Network Security Concepts

This article discusses the Equifax data breach, Quantum Key distribution and a comparison between popular firewalls such as Check Point, Cisco, Fortinet and F5 Networks.

Running head: NETWORK SECURITY CONCEPTS
Network security concepts
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1NETWORK SECURITY CONCEPTS
Question 1: Findings for Equifax data breach 2017.
In the year 2017, Equifax suffered massive data breach. Equifax is one of United
State’s largest credit reporting companies. On September 7, Equifax announced a cyber
security incident, which was touted as one of the largest in history ("Cybersecurity Incident &
Important Consumer Information | Equifax", 2018). There was unauthorized access of data
that occurred from May. It was only in July 29 that the breach was discovered. PII
(Personally identifiable information) was accessed and it included details about social
security numbers, names, addresses, birth dates and in some cases even driver’s license
numbers. Information extracted by the company on how the data breach happened yielded
some interesting details. Cyber criminals exploited vulnerability in a US website and they
were able to gain access to some files. The company clarified that there was no evidence of
breach on core consumer databases. The impact because of this was detrimental. It was
estimated that there could have been an identity theft for about 145.5 million United States
consumers ("Equifax Data Breach Affects Millions of Consumers. Here's What to Do. -
LifeLock", 2018). Equifax offered its consumer a free freeze on credit and this can be availed
until 30 June 2018. Mostly a fee is required for consumers to freeze their credit report and
then they have to another amount to get that overturned. Equifax would not charge a dime
from consumers for limited time. This was a sort of damage control on Equifax part. For
prevention of data breach, Equifax should have done a code review or a penetration test,
which could have helped in identifying the security threat in their website application.
Question 2: Findings for Quantum Key distribution.
Encryption forms a critical part of security of data. Encryption is a fundamental layer,
which protects confidential data. Symmetric cryptography is the most sought after methods
used to protect integrity and confidentiality of data transmission (Lo, Curty & Tamaki, 2014).

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There is also another method known as one-time pad, which offers better security. A random
key does encryption. For both the cases, challenge is how to transfer the keys securely among
concerned parties. QKD (Quantum key distribution) method addresses those challenges. As
the name suggests, this method uses quantum properties for exchanging cryptographic key.
Security of quantum key distribution relies on laws that are fundamental to nature. This
makes it practically invulnerable to attack algorithms. Any act of estimating quantum system
will disturb the system. Therefore, if there is any eavesdropper, he/she will leave detectable
traces. Based on this, the concerned parties can discard the information.
Implementation of Quantum key distribution- Fiber channel should be used to send
quantum state of light. It is sent between the transmitter and receiver. After this, a
communication link is set up between concerned parties for performing certain steps to filter
the secret key correctly. There is also a key exchange protocol, which is able to exploit
quantum properties and thereby ensures security by detecting errors or eavesdropping. There
are two types of Quantum distribution key, which are discrete variable and continuous
variable QKD (Korzh et al., 2015). A thriving experimental field is Quantum distribution
key that is rapidly developing. There are several QKD networks in the world and more are in
construction and implementation phase.
Question 3- Comparison between popular firewalls.
This portion will provide a comparison between four popular firewalls. First, one is
Check Point firewall provides next generation firewall for customers of all sizes. It also
provides firewall solutions for enterprises ("Next Generation Firewall for Data/Network
Security", 2018). Architecture of Check Point includes smart console, security management
server, security gateways and internet. Check Point 5800 firewall costs about 45,000 US

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dollars. Check Point’s annual revenue for the year 2016 quarter was 406 million USD.
Market share is around 13%.
This portion will talk about the second firewall, which is Cisco. Cisco firewalls are a
preferred choice for enterprises. A popular IP firewall was Cisco PIX and it was their first
product in the segment. Cisco firewalls use end-to-end architecture. It has wide range of
firewalls. Cisco ASA software provides enterprise level firewall capabilities for ASA
devices. It also offers VPN, unified communication and IPS capabilities (Services, 2018).
Price depends upon complexity of Cisco devices. Market share of Cisco in 2015 was about
16.2 %.
Fortinet is another company that produces FortiGate enterprise firewalls which
provides advanced security. Fortigate firewalls helps in reducing complexity and improves
security by enabling full visibility into devices, users and applications. It also includes high-
speed firewall and VPN. Market share of Fortinet is 9.8 % as of 2016. Prices are different for
different models. Fortinet has parallel path processing architecture.
F5 Networks is another big player in the firewall market. One of their products is Big-
IP advanced firewall manager that uses threat intelligence services. It provides user with
flexible mitigation options. It features full proxy architecture. Market share of F5 network is
around 20-25 % for recent years. Cost depends upon scale of deployment.

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References:
Cybersecurity Incident & Important Consumer Information | Equifax. (2018). 2017
Cybersecurity Incident & Important Consumer Information. Retrieved 7 April 2018,
from https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/
Equifax Data Breach Affects Millions of Consumers. Here's What to Do. - LifeLock.
(2018). LifeLock. Retrieved 7 April 2018, from
https://www.lifelock.com/education/equifax-data-breach-2017/
Korzh, B., Lim, C. C. W., Houlmann, R., Gisin, N., Li, M. J., Nolan, D., ... & Zbinden, H.
(2015). Provably secure and practical quantum key distribution over 307 km of
optical fibre. Nature Photonics, 9(3), 163.
Lo, H. K., Curty, M., & Tamaki, K. (2014). Secure quantum key distribution. Nature
Photonics, 8(8), 595.
Next Generation Firewall for Data/Network Security. (2018). Check Point Software.
Retrieved 7 April 2018, from https://www.checkpoint.com/products-solutions/next-
generation-firewalls/
Services, P. (2018). Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software. Cisco. Retrieved 7
April 2018, from https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/adaptive-security-
appliance-asa-software/index.html