Essay Sample on Network Security

Introduction

Network security is a significant aspect that prevents and protects corporate networks from being accessed by unauthorized elements (White, Fisch & Pooch, 2017). Ideally, it involves incorporating both the physical and software preventative measures for the essence of protecting the primary networking infrastructure from illegal access, modification, improper disclosure, exploitation, damage or malfunction, which result to the creation of a safe platform for computers, and users to conduct their legitimate crucial roles within a protected environment. Additionally, the integration of multiple layers is done to protect the network whereby policies and controls are utilized by each network security layer to allow only the authorized users to access the network as the malicious actors are blocked from executing network threats and exploits.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Notably, it is the responsibility of the network administrators within the organization to ensure the organization's network is secure. Additionally, the employees and the research and evaluation department should ensure that the organization's information is kept confidential. The protection of the organizations is supported by the effective security policies that are established by organizational management. The network security policies guide the network administrators in monitoring any unauthorized access of computer network hence preventing cyber-attacks and other harmful activities. When establishing a network setup, network security should be the highest priority. Idyllically, network security is essential because it assists organizations to control the risk of falling victim of data theft and sabotage (Pawar & Anuradha, 2015). Moreover, maintaining network security helps in protecting the organization's workstations from harmful spyware, and it ensures that the shared information is kept secure. Network security aids the safety of the data that is transmitted between the computers on the network, which enhances the protection of possible external attacks.

Network Security Fundamentals

Functions of Network Security

Network security is an aspect that has been realized due to digitization that has dramatically transformed the globe. Currently, organizations can deliver the services that clients and employees demand due to the secure network that has been established. The primary function of network security is to ensure that information that is shared among authorized individuals is kept confidential (Jang, Jeong, Kim & Park, 2015). In addition, the network security assist in protecting proprietary information from attack hence protect individuals and organizations' reputation.

Components of Network Security

Network security is based on three main components which include software, hardware, and policies. The software and hardware technologies work together to ensure that the usability and integrity of users' network and data are protected. Thus, the authorized users are capable of accessing network resources while the malicious actors are blocked from performing network-related exploits and threats.

The network security system is made effective and efficient by the established policies that have to be followed. The policies are effective, and they apply to all the system users. Additionally, the policies insist on the issue of security, which prioritizes on the protection of private information. The network security policies emphasize the need for protecting the data against authorized modification as well as the need for protecting the systems against unauthorized access. Therefore, to guard the authenticity of the network resources against inappropriate use and to safeguard certified users from the being part of the consequence of such as negligence, the network organizations reserve the liberty to restrict network resources and to inspect system resources that are likely to undermine authorized use. According to the policies that are set, the network security institutions should provide security contact information for users and update the network resource software to ensure that the users' needs are adequately satisfied with the services that are offered.

Network Security Principles/ CIA Triad

One fundamental principle of network security is to ensure that the reliability of data is maintained (He, Chan & Guizani, 2016). Notably, integrity entails the accuracy, consistency, and trustworthiness of information or data. Effective procedures must be put in place to ensure that unauthorized individuals do not alter data. In this perspective, reliable file permissions should be created which are only available to the authorized users as the user access controls are well monitored. The security controls that are implemented to enhance data integrity include the version control that helps in preventing erroneous modifications or accidental deletion by authorized, which is a significant challenge in most of the organizations. Practical approaches are placed in the network security systems for identifying any variations in data that might happen due to non-human-caused events such as crashes in servers or electromagnetic pulse. For the verification of integrity, the data that can be utilized is checksums and cryptographic checksums. Moreover, to ensure that the affected data is restored to the initial state, backups should be set up in the system.

