Network Security Fundamentals

Study Notes

Kerberos is a network authentication protocol designed for secure communication across untrusted networks, utilizing a trusted third-party server, known as a Key Distribution Center (KDC), to issue tickets that verify client and server identities.
Digital signatures ensure data integrity and authenticity in modern communication, acting as a tamper-proof seal, allowing recipients to verify the sender's identity and ensuring the content hasn't been altered during transmission.
Firewall design principles include packet filtering, which analyzes individual packets based on source, destination, port, and protocol to allow or block traffic, and stateful inspection, which tracks connections and filters traffic based on their established state.
Authentication is essential for access control, granting access to authorized users and systems, non-repudiation, ensuring accountability for actions taken, and security, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data or systems.
IP (Internet Protocol) is the foundation of internet communication, defining the addressing scheme (IP addresses) that uniquely identifies devices on a network and providing a mechanism for routing data packets across networks.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) establishes a secure connection between a client and server through a handshake, key exchange, data encryption, and decryption, ensuring confidentiality and integrity.
RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) is a widely used public-key encryption algorithm, involving a pair of mathematically linked keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption, ensuring secure communication.
Secret Key Encryption uses a single shared key for both encryption and decryption, requiring secure key distribution to all authorized parties, while Public Key Encryption provides better key management, but can be computationally more expensive.
S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a standard for securing email communication using public-key encryption and digital signatures, offering confidentiality, integrity, and authentication.