Network Security and Wireless Networks

Abstract

Computer security is lax and the problems that this poses will only be exacerbated by the growth of computer networks. There have been many recent high-profile attacks such as the repeated breaches of NASA’s network by the Kaos Club, a gang of crackers from West Germany. A modern OS has around 6 million lines of code and ensuring that there are no flaws within it that can be maliciously exploited is a considerable undertaking. In an attempt to quantify the security of operating systems the American government has developed a simple classification which ranges from A (most secure) to D (least secure). Very few current systems rate above a grade C and those that do tend to be less user-friendly. Higher grades have mechanisms which assign security clearance to individual files and explicitly check their activities, rather than relying upon the user’s password. There are however some important minor improvements that can be made to enhance security, such as ensuring that deleting a file removes its data not just its directory entry. Aside from being less easy to use secure systems also carry a considerable overhead, actually reducing the resources available for real computation. Issues of national security can further complicate the implementation of secure systems. Governmental insistence upon high security can hamper productivity and inhibit legitimate access, especially if different nations adopt incompatible protocols. Furthermore many fear that government involvement in specifying their secure systems may compromise their civil liberties by granting agencies access to their private data through the back-door.