COMPREHENSIVE STUDY &OVERVIEW OF NETWORK SECURITY

Abstract

Network security consists of the provisions made in an underlying computer network
infrastructure, policies adopted by the network administrator to protect the network and the
network-accessible resources from unauthorized access and the effectiveness (or lack) of these
measures combined together.Network security starts from authenticating any user. Once
authenticated, firewall enforces access policies such as what services are allowed to be
accessed by the network users. Though effective to prevent unauthorized access, this
component fails to check potentially harmful contents such as computer worms being
transmitted over the network. An intrusion prevention system (IPS) helps detect and prevent
such malware. IPS also monitors for suspicious network traffic for contents, volume and
anomalies to protect the network from attacks such as denial of service. Communication
between two hosts using the network could be encrypted to maintain privacy. Individual events
occurring on the network could be tracked for audit purposes and for a later high level analysis.