The other principle of network security is maintaining the confidentiality of information in both private and public organizations (He, Chan & Guizani, 2016). The network security systems should be designed in a way that assists in preventing sensitive information from reaching the wrong individuals. Thus, the system ensures that only the right people get the information. In this regard, access to organizational data is restricted to only the authorized personnel to view the information in question. The rapid advancement in technology has led to the growth and development of the network security systems, which has made it easy to categorize data according to the size and type of damage done by the unintended personnel. The stringent measures are then used to deal with the occurrence. In most of the times, safeguarding data confidentiality entails special training, which includes teaching the security risks that can threaten organizational information. Idyllically, training is a crucial element that helps in familiarizing the authorized individuals with the vital security factors and the approach of guarding against them. Individuals can also be trained on how to create strong passwords and social engineering techniques.

Another essential key Network security principle is availability. Network security ensures that all the hardware and software are functioning to promote the sharing of information in a secure means (He, Chan & Guizani, 2016). Remarkably, the authorized users within the organizations are allowed to have continuous access to the network assets to boost their performance. Maintaining the functioning of the hardware and that of the operating system creates an environment free of hardware and software conflicts. Therefore, the system must be regularly upgraded to offer sufficient communication bandwidth and inhibit the incidence of bottlenecks. In instances where the hardware issues occur, the consequences of these issues are failover, high availability clusters, redundancy, and RAID.

Risk /Threats/ Protection

Who poses a threat to the Network?

Hackers are a major threat to networks security (Prabhakar, 2017). They can attack the network from any corner of the world whereby they cause devastating damage by stealing files, gaining access to privileged information or expose organizational secrets to their competitors. The employees can also be a threat to network security either knowingly or unknowingly. Particularly, the employees with inadequate knowledge about the best security practices that need to be implemented can put an organization in a vulnerable position. Thus, all employees should be educated on the best ways to secure the network system. Other sources of network security risk include computer viruses, which corrupt files and lead to the deletion of valuable data.

What types of threats or risks do networks encounter?

The networks experience risks that affect the smooth functioning and view of information from the computers or other electronic devices. This interferes with business or personal confidential information. For instance, the failure to ensure regular update of the Windows on the Web server can result in a great vulnerability to the networks which can lead to loss of data and hours of network system downtime.

What are the different types of threats?

The network security threats are of numerous forms. The denial-of-service is one of the threats that affect the devices' ability to perform their function (Dickinson & Brandwine, 2015). However, this threat varies from one networked device to another because the devices have different processors, connection speed, memory size, and networking buffers. Ideally, the denial-of-service occurs when the attacker sends a large amount of traffic at the target device, thus hindering its functions by triggering the device to enter into an error condition. The other threat of network security is social engineering where the attackers extract users' information to gain access to the network system. Malware is also a common network attack that is expressed in numerous ways such as spam, adware, viruses, Trojans, rootkits, and spyware. The viruses are programmed software that is meant to attack a particular executing code, and when it is executed, it leads to the production of other files on the target device that lead to data obstruction. Another type of malware is a worm, which attempts at taking advantage of some exploit whereby it attacks the devices and makes it a bot for later attacks. Individuals who have email addresses have had incidences of spam, adware and Trojan attacks, which are other forms of network threats.What kind of protection can network security provide?

Network security aims at blocking different induced attacks and preventing them from destroying essential data or information that is useful to an organization or a private company or individuals (Can & Sahingoz, 2015). Different types of tools such as firewalls are used to protect any vulnerable information from being accessed by unauthorized users.

What type of information is being protected?

The information that is protected in a network includes the organizations or individuals' identity in a network system, which enhances anonymity. The protection of organizations' information identity prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing essential data that is the core existence of the organization.

How do network security devices/tools secure the network?

The security devices work to prevent essential information from being accessed by the attackers. For instance, intrusion detection and prevention systems are important devices that assist the staff in identifying and protecting their wired and wireless networks against multiple types of security threats. The use of anti-malware prevents any form of a virus, Trojan and other attackers from accessing private information. In this perspective, antimalware is always on the lookout for vulnerabilities of the network. The network access control and the firewalls boost the network security by handling access authentication and authorization functions by controlling the data that particular users' access based on the capability of recognizing users, the devices they use and their role in the network.

How is the Network Secured?

Encryption

The network is secured by ensuring that the i...