Basic Network Security Concepts

This chapter provides an overview on the security concepts for security in wireless communication networks. These concepts include security attacks, security services, and security mechanisms. Security attacks in communication networks are formally classified as passive attacks and active attacks in X.800 Recommendation by the International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector and RFC 2828 by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Active attacks fall into four categories, masquerade, replay, modification, and denial of service. Security services are the features in a system design against possible security attacks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology computer security handbook introduces three key security services not only to wireless security, but also to general computer security: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Typical security services also include access control, authentication, and non‐repudiation. X.800 defines a list of popular security mechanisms: encipherment, authentication, access control, digital signature, data integrity, traffic padding and routing control, and notarization.