Wednesday 5 August 2015

Computer and Network Security - Better Safe than Sorry

According to English literature, Security is the state of being safe from danger or threat. In the contemporary world, most of the organization relies on their respective Information Systems that include human resource and combination of Hardware and Software. Information system that serves the purpose of the daily transaction of the organization involves the sharing of information between information systems connected through public network called Internet. As the nature of the internet is public, there exist threats like intruders and viruses that lead to the negative impact on the information system resulting loss of information and finally loosing reputation of the organization. Thus there is a dire need of security aspect which is categorized in to Network Security Applications and System Security Applications. Security aspects related to web server and web client fall into category of Computer or System Security. Security concern that ensure the data traffic satisfying confidentiality, authentication and data integrity during the transmission fall into the category of Network Security. Both Computer security and Network Security works on the top of Cryptography which is art of secret writing. Cryptography includes two categories of encryption algorithms such as Public Key (Asymmetric) Cryptography and Secret (Symmetric) key Cryptography.

Symmetric key Cryptography involves the transposition and substitution which are performed at greater speed by the computer. Hence symmetric key cryptography is employed in the case of large message encryptions. Key overhead issue in the symmetric key cryptography is resolved in public key cryptography by adopting concept called public key and private key for each entity. Public key cryptography involves the mathematics operations which are performed bit slower than transposition and substitution in symmetric cryptography. Thus public key cryptography is being used in encrypting smaller messages like secret keys and also in the case of secure key exchange between two entities. Messages encrypted by private key of the sender always ensure the authentication and provides Digital Signature. Cryptography which is basis for the Network Security Applications include IP Security (IPSec), E-mail Security (PGP, PEM & S/MIME), Key distribution with User Authentication ( Kerberoes & X.509 Directory), Transport Layer Security ( TLS, SSL, SET). There exist various System security Applications like Virus Counter Measures, Trusted Systems, Firewalls and Intrusion Detection System. These applications control the access to the computer resources and perform the auditing and logging the various events of a system. 

Safe transactions that are happening around the world digitally are just because of the great work done by researchers of Cryptography and Network Security. I feel responsible to acknowledge them and my teachers who enlighten me in this domain of Security. 

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Article By:
Sravan Kumar G
Asst. Professor
CSE Department
Sphoorthy Engineering College

Sphoorthy Engineering College






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