Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Senior Lecturer
Web Security
The nature of the internet makes it vulnerable to attack. Estimates claim that there are over 300
million computers connected via the Internet. Originally designed to allow for the freest possible
exchange of information, it is widely used today for commercial purposes. This poses significant
security problems for organizations when protecting their information assets. For example,
hackers and virus writers try to attack the Internet and computers connected to the Internet.
Some want to invade others’ privacy and attempt to crack into databases of sensitive information
or sniff information as it travels across Internet routes.
The concept of Web
The Internet Protocol is designed solely for the addressing and routing of data packets across a
network. It does not guarantee or provide evidence on the delivery of messages. There is no
verification of an address. The sender will not know if the message reaches its destination at the
time it is required. The receiver does not know if the message came from the address specified as
the return address in the packet. Other protocols correct some of these drawbacks.
Active Attacks
Once enough network information has been gathered, the intruder will launch an actual attack
against a targeted system to either gain complete control over that system or enough control to
cause certain threats to be realized. This may include obtaining unauthorized access to modify data
or programs, causing a denial of service, escalating privileges, accessing other systems. They affect
the integrity, availability and authentication attributes of network security.
Types of Active attacks
Common form of active attacks may include the following:
• Masquerading – involves carrying out unauthorized activity by impersonating a legitimate user of the
system.
• Piggybacking – involves intercepting communications between the operating system and the user
and modifying them or substituting new messages.
• Spoofing – A penetrator fools users into thinking they are interacting with the operating system. He
duplicates logon procedure and captures pass word.
• Backdoors/trapdoors – it allows user to employ the facilities of the operating system without being
subject to the normal controls.
• Trojan Horse – Users execute the program written by the penetrator. The program undertakes
unauthorized activities e.g. a copy of the sensitive data.
Threat Impact
It is difficult to assess the impact of the attacks described above, but in generic terms the
following types of impact could occur:
• Loss of income
• Increased cost of recovery (correcting information and re-establishing services)
• Increased cost of retrospectively securing systems
• Loss of information (critical data, proprietary information, contracts)
• Loss of trade secrets
• Damage to reputation
• Degraded performance in network systems
• Legal and regulatory non-compliance
• Failure to meet contractual commitments
Think risks
The network attackers are getting smarter every day. Organizations and people want their
data to be protected. Businesses must operate within a similar risk management culture. A
comprehensive risk based approach starting from identifying risks may be a better solution.
4. Fix configurations
Configuration management is going to be very important. Without configuration standards,
applying software security tools becomes too costly. If a laptop is misconfigured or doesn't
have the right security software, the next step should be to deny network access to that
laptop until it meets the standard. Enforcing safe software configurations is especially critical
on mobile devices that use wireless connections to access agency networks. With good
configuration management practices, agencies can provide centrally managed security and
still protect handheld and mobile devices.
Firewalls are hardware and software combinations that are built using routers, servers and variety of software. They should
control the most vulnerable point between a corporate network and the Internet, and they can be as simple or complex
as the corporate security policy demands. There are many types of firewalls, but most enable organization to:
• Block access to an organization sites on the Internet
• Limit traffic on an organization’s public services segment to relevant addresses.
• Prevent certain users from accessing certain servers or services.
• Monitor communications between an internal and an external network
• Monitor and record all communications between an internal and the outside world to investigate network penetrations
or detect internal subversion.
• Encrypt packets of data that are sent between different physical locations within an organization by creating a VPN
over the Internet.
Firewalls encrypt packets that are sent between different physical locations within an organization by creating a VPN over
the Internet. The capabilities of some firewalls can be extended so that they can also provide for protection against
viruses and attacks directed to exploit known operating system vulnerabilities. Remote Location server protected by fire
walls and IDS further complemented by IPS (Intrusion Prevention system) – Defining Specific ranges of IP addresses that
may access the location with defined rights.
Signature-based IDSs will not be able to detect all types of intrusions due to the limitations of detection
rules. On the other hand, statistical-based systems may report many events outside of the defined
normal activity but which are normal activities on the network. A combination of
signature- and statistical –based models provides better protection. IDS is used as part of the network. It
may be used in the form of hardware and software or a software may only be installed on the server.
