Network Security Bible, 2nd Edition

Chapter 22. Applications of Secure/Covert Communication

IN THIS CHAPTER

• General applications of encryption

• Using various encryption programs

• How VPNs work and how they can be used

There is great demand for security solutions in communication networks. Every type of network, irrespective of whether it is the age-old plain-old telephone service (POTS) or sophisticated, high-speed digital networks such as fiber-distributed data interface (FDDI) and integrated services digital network (ISDN), is surrounded by security threats, loopholes, and vulnerabilities. In today's environments, where commercial and defense systems rely heavily on network services and applications for faster, quality service, security issues stand foremost for consideration. Security has many dimensions, such as authentication, authorization, confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation, timeliness, and so on. Different applications might require different scales of these features in accordance with various types of service. Selecting a particular subset of security features from among those available today makes for critical differences in the design of an application.

This chapter reviews some of the qualified cryptographic and encryption standards that have been successfully ported to various application and network requirements. Applications such as e-mail, virtual private networks (VPNs), Internet browsers (Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Layer Security Protocols), and so on are explained in terms of their security ...