IT Security: Analyzing Encryption, Secure Networks, and Access Control

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of IT security, focusing on four key techniques: encryption, secure networks, access control, and firewalls. It begins by defining IT security and its importance, then delves into encryption, differentiating between symmetric key, public key, and hashing methods. The essay then addresses secure networks, specifically examining Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and methods to mitigate them, such as firewalls and server configuration. Access control, another critical aspect of IT security, is explored, highlighting rules for secure areas, the importance of passwords, and methods to prevent unauthorized computer access. The essay also discusses the role of the recycle bin in data security. Overall, the essay underscores the significance of these techniques in protecting computer systems and data from various threats.

Running head: IT SECURITY
IT Security
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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IT security is the safety of various computer systems from the destruction or theft to the
information, software or hardware, as well as from distortion or misleading of all the services
provided by them (Behnia, Rashid & Chaudhry, 2012). There are various types of IT securities
for example, firewalls, encryption, access control, secured networks, and passwords. All these
techniques are utilized to make the security of the computer systems strong.
The following essay outlines the four basic types of computer security techniques. The
four basic types of computer security are encryption, secured networks, access control and
firewalls (Abawajy, 2014). This essay covers all the required details of the four mentioned
computer securities. The description of above discussion is given below.
1. Encryption: Encryption is the procedure of concealing a data or message in such a
way that only sanctioned users will be access it in cryptography. It does not prevent itself
interference, but rejects to a would be interceptor, the understandable content. The expected data
or message, which is cited to as a plaintext, is concealed using an encryption algorithm,
originating cipher text that can only be read if decoded in an encryption algorithm (Lewko, &
Waters, 2012). An encryption algorithm usually utilizes a pseudo random encryption key
produced by an algorithm for various technical reasons. It is in moral possibility to decode the
data without getting the encryption key. However, for a well designed encryption algorithm,
major computational skills and resources are needed. A sanctioned recipient can decode the data
easily with the encryption key given by the generator to receivers however, never to the
unauthorized users (Biham & Shamir, 2012). The advantages of encryption are as follows:
i) Security: The major advantage of encryption is the security. Data is endangered
whenever it is relocated from one place to another. Therefore, it is evident that data or message

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should be secured before relocation. Encryption plays the important role in such cases. It
produces a perfect key that will help the sender to encrypt his data and another key is given to
the receiver, who can decode that message.
ii) Integrity: Encryption maintains integrity in data. There is always a high chance that
hackers can steal and alter data when they sent (Lewko & Waters, 2012). Encryption saves the
data integrity and hackers are unable to crack it.
iii) Privacy: Encryption is utilized to protect the data and thus can be claimed as privacy
protector. When a sender is trying to send a data, there is a high chance that the hackers can read
the entire message without the sender’s concern. Due to the key provided by encryption
algorithm, hackers are unable to steal the data or message and the privacy is maintained.
iv) Compliance: Many organizations have various compliance policies to maintain the
privacy of the data (Biham & Shamir, 2012). Encryption is a part of all these compliance
policies.
Symmetric Key: Symmetric key algorithms are cryptographic algorithms, which utilize
the identical cryptographic keys for both encoding of the plain text and decoding of the cipher
text. In this type of encryption algorithm, both the sender and the receiver have the same key for
encryption and decryption. The main advantage of this algorithm is that the complexity is
reduced as the encoding and the decoding is done with the same key and the data is extremely
secured (Agrawal & Mishra, 2012). Another advantage of symmetric key is that it is relatively
fast because of its simplicity. However, in spite of having so many advantages, symmetric key
cryptography do has some major disadvantages. The main disadvantage of this algorithm is that
the key is shared, since both the sender and receiver uses the same key. Another key

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disadvantage of this algorithm is that if the key is lost, there is a high chance that the data cannot
be decoded.
Public Key: Public key or asymmetric key algorithms are just the opposite to symmetric
key. Here the sender and the receiver of the data use two different keys for encoding and
decoding the message (Abawajy, 2014). The major advantage of this algorithm is that security is
higher than symmetric key algorithm as the key is not shared amongst the sender and receiver.
The disadvantage of this algorithm is that it is slower than the symmetric key algorithm.
Hashing: Hashing is a type of cryptographic security that is different from encryption. In
encryption, only two steps are required, that is first the message is encoded and then the message
is decoded (Sobti & Geetha, 2012). Whereas in hashing, the message is concealed into an
irreparable value of fixed length, which is also known as hash.
Symmetric key encryption and Public key encryption are used for confidentiality that is
these two algorithms keep the data confidential and secured from intrusion. Whereas, hashing
technique is used for authentication as it mains the authenticity of the data (Lewko & Waters,
2012). There are various hash functions, which have many security applications like digital
signatures that maintain the authenticity.
2. Secure Networks: An organization is always unsafe, when it comes to its security of
information. It is the responsibility of the security administrator of that organization, to stop or
mitigate any kind of security issues. A major problem of security in any organization is the
Denial of Service attacks or DoS attacks (Stallings & Tahiliani, 2014). This attack is a type of
cyber attack, where the illegal person or the hacker seeks to build a network resource or a
machine unavailable to the authorized users by unspecified or temporary disruption of services

