The Role of Information Security - Thesis Example

Information Security 1 INFORMATION SECURITY INTRODUCTION The role of computer networks as an integral part of our daily lives makes information security critical for individuals and organizations. The amount of personal and corporate information stored on networks, and the variety of threats to information, combine to form pressing need for increased protection of that information. Although this technology enables people to be more productive and allows them to access a wide range of information, it also comes with it a lot of security issues because if the information in our system is hacked the consequences can be dire indeed. Primarily, security is protection from danger. There are various types of security e.g., operation, communication and network security. While information system is made up of hardware, software, data, people, procedures and networks. According to the committee on National Security System, Information security is defined as the protection of information and its critical elements, including the system and hardware that use, store, and transit that information. It includes the broad areas of information security management, computer, data, and network security (Whitman & Mattord, 2012). There are three characteristics of information that gives it value to organization: availability, integrity and confidentiality. Therefore, these three elements have to be secured since they are vital to an organization. However the threats to the characteristics of information have evolved into a vast collection of events including accidental, intentional damage, theft, and unauthorized modification. Hence there is development of a more robust model of information security that addresses this threats ,the model consist of critical characteristics of information :availability,accuracy,authenticity , possession, integrity ,utility and confidentiality.Therefore,upper management drives a top-down and the traditional system development life cycle approach in order to implement security in organizations. Finally information security can also be described as both an art and science as it also comprises aspects of social science (Shimeall & Spring, 2014). 1.2 SECURITY FROM A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. Global perspective in security entails the dynamic security environment and its intrinsic challenges. It includes all the current issues in information security and how they can be managed.Idealy, there are six major aims of security and they are divided into six major categories. Table 1.1[1] There are various types of attacks that information security can come across. One of them is protocol stack, i.e fig 1.1[2] which has stratums or level and each level has a limitation. Levels like application and the representation layers are the most vulnerable to damage. Network based attack which occurs from the internet based angle has characteristics such as OS, hardware and applications, syntax, semantics and validation through hardware .Furthermore, confidentiality can be faced by the damages such as evesdropping, pocket sniffing and memory scrapping. There are also authenticity attacks which include password cracking, theft and cache poisoning among others while attacks to integrity normally involves adjustment of data. There are some kinds of attack which can cause invasion of security measures such as mutated attacks. So as to counter some of these attacks, there are measures put in place such as sharing of information that can cater for the attacks among other measures. In order for the attacker to access some of these data, the product he or she is dealing with must have vulnerability in its software code. Improperly defined memory usage within a function can be a proper example of vulnerability, whereby content can be easily sent to a specific location thus guaranteeing it to be run with privileged rights. A specially crafted code such as an exploit, can lead to vulnerability within an application or process. This exploit is known for assisting arbitrary code execution by inserting chain of bytes at a program area in the memory of a target process.Moreover; exploits normally hide in infected websites, henceforth ensnare other hosts. Apart from that, there is social engineering as another form of attack which engages manipulating individual so that they can use crafted links or visit crafted websites. In addition, the browser can be tempered with if someone visits a definite website that hosts an exploit which makes a call to download the malware. Therefore there is need to install a security that can block the exploit thus preventing the malware from being downloaded. Therefore, we are aware that vulnerability is an issue that we need to respond to, after having knowledge on the many attacks that are presently invading our software, henceforth, there is need to install security in our systems. The attack procedure and defense mechanisms employed in an” operation aurora” attack In the year 2010, google conducted operation aurora so as to demonstrate browser vulnerability. Multiple versions of internet explorer were used such as vulnerability (CVE-2010-0249).whenever an individual could visit the website containing the attack code, the download code could put into operation a heap spray technique which is known for secretly installing malicious code on the users browser. The code made it easier for the executor to access susceptive details of data. Therefore the NSS conducted a test of seven point protection products using the operation aurora attack and they found that the test worked as it blocked original payload. One of the products that they found useful was the McAfee which worked after the after mutation of the malicious payload. Attackers normally select the weakest section of the security so that they can begin to attack from that point. Every layer of the internet model can face an attack depending on its weakness. There are some attacks which can be used to attack double layers e.g. a man-in-the middle attack which is known to attack both SSL and link layer shown in fig 1.1.However ,the extended validation secure socket layer and media access control measures can be used respectively to cater for the attacks. Therefore this calls for the service provider personnel and users to be knowledgeable about defense mechanisms and take precaution all the time so as to uphold security. Finally, a set of security control that can cater for security needs for information, information systems and information infrastructure are presented in the NIST a special publication 800-53[4].Effectiveness in control and consistency are normally enabled by the security controls in the organizations. There are eighteen families of security control which comprise identification and authenticity, risk assessment, communication protection and security assessment, among others. References Shimeall, T., & Spring, J. M. (2014). Introduction to information security: A strategic-based approach. Whitman, M. E., & Mattord, H. J. (2012). Principles of information security. Boston, MA: Course Technology. Read More