An IDS is located in between firewall and corporate network and works in compliment with the firewall.
However it can also be installed before the fire wall. IDS helps to detect both on-site unauthorized
access through network based IDS, and remote unauthorized access through the use of host based IDS
Biometrics may also be used However biometrics helps to prevent only on site illegal access. A log can
be maintained in an IDS to detect and observe attempts of intrusions made and those successful. IDS is
more concerned with recording and detecting intrusions. For blocking intrusions, an other system called
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) is used which takes input from IDS. IDS reports the IP addresses that are
attacking the organizational network.
Components of an IDS
An IDS comprise of following components:
Sensors that are responsible for collecting data. The data can be in the form of network
packets, log files, system call, traces, etc.
Analyzers that receive input from sensors and determine intrusive activity
An administrative console – it contains intrusion definitions applied by the analyzers.
A user interface
Host-based IDS
The HIDS reside on a particular computer and provide protection for a specific computer system. They
are not only equipped with system monitoring facilities but also include other modules of a typical IDS,
for example the response module HIDS can work in various forms.
1. Systems that monitor incoming connection attempts. These examine host-based incoming and
outgoing network connections. These are particularly related to the unauthorized connection
attempts to various protocols used for network communication such as
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) or
UDP (User Datagram Protocol) ports and can also detect incoming port scans.
2. Systems that examine network traffic that attempts to access the host. These systems protect the
host by intercepting suspicious packets and scanning them to discourage intrusion.
Network Traffic – data travel in the form of packets on network
Packet – a specific amount of data sent at a time.
Components of IDS
An IDS comprises on the following:
Sensors that are responsible for collecting data. The data can be in the form of network
packets, log files, system call traces, etc.
Analyzers that receive input from sensors and determines intrusive activity.
An administration console
A user interface.
Features of IDS
The features available in an IDS includes:
Intrusion Detections
Gathering evidence on intrusive activity
Automated response (i.e. termination of connection, alarm messaging) Security policy
Web Trust
Under the web trust approach, a WebTrust Seal of assurance is placed on the site to show potential
customers that a CPA or CA has evaluated the website’s business practices and controls. The purpose
is to determine whether they are in conformity with the Web Trust Principles. The WebTrust Principles
and Criteria are intended to address user needs and concerns and are designed to benefit users and
providers of electronic commerce services. Your input is not only welcome, it is essential to help ensure
that these principles and their supporting criteria are kept up-to-date and remain responsive to
marketplace needs. Web trust principals broadly cover following aspects:
1. Business Practices Disclosures – The entity discloses how it does business with its electronic
Commerce.
2. Transaction integrity – the website operator maintains effective controls and practices to ensure
that customer’s orders placed using electronic commerce are completed and billed as agreed.
3. Information protection – the entity maintains effective controls and practices to ensure that
private customer information is protected from uses not related to entity business.
Digital Certificates
• The digital equivalent of an ID card is also called "digital IDs," digital certificates are issued by a
trusted third party known as a "certification authority" (CA) such as VeriSign and Thawte.
• For example, CBR requires a NIFT class 2 digital certificate in order to facilitate filing return
electronically
• NIFT itself is an affiliate of Verisign Inc. working as certification authority in pakistan.
• The certificate is valid for one year.
• The certificate is attached to email every time a message is attached and sent to recipient.
• The CA verifies that a public key belongs to a specific company or individual (the "subject"), and
the validation process it goes through to determine if the subject is who it claims to be depends on
the level of certification and the CA itself.
The process of verifying the "signed certificate" is done by the recipient's software, which is typically
the Web browser. The browser maintains an internal list of popular CA’s and their public keys and
uses the appropriate public key to decrypt the signature back into the digest. It then recomputes its
own digest from the plain text in the certificate and compares the two. If both digests match, the
integrity of the certificate is verified. Companies like VeriSign and Thawte provide a variety of security
and telecom services like digital certificates.
Q&A
27
References