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Network Security

NTC 360 - Network and Telecommunications Concepts
July 31, 2005



Network Security

In today's world, with so many ways to gain unauthorized access to someone's computer system, network security is very important. Almost every company has been a victim of a virus attack, hackers, or some other form of unauthorized access to their network. In this paper, I will discuss various methods that those who want this access use and ways they can be prevented.

Many people feel that because they use passwords their files are secure and can't be hacked. They unknowingly leave their networks open to attack without protection thinking everything is fine. Hackers can easily get into password protected files once they have access to a computer system. One way to prevent this is to use a firewall. A firewall prevents unauthorized users from gaining access to a system by restricting access to the entire system, not just the files on the system. Firewalls prevent access to data by using symmetric or asymmetric encryption.

Symmetric encryption uses the same password to decrypt the data that it does to encrypt the data. This method allows users to be able to share the same password to gain access to the data and make any needed changes. Asymmetric encryption is different in that there are different passwords used to encrypt the data and decrypt the data. Asymmetric is considered a little more secure as passwords don't have to be shared in order to allow someone access to the data. Each individual has his or her own password to access it. Asymmetric encryption uses public/private keys to encrypt/decrypt data.

Public keys use the same encryption data to access the data that the data was encrypted with. Private, or secret, keys allow the originator of the data to encrypt it and not have to share his password with anyone. They can use their own private key to unlock the data.

Digital certificates are certificates that are guaranteed to be authentic...