OSI security architecture is useful to managers
as a way of organizing the task of providing
security. The OSI security architecture focuses
on security attacks, mechanisms, and services.
These can be defined briefly as:
⮚ • Security attack: Any action that compromises the security
of information owned by an organization. cf. network security
attacks slide earlier
⮚ • Security mechanism: A mechanism that is designed to
detect, prevent, or recover from a security attack. cf.
functional requirements from previous slide or Table 1.6 in
text.
⮚ • Security service: A service that enhances the security of the
data processing systems and the information transfers of an
organization. The services are intended to counter security
attacks, and they make use of one or more security
mechanisms to provide the service. cf CIA security concepts
earlier, or Table 1.5 in text.
Security Trends
Computer Security Losses
Security Technologies Used
 Computer Security Strategy
⮚ specification/policy
● what is the security scheme supposed to do?
● codify in policy and procedures
⮚ implementation/mechanisms
● how does it do it?
● prevention, detection, response, recovery
⮚ correctness/assurance
● does it really work?
● assurance, evaluation
 Summary
⮚ security concepts
⮚ terminology
⮚ functional requirements
⮚ security architecture
⮚ security trends
⮚ security strategy