Technologies Designed to Secure Networks From Cyber-Attacks

¶ … Technologies Designed to Secure Networks from Cyber-Attacks

In this paper, I examine different approaches to security designs intended to protect the integrity of the information contained on network databases in light of recent technological developments. Traditionally, network security has been designed either to protect the database of the network or to protect the specific applications that are executed upon the network. However, in the last decade, the implementation of Web services has proliferated, enabling the automated discovery and transfer of information according to various standards. Therefore, the types of exchanges of information have grown in complexity, creating a condition in which different forms of network authorization must be instituted in order to preserve the integrity of the database while allowing for the transfer of multiply defined documents between and among endpoints both within the network and outside of the network. End users, for instance, who interface with aspects of a database through Web services and their applications must be granted specifically tailored permissions so that they can conduct transactions, which are facilitated by APIs both inside and outside of the network, without possessing access to the network in its totality. In response to this requirement, the best security practice is a multi-layered design that integrates network-level securities with application-level securities.

Network security has traditionally been conceptualized according to competing models, both of which are designed to protect the information contained on network databases. One approach attempts to protect the information from unauthorized access through securities implemented at the database level; meaning, a layer of security is established, which regulates access to network. This form of security can become rather complex depending upon structure of the database, because securities can be designed to protect its various aspects. Individual cells, for example, can be protected according to specific protocol (McGee, Vasireddy, Xie, Picklesimer, Chandrashekhar, Richman, 2004).

The other approach attempts to protect sensitive information by implementing multiple layers of security at the application level of the organization's intranet structure. This approach creates individual protections for the applications that are created executed for the purpose of manipulating information stored on the database (Swart, Marshall, Harris, Forcht & Olsen, 2007). These applications, which are facilitated by Web services, exchange information through their APIs with endpoints existing either inside or outside of the network (McGee, Vasireddy, Xie, Picklesimer, Chandrashekhar & Richman, 2004). Such technologies can assume the form of firewalls, which can be modified to regulate transmissions conducted by individual applications. The technologies can also involve encryptions that are used to protect packets of information that are communicated through various conduits (Swart et al., 2007)

The Expansion of Web Services