Securing and Enhancing YourUse of the Internet

Internet Security and Browser Extensions

Tutorial 9

Objectives

• Investigate the different kinds of computer threats.

• Identify countermeasures for protecting yourself and your computer while using the Internet.

• Learn how to protect copyrighted materials that are published on the Internet.

Objectives

• Learn how to enhance your Web browser with browser extensions.

• Use popular plug-ins to view animated Web site content.

• Locate and use browser extensions.

Security Overview

• Security is broadly defined as the protection of assets from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction.

• Physical security includes tangible protection devices, such as locks, alarms, fireproof doors, security fences, safes or vaults, and bombproof buildings.

• Protection of assets using non-physical means is called logical security.

Security Overview

• Logical security may also be broadly called computer security.

• Any act or object that endangers an asset is known as a threat.

• Countermeasure is the general name for a procedure, either physical or logical, that recognizes, reduces, or eliminates a threat.

• Countermeasures can recognize and manage threats or they can eliminate them.

Risk Management Model

Low Probability

High Probability

HighImpact(cost)

LowImpact(cost)

Contain andcontrol Prevent

IgnoreInsurance orbackup plan

Security Overview

• To implement a good security scheme, you identify the risk, determine how you will protect the affected asset, and calculate the cost of the resources you can allocate to protect the asset.

• Computer security can be classified into several categories: Secrecy Integrity Necessity

Security Overview

• Secrecy prevents unauthorized data disclosure.

• Integrity prevents unauthorized data modification.

• Necessity prevents data delays (slowing down the transmission of data) or denials (preventing data from getting to its destinations.

• Internet users and businesses with Web sites need to take appropriate countermeasures in each of these three categories to protect themselves and the computers they use to connect to the Internet.

Encryption

• Encryption is the process of coding information using a mathematical-based program and a secret key to produce a string of characters that is unreadable.

• The process of reversing encrypted text is called decryption. In order to decrypt text, you need a key to “unlock” it.

• Encrypted information is called cipher text.

• Unencrypted information is called plain text.

• The process of transforming data from a readable format (plain text) to an unreadable format (cipher text) is called cryptography.

Encryption

• Private-key encryption (symmetric encryption) uses a single key that is known by the sender and receiver.

• The key might be a password or a number generated by a special device.

• Private-key encryption works well in a highly controlled environment.

Examples

Encryption

• Public-key encryption (asymmetric encryption) uses two different keys—a public key and a private or secret key.

• The public key is known to everyone.

• The private or secret key is known only to the person who owns both keys.

• With public-key encryption, each person has a private key that is secret and a public key that is shared with other users.

• Messages encrypted with a private key must be decrypted with the public key, and vice versa.

Encryption

• Encryption is considered to be weak or strong based on its algorithm and the number of characters in the encryption key.

• An algorithm is a formula or set of steps to solve a particular problem.

• A cracker is a person who uses his knowledge of computers and programming to gain unauthorized access to a computer for the purpose of stealing or altering data.

• Keys that are 128 bits long are called strong keys.

Using Certificates forAuthentication and Identification

• Phishing is an attack involving phony e-mail messages that include links to spoofed Web sites that “fish” for information.

• Authentication is a general term for the process of correctly verifying the identify of a person or a Web site.

• The primary countermeasure for authentication is a digital certificate.

• A digital certificate is an encrypted and password-protected file that contains sufficient information to authenticate and prove a person’s or organization’s identity.

Using Certificates forAuthentication and Identification

• A digital certificate is an electronic equivalent of an identification card.

• A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted third party which verifies the certificate holder’s identity and issues the digital certificate.

• A digital ID (personal certificate) is used to identify a person to other people and to Web sites that are set up to accept digital certificates.

• A digital ID is an electronic file that you purchase from a certificate authority and install into a program that uses it, such as an e-mail program or a Web browser.

Using Certificates forAuthentication and Identification

• The digital ID authenticates the user and protects data being transferred online from being altered or stolen.

• A server certificate (SSL Web server certificate) authenticates a Web site for its users so the user can be confident that the Web site is genuine and not an imposter.

• A server certificate also ensures that the transfer of data between a user’s computer and the server with the certificate is encrypted so that it is both tamperproof and free from being intercepted.

Processing a Certificate

client 1

client 2

server

I would like to order part #4988.

Here’s our server certificate.

This transaction is secure.

Here’s my digital ID.

What’s my account balance?

Your digital ID is valid.

Your balance is $345.00.

Using Certificates forAuthentication and Identification

• User identification is the process of identifying yourself to a computer.

• Most computer systems implement user identification with user names and passwords; the combination of a user name and password is sometimes called a login.

