By: Brett Belin

Used to be only tackled by highly trained professionals As the internet grew, more and more people became familiar with securing a network Typically involves all activities that an organization, enterprise, or institutions undertake to protect their assets

Consists of two or more computers that are linked together in order to share certain resources They can be linked by cables, wires, waves, or satellites Two basic types of networks LAN WAN

Known as Local Area Network Typically confined to a small area Computers on this network are rarely over a mile a part in distance

WAN stands for Wide Area Networks They are used to connect a much bigger network Involves more extensive wiring since the network is a lot bigger than LAN

Designed to read and process requests sent from one machine to another machine Also known as the host that is deployed to execute one or more programs Usually have more processing power, memory, and hard disk space than clients

Prevent people from gaining access to your network that should not be viewing your files It can lead to Breaches in Confidentiality Data destruction can take place if someone gets into your system In addition, data manipulation can happen where they tamper with your numbers or important information

Technology Weakness Could be a protocol weakness Also a weakness within the operating system Configuration Weakness Wired unsecured Username and passwords are known to various amounts of people Policies Lack of written security policy Sometimes lacks continuity

Denial of Service (DoS) Unauthorized Access Spoofing Eavesdropping

Probably the nastiest and most difficult to address They are easy to launch and usually very difficult to track Basically what it does is sends more information than the machine can handle

Can be done in a variety of different attacks Usually just means that someone or something is trying to gain access or resources from your machine that should not be allowed to

Create a Network Diagram This consists of symbols or pictures that tells you where the computers and things are set up Could also include information such as what brand the products are or how they are connected Understand the Network Who uses the network? What type of hardware? What is the internet connection like? Can regular patrons log onto the system?

Log into the internet and type in the IP address of your router into the address bar Go to the wireless tab and enter the SSID this number should be located on the sticker of the router Next, go to the wireless tab/wireless security and choose enable

Choose either WEP or WEA encryption. WEA is a more secure choice Choose either 64 or 128 bit encryption, once again the 128 bit is the more secure. Next you want to generate a passphrase By doing this, you only people that have the passphrase are able to access the router and use your internet connection

Another great way to secure your network Requires each person who should have access to have a distinct name that he or she may log in with In addition, each name has a password or pin possibly that only they should know This will minimize the chance of an unauthorized user gaining access to your system and getting information

Another great way to protect your network against harmful attacks It is part of a computer system or network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized users to communicate still Can be implemented in either hardware or software or even a combination of both

Application Gateways These were the first types of firewalls Sometimes known as proxy gateways Run special Software to act as a proxy server It is run on the Application layer of the ISO/OSI model which is where it gets the name Clients must know how to use the proxy in order to use the Internet services

Packet Filtering Routers by default will pass all traffic sent it, and do so with out and restrictions By implementing this, you now have a restriction on what type of outside things can gain access to your network Must be implemented in layers in order to localize all traffic in order to get to the host itself

Lots of options are out there to choose from It is important to look at your diagram that you made earlier in order to figure out which one is best for you They are good because you can protect a bunch of computers behind the same firewall Also, you can put a firewall on the individual computer as well as put it on the network itself

Network security is a very vital component not only to large business, but also your own home A lot of information that is sent and received across networks is confidential and not everyone should have access to it If the wrong person gets a hold of the data they can tamper it an alter it that may directly or indirectly affect a lot of people

In order to properly protect your network, you may need to use a variety of different things For example, make it so that everyone has to have some sort of code in order to gain access to the system whether it by a username or biometrics Next, incorporate firewalls that make it more difficult for an outside user to gain access to the system

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