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of a host that is connected to the internet. DoS is usually executed by blocking the service of the
user by the hacker. The illegal person or the hacker comes in between the service of the Internet.
The main aim is to overload the systems so that the user is unable to use them (Perlman,
Kaufman & Speciner, 2016). There are various type of Denial of Service attacks. They are as
follows:
i) Distributed Denial of Service: In distributed Denial of Service attacks, the hacker
utilizes more than one distinctive IP address (Zhang et al., 2015). Most of the time the hacker
uses thousands of distinctive IP addresses. The user gets confused that from which IP address
hacking is done.
ii) Application Layer Attacks: This type of denial of service attacks is different from the
distributed denial of service attacks. Here, the hackers focus on the application layer of the Open
Systems Interconnection or OSI model. The attack exercises distinct aspects or functions of a
particular website with a wrong intention of disabling the aspects and the functions (Yu, 2014).
This application layer denial of service attacks are way different than the complete network
attack and are mainly utilized against various financial institutions to distract the IT professionals
for breaching.
An organization is mainly faces the DDoS or the Distributed Denial of Service attacks
(Tan et al., 2014). However, the security administrator can take various ways to make their
security strong. The two ways to mitigate or stop DDoS in the organization are as follows:
a) Firewalls: Deploying a firewall or an anti virus program can help to prevent Denial of
Service attacks in an organization. The antivirus program or the firewall restricts the usage of
bandwidth to the authorized users only. When the hacker or the intruder tries for denial of

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service attack, the firewall or the antivirus program stops him. Often, the hacker gets exposed
through the firewall. It is a security system of network, which detects and manages the outgoing
and the incoming network traffic that is based on previously determined security rules (Tan et
al., 2014). An antivirus program usually installs a barrier between the secured network and any
other outside network for example the Internet. Firewalls are sub divided into host-based
firewalls or network firewalls. Host-based firewalls provide one layer of software on any one
host, which manages network traffic. Traffic is filtered within two or more networks in network
firewalls (Stallings & Tahiliani, 2014). These networks are either hardware based firewalls or
general-purpose hardware or software appliances. These two types of firewalls can prevent DoS
attacks and can protect the organization.
b) Server Configuration: This configuration of servers can help to decrease the chances of
attacks (Zhang et al., 2015). The security administrator or an organization looks at the network
configurations and makes the firewall policies strong enough to block the unauthorized users
from addressing the resources of the server. The server is secured and configured and thus, it
helps the users to stop and mitigate hacking. Passwords are important for all systems to stop
hacking (Perlman, Kaufman & Speciner, 2016). When the firewall is installed, the hacker is not
able to find out the server and even if he is able to find out, he cannot enter or make any changes
in the server and finally DoS attack can be prevented.
The above-mentioned two ways can be useful for the system administrator to make his
organization safe and secured from Denial of Service attacks.
3. Access Control: This is another way of securing the IT systems. Access control is the
choosy limitation of access to a particular resource or place (Choi, Choi & Kim, 2014). The term

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access control refers to the practice of limitation of entry to a folder, file or system. Physical
access control can be attained by an individual through various ways like locks and keys or
through technical means like the access control systems. The security administrator of an
organization has the responsibility to control the access of his systems (Ruj & Nayak, 2013).
There are certain rules for working in secure areas. The rules are as follows:
a) Maintaining Integrity: When a user accesses a system, he/she should maintain the
integrity of the system (Zhang et al., 2015). All the employees and the staff members of the
organization should maintain the integrity of all the resources of internet.
b) Actions Limited: All the actions and activities of all the employees should be limited
that means; internet should not be used for personal purposes (Li, 2013). The users should be
authorized and sanctioned.
c) Login Required: All employees should login and the information should be secured.
d) Password: All systems should be password protected.
Trash or recycle bin is a temporary storage for various files which are deleted by the user.
However, the deleted files does not get permanently erased from the system (Hu, 2013). The user
has to manually erase from the computer and only the files will be permanently deleted. There is
an option to undelete or recover those files from the computer and they will be again saved in the
previous location. In the trash folder, a record is stored of each file and the main location of the
directory. On definite operating systems, different files are carried out from the trash bin only
before they can again be used (Perlman, Kaufman & Speciner, 2016). Whether or not the files
that are deleted by a particular program automatically move to the recycle bin is dependent on its
degree of amalgamation with a particular function and its desktop environment. The lower level