• To help keep track of their login information for different computers and Web sites, some people use a program called a password manager, which stores login information in an encrypted form on their computer.

Using Certificates forAuthentication and Identification

• Crackers can run programs that create and enter passwords from a dictionary or a list of commonly used passwords.

• A brute force attack occurs when a cracker uses a program to enter character combinations until the system accepts a user name and password, thereby gaining access to the system.

• User authentication is the process of associating a person and his identification with a very high level of assurance.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a widely used protocol that acts as a separate layer or “secure channel” on top of the TCP/IP Internet protocol.

• SSL provides a security handshake when a browser and the Web page to which it is connected want to participate in a secure connection.

• Web pages secured by SSL have URLs that begin with https:// instead of http://.

Secure State Indicator

Internet Explorer

Navigator

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

• SSL creates a public-key pair so that it can safely transmit data using a private key.

• The private key is encrypted using public-key encryption and is sent to the browser. Using the private key protects the remainder of the information transfer between the browser and the Web site.

• When the user leaves the secure Web site, the browser discards these temporary keys, or session keys.

• Session keys exist only during a single, active session between a browser and server.

Managing Cookies

• A cookie is a small text file that a Web server creates and stores on your computer’s hard drive.

• A cookie might store data about the links you click while visiting the Web site (called a clickstream), information about the products you purchase, or personal information that you provide to the site.

• Some cookies are removed automatically when you leave a Web site (a session-only cookie).

Managing Cookies

• Many Web sites use cookies to make their sites easier to navigate.

• A cookie is not a program and it can only store information that you provide to the Web site that creates it.

• Sometimes you provide the data openly, and at other times, the cookie might silently record your behavior at a Web site.

• Only the Web site that stored the cookie on your hard drive can read it, and it cannot read other cookies on your hard drive or any other file on your computer.

Managing Cookies

• Cookies can represent a security threat for some users, especially those who access the site from a public computer.

• Internet users can control the storage of cookies on their computer’s hard drive by changing their browser’s settings.

• The best way to prevent another user from gaining access to information is to make sure that you do not leave an electronic trail to its path.

• Internet Explorer stores cookies in C:\Windows\Cookies folder.

• Navigator stores cookies in a file named cookies.txt on the user’s hard drive.

Managing Cookies inInternet Explorer

Web Bugs

• A Web bug is a small, hidden graphic on a Web page or in an e-mail message that is designed to work in conjunction with a cookie to obtain information about the person viewing the page or e-mail message and to send the information to a third party.

• When the user loads the Web page that contains this code, the browser downloads the hidden graphic. This process can identify your IP address, the Web site you last visited, and other information about your use of the site in which the clear GIF file has been embedded and record it in the cookie file.

Adware

• Adware is a general category of software that includes advertisements to help pay for the product in which they appear.

• In many freeware and shareware programs, adware provides opportunities for developers to offer software at little or no cost to the user.

• Adware usually does not cause any security threats because the user is aware of the ads and the parties responsible for including them are clearly identified in the programs.

Spyware

• Spyware is a category of adware in which the user has little control over or knowledge of the ads and other monitoring features it contains.

• Spyware occurs in situations where a developer has sold ads to a third party or embedded other features in the program.

• A Web bug is an example of spyware because the clear GIF and its actions are hidden from the user.

Web Bugs, Spyware, and Adware

• One way to protect computers from the potential privacy violations created by cookies, Web bugs, and spyware is to set Web browsers to block third-party cookie files.

• There are many good shareware programs that erase spyware from your computer.

• These programs, sometimes called ad blockers, search for files written by known spyware.

Firewalls

• The computer version of a firewall is a software program or hardware device that controls access between two networks, such as a local area network and the Internet or the Internet and a computer.

• A port on a computer is like a door; it permits traffic to leave and enter a computer. When the port is closed, traffic can’t leave or enter the computer.

• A port scan occurs when one computer tests all or some of the ports of another computer to determine whether its ports are open, or closed.

Basic Firewall Architecture

Firewalls

• Until the recent increase in the number of users with broadband connections to the Internet, corporations used hardware firewalls almost exclusively.

• Some firewall software programs are available for free or at a very low cost so they are become popular with other types of users.

• Some antivirus programs and Internet suites include basic firewall protection.

Integrity Threats andCountermeasures

• An integrity threat occurs when an unauthorized party has the chance to alter data while it is being transferred over the Internet or while it is stored on a computer.

• The most visible integrity threats have been from Trojan horses, viruses, and worms that attack computers and the programs they run.

• A Trojan horse is a small program hidden inside another program that causes harm when the user accesses or downloads the program in which it is hidden.

