Network Security Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Network Security - Term Paper Example The rapid growth of networking has also come with its own challenges, mainly in the area of network security. Maiwald defines security as the â€Å"freedom from danger, fear or anxiety: safety† (4). He also defines a network as an interlinked system. Therefore, network security can be defined as the safety of interlinked systems. There are to kinds of networks: synchronous network and data networks. Synchronous network systems are made up of switches, which makes them immune to malicious attacks. However, data network systems contain routers that are computer based, making them susceptible to all kinds of malicious attacks. The internet is perhaps the best known and most widely used data network on the globe today. A few years ago, the computer system was seen as a harmless piece of technology and not many people cared really for computer security. To many people at the time, most computer operations and software were illogical, thus the risk of hackers was quite low (Kaufman, Radia and Speciner 43). However, since the mid 1980s, networked computer workstations became common and with this came the issue of information and network security. More and more people are able to read and understand computer algorithms, meaning that the likelihood of a system being hacked into is very easy. Organizations are forced to share networks with distrustful organizations and individuals. The world of network security is quite hostile since a small percentage of the population can cause untold damage to a global network. This is the situation that makes network security such an important matter in today’s highly networked society. There is need to protect the data and information that companies, institutions and individuals need protected by designing fool-proof network security systems. History of Network Security Widespread interest in network security gained ground in the 1980s when Kevin Mitnick hacked into the systems of several companies and made away with $80 million. This was the biggest computer-related crime by a single person in the history of the United States. The birth of the internet also marked the beginning of the interest in network security. In 1969, internet was developed after the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANet) was given the mandate to carry out research in networking. ARPANet was an instant success and before long, email applications had become quite popular (Pardoe and Snyder 223). Th InterNetworking Working Group (IWG) was given the responsibility of governing ARPANet by setting the standards for use. On the 1980s, TCP/IP, which is a common langu age shared by all computers connected to the internet, was developed. Thus internet was officially born. The mid 1980s saw a boom in the number of personal and commercial computers which led to many companies joining the internet bandwagon. In the early 1990s it was the urn of the public to get access to the internet, and this marked the birth of the World Wide Web (WWW) era. Today the internet is widespread all across the world and many people carry out their daily activities online (Maiwald 60). The actual history of internet security began in 1918 when an enigma machine that could convert plain text to encrypted messages was developed in Poland. 22 years later, Alan Turing broke the enigma code. The word hacker was first coined by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Telnet Protocol developed in the 1970s and this led to data networks being accessed by the public. The 1980s saw the rise of hackers and computer-related crimes. The Computer fraud and Abu se Act was enacted in 1986 to minimize cases of information stealing from military and federal offices (Kaufman, Radia and