Network security consists of the provisions made in an underlying computer network infrastructure, policies adopted by the network administrator to protect the network and the network-accessible resources from unauthorized access, and consistent and continuous monitoring and measurement of its effectiveness (or lack) combined together.

Comparison with information security

The terms network security and information security are often used interchangeably, however network security is generally taken as providing protection at the boundaries of an organization, keeping the intruders (e.g. black hat hackers, script kiddies, Trudy, etc.) out. Network security systems today are mostly effective, so the focus has shifted to protecting resources from attack or simple mistakes by people inside the organization, e.g. with Data Loss Prevention (DLP). One response to this insider threat in network security is to compartmentalize large networks, so that an employee would have to cross an internal boundary and be authenticated when they try to access privileged information. Information security is explicitly concerned with all aspects of protecting information resources, including network security and DLP.

Network security concepts

Network security starts from authenticating any user, commonly (one factor authentication) with a username and a password (something you know). With two factor authentication something you have is also used (e.g. a security token or 'dongle', an ATM card, or your mobile phone), or with three factor authentication something you are is also used (e.g. a fingerprint or retinal scan). Once authenticated, a stateful firewall enforces access policies such as what services are allowed to be accessed by the network users. Though effective to prevent unauthorized access, this component fails to check potentially harmful content such as computer worms being transmitted over the network. An intrusion prevention system (IPS) helps detect and inhibit the action of such malware. An anomaly-based intrusion detection system also monitors network traffic for suspicious content, unexpected traffic and other anomalies to protect the network e.g. from denial of service attacks or an employee accessing files at strange times. Communication between two hosts using the network could be encrypted to maintain privacy. Individual events occurring on the network could be tracked for audit purposes and for a later high level analysis.

Honeypots, essentially decoy network-accessible resources, could be deployed in a network as surveillance and early-warning tools. Techniques used by the attackers that attempt to compromise these decoy resources are studied during and after an attack to keep an eye on new exploitation techniques. Such analysis could be used to further tighten security of the actual network being protected by the honeypot.

A useful summary of standard concepts and methods in network security is given by in the form of an extensible ontology of network security attacks.