Communications Security

As Confidential information circulates in networks, communications security has become a major concern for users and businesses. All seek to protect themselves against fraudulent use of their data or against malicious intrusions into computer systems. In addition, a multitude of viruses spread without the knowledge of users in downloaded files. Viruses can destroy documents or even cause the total loss of information stored in the machines. The current trend is to put in place access control mechanisms and secure protocols that provide several services: authentication, confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation.

The Authentication involves asking a user to prove his or her identity (by providing a password or bio metric data, for example);

• The confidentiality guarantees users that no data could be read and exploited by a malicious third party;
• Integrity assures users that their data has not been unduly changed during transmission in the network;
• Non-repudiation prevents a user from denying the reality of a data exchange.

Several security mechanisms are implemented in the data transmission to provide the above services. Mainly:

• The encryption or encryption, which prevents the reading of data by unauthorized users;
• The notarization of the exchanges, which keeps a trace of the exchange with a trusted third party, to prove later the very existence of the communication;
• Jamming , which is a technique of permanent transmission of a flood of useless information to hide the important ones;
• The digital signature , which calculates a block of control data from the identity of the user.

Source: Network Security