Lab 7 Introduction

As our society becomes increasingly dependent on Information Technology (IT, which includes computing and communications systems), the problem of securing IT infrastructure likewise becomes increasingly important. This lab provides a general introduction to IT security concepts in general and network security in particular.

The framework for IT security has three basic components: infrastructure, defenders and adversaries. Infrastructure is broadly defined. It can include but is not limited to physical systems (e.g.,computers, handsets, printers, archival devices, network systems, data, etc.) and/or physical space (e.g., data centers). Defenders (often referred to as security analysts) are the people who are responsible for securing the infrastructure. The adversaries are the people who are intent upon gaining come kind of access to the infrastructure. Based on the particular characteristics of the infrastructure and the adversaries, this basic framework establishes the foundation for a broad range of problems in IT security.

Students will be introduced to a number of the problems facing security analysts. Unfortunately, there are many complicating factors that make the task of addressing these problems very difficult. From the perspective of the communications medium/network (our perspective), one of the most significant factors is that there are no inherent security mechanisms in the architecture of the Internet (i.e.,) nowhere in the Internet model does the word "security" appear! Thus, the problem of implementing security mechanisms in the network is largely addressed by developing add on solutions that can somehow be folded into the infrastructure.

This lab will be conducted entirely via Schooner. A number of new tools and utilities will be introduced in this lab, including the Nessus scanning tool and the Snort intrusion detection system. This lab will be less complex but is due at the same time as Lab #6 so please start early. Lab #7 will be the only lab in which network security issues are covered, so if you would like to experiment with transport in other ways, please see Prof. Barford for ideas.

Objectives