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advantages usually surpass the layer completely and remove the files immediately. A particular
program, which includes the file manager functionality, may or may not forward files to the trash
bin, or it may enable the user to select within those options (Li, 2013). Trash bins can be
protected with the help of certain security like passwords. These passwords are to be changed
from time to time, so that unauthorized users are unable to access them.
There is always a danger or risk for unauthorized computer access in any system.
However, this can be controlled with various techniques (Stallings & Tahiliani, 2014). The
different techniques to mitigate or reduce the desktop PC theft or unauthorized computer access
are as follows:
i) Use of passwords: Every system should be password protected, so that there will be no
risk of fake access of devices or systems.
ii) Antivirus: All systems should be antivirus protected so that there is no chance of virus
or malware attacks.
iii) Up to Dated Software: This is another technique of reducing the risk of unauthorized
access to the computers. Software plays an important role in the access control of any computer
(Zhang et al., 2015). Therefore, the software should be up to dated regularly to avoid hackers and
wrong access to desktops.
iv) Software Security: Security of the installed software should be verified without failure
(Perlman, Kaufman & Speciner, 2016). This is another technique of reducing the risk of
unauthorized access.

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v) Firewalls: All systems should have their own personal firewalls that can protect the
system from being hacked by intrusions.
vi) Early backups: This is another important technique for reducing the risk of desktop
PC theft. Backups should taken time to time.
vii) Protection from power losses: The desktop should be protected from any type of
power losses and surges (Hu, 2013).
viii) Safe Internet Surfing: Unauthorized websites lead to hacking. Internet surfing should
be safe and secure.
4. Firewalls: Firewall is a security system of network, which detects and manages the
outgoing and the incoming network traffic that is based on previously determined security rules
(Salah, Elbadawi & Boutaba, 2012). An antivirus program usually installs a barrier between the
secured network and any other outside network for example the Internet. Firewalls are sub
divided into host-based firewalls or network firewalls. Host-based firewalls provide one layer of
software on any one host, which manages network traffic. Traffic is filtered within two or more
networks in network firewalls (Dhage & Meshram, 2012). These networks are either hardware
based firewalls or general-purpose hardware or software appliances.
IDS: Intrusion Detection System is an application of software, which detects the systems
or the networks for any type of violations in policies and malicious activities (Li, 2012). When
any type of intrusion is detected in the system, it is immediately informed to the administrator or
recorded through a system known as Security Information and Event Management or SIEM. This
SIEM system amalgamates the outputs from the various sources and utilizes techniques for

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filtering the alarm to identify the malicious activities from false alarms. There are two types of
filtering IDS use. They are as follows:
a) Deep Packet Inspection: Deep packet inspection or DPI in short is a type of packet
filtering of computer network, which evaluates the part of data of a particular packet as it passes
through a point of inspection (Stewart, 2013). It searches for non compliance protocol,
intrusions, spam, virus or defined criteria to determine whether that packet should pass or routing
is needed towards a different destination. There is another purpose of storing statistical
information, which works at the Application Layer of the Open Systems Interconnection or OSI
model. There are various ways to attain packets for deep packet inspection. Span Port or Port
Mirroring is the most common way for acquiring packets (Liao, 2013). Deep Packet Inspection
allows security functions, user service, advanced network management, internet censorship,
eavesdropping and internet data mining. DPI is utilized in a broader range of applications, at the
so called enterprise level that is the larger institutions and the corporations in the service
providers of telecommunications and also in governments. DPI helps them to secure their
internet service providers and internal networks (Dhage & Meshram, 2012). Other uses are
quality of service, lawful intercept, targeted advertising, copyright enforcement, policy definition
and enforcement and offering tiered services.
b) Packet Stream Analysis: A packet analyzer or a packet sniffer is a computer program,
which can log and alter traffic that crosses over a part of a network or a digital network. When
the data streams flow through the network, the packet analyzer captures each of the packet and
whenever needed, can decrypt the raw data of the packet. This shows the values of different
packet fields and evaluates the content accordingly. The process of logging and altering or
intercepting data is known as packet capture (Li, 2012). On LANs like FDDI networks, Token

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Ring and Ethernet, the traffic can be captured on either parts of the network or the entire network
from a single machine. However, some of the methods often avoid narrowing of traffic to obtain
access by specific switches to traffic from all other systems. The example of this is the ARP
Spoofing. In network monitoring purposes, all the data packets are monitored by utilizing a
network in a LAN with a monitoring port (Salah, Elbadawi & Boutaba, 2012). This monitoring
port mirrors all the packets, which crosses through all of the ports of the switches, when the
systems are connected to a switch port. The main uses of packet analyzers are as follows:
 Monitor usage of network
 Analyze problems of network
 Detect misuse of network by various users
 Obtain information for the intrusion of network
 Monitoring data in motion (Stewart, 2013).
 Detecting attempts of network intrusion
 Isolating exploited systems
 Filter suspected content from network traffic
 Spy on other network users
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that IT security is important for
all computers and there are various techniques for security. The above assignment contains four
important techniques of IT security with proper details.

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References
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analysis methods. SmartCR, 2(1), 79-94.
Biham, E., & Shamir, A. (2012). Differential cryptanalysis of the data encryption standard.
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Choi, C., Choi, J., & Kim, P. (2014). Ontology-based access control model for security policy
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