When it comes to the Internet security is all about private communications over a public medium. Antimalware is only part of the answer. An important part of the solution it may be but still only a part. What is it that we really want to keep secure?
Some say that security is a state of mind and for the most part, they are correct. Yet it is more than that. Security is having confidence that private matters stay private and public matters are public affairs.
The biggest problem is that whenever conducting private matters over a public medium such as the Internet keeping it private is no easy matter to achieve. Here is how to do it.
First Line Defenses
Your first line of defense will be your antimalware software. You have an antivirus suite to keep malicious code at bay and antispyware to prevent keystroke logging.
Firewalls, intrusion prevention and intrusion detection devices and software to regulate network traffic flow and to stop prevent intruders from gaining access to your network as well as to warn you of attempts to breach your perimeter security.
You cannot conduct business or social affairs in isolation so you create a demilitarized zone (DMZ) to allow visitors access to your public face, usually in the form of a website. You might even establish dedicated email and blog services in your DMZ to facilitate smoother user-friendly communications.
Whenever you partake in communications outside of your secured sites using a publicly accessible medium such as the Internet you know your privacy and security are non-existent and want to do something about it. Enter the CIA.
CIA: Confidentiality, Integrity and Authenticity
The foundation stones of all secure private communications are the three pillars of confidentiality, integrity and authenticity also known as the CIA of security.
Confidentiality - Confidentiality ensures that the conversation remains private (confidential). Encryption technologies are the standard means to assuring message confidentiality.
Integrity - Integrity to ensure that the contents of the communication remain free from interference or corruption (the message remains intact). Hashing algorithms and the digests they produce are the most common means of assuring the message's integrity.
Authenticity - Authenticity to ensure that all parties to the conversation are who they are say they are (verification that the remote party is in deed the remote party you intend to converse with). Digital certificates are the most common means of verifying the authenticity of all and parties.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
The most common means of securing a website and allowing parties to connect over a secure HTTPS connection is by using SSL technologies to provide authentication and message encryption. The process is as follows:
- The first step is to obtain an SSL certificate consisting of a public key and a private key. This can be “in house” or by way of a commercial certification authority such as VeriSign or Thwarte. You use the public key to encrypt information and the private key to decrypt it.
- A browser is pointed to a secured domain or website
- The Secure Sockets Layer handshake authenticates the server and the client
- An encryption method is established
- A unique session key is created
- The parties begin to communicate via a secure session that guarantees message privacy (confidentiality) and message integrity between authenticated parties
Other Common Uses of Cryptographic Technologies
Other technologies commonly used to deliver confidential, authenticated sessions with data integrity assured include:
- SSH is commonly used for secure encrypted remote access sessions
- OpenPGP is often used for file encryption with Email content encryption the most common
- VPN/IPSec for secure private networking over public media
Other uses of cryptography include full volume encryption of hard disk drives to protect data in the event of physical theft; digital rights management (DRM) schemes, key generation for digital fingerprint and authentication systems
As with all technologies, it is important that any cryptographic technologies that you use be correctly: installed, configured, administered, maintained and regularly tested, verified and updated when necessary.
With people regularly communicating outside or beyond their firewall protected local environments it is important that we ensure we pay due attention to the CIA of security. We must be proactive in order to protect ourselves and our organizations as well as our personal information and our assets (computers etc.).