Integrity Threats andCountermeasures

• A worm is a variation of a virus, and is a self-replicating program that is usually hidden within another file and then sent as an e-mail attachment.

• A worm can replicate itself on a computer or server, but it cannot infect other files.

• The best defense against a worm is to install an antivirus program, update your virus patterns regularly, display Windows filename extensions so you can determine the type of file you have downloaded, and avoid opening attachments that you are not expecting.

• A firewall can prevent the spread of Internet worms by preventing the worm from sending information from your computer without your permission. (so it’s both in and out)

Necessity Threats and Countermeasure

• Necessity occurs when a cracker uses a program to disrupt normal computer processing or, possibly, to deny processing entirely.

• A packet flooding attack or denial of service (DoS) attack occurs when a cracker bombards a server or other computer with messages in an attempt to consume the network’s bandwidth resources.

• Delaying processing can render a service unusable or unattractive.

Necessity Threats and Countermeasure

• One of the most dangerous entry points for delay and denial threats come from coded programs that travel with applications to a browser and execute on the user’s computer.

• A Java applet, which is a program written in the Java programming language, could execute and consume a computer’s resources.

• A JavaScript program can pose a problem because its programs can run without being compiled before running on a computer.

• ActiveX components are Microsoft’s technology for writing small applications that perform some action in Web pages—these components have full access to a computer’s file system.

Copyright & Intellectual Property Threats and Countermeasures

• Copyright and safeguarding intellectual property rights are also security issues.

• Intellectual property threats are a large problem due to the Internet and the relative ease with which one can use existing material without the owner’s permission. It is very simple to reproduce an exact copy of anything

you find on the Internet. Many people are naïve or unaware of copyright

restrictions that protect intellectual property.

Copyright & Intellectual Property Threats and Countermeasures

• A digital watermark is a process that inserts a digital pattern containing copyright information into a digital image, animation, or audio or video file.

• Steganography is a process that hides an encrypted message within different types of files. It can be used to add copyright information to different types of files.

Enhancing Your Use of the Internet with Browser Extensions

• Browser extensions allow a Web browser to perform tasks it was not originally designed to perform.

• Plug-in: integrated browser software that the browser uses to display or play a specific file that you request.

• Helper applications: programs installed on the user’s computer that the browser starts and uses to “help” display or play a file.

• Add-ons: include tools that enhance your browsing experience, such as toolbars or programs that block pop-up ads from opening.

Enhancing Your Use of the Internet with Browser Extensions

• Helper applications are independent programs that are stored on your computer and are activated automatically when needed.

• Plug-ins do their work inside the browser. When you install a Web browser, many popular plug-ins are often installed with it.

Enhancing Your Use of the Internet with Browser Extensions

• Browser extensions are often grouped into categories based on the type of content they deliver. These categories are: Document and productivity Image viewer Multimedia Sound player Video player Three-dimensional (3-D) graphics

Document and Productivity Browser Extensions

• Document and productivity browser extensions let you use a browser to read documents, such as files saved in PDF format and viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• If you have Acrobat Reader, a browser can use it to display and print files with .pdf extensions.

• If you have installed Microsoft Office, a browser can start Word, Excel, and other Office programs to display files with extensions, such as .doc and .xls.

Image Viewer Browser Extensions

• Browser extensions from this category let the browser display graphics, such as interactive road maps or alternative file formats and viewers for GIF and JPEG files.

• Image viewer plug-ins also display different picture file formats.

• If a Web site indicates you need a specific image viewer plug-in to view something on its site, you can usually download it at that time, directly from that site.

Multimedia Browser Extensions

• Multimedia contains browser extensions that appeal to most of the senses.

• The Flash Player lets your Web browser display simple animations, user interfaces, static graphics, movies, sound, and text.

• The Shockwave Player is a more fully featured browser plug-in that you must download and install.

Sound Player Browser Extensions

• Sound player browser extensions let your Web browser play sounds.

• Real Player is a free plug-in that plays streaming audio and video files over the Internet.

Video Player Browser Extensions

• Video player browser extensions deliver movies to Web browsers over the Internet.

• QuickTime was one of the first movie players developed. It plays video, sound, music, 3-D, and virtual reality for both Macintoshes and PCs.

• Other widely used movie players include RealPlayer and Windows Media Player.

• Some of these players download a complete movie before playing it, while others use streaming technology to play a movie before it has been completely downloaded.

3-D Browser Extensions

• Virtual Reality Modeling Language or VRML is an Internet programming language that creates three-dimensional environments that can mimic known worlds or define fictional ones.

• With VRML you can navigate and interact with a three-dimensional scene.

• VRML sites are used for gaming and product and location tours.

• Extensible 3D (X3D) is the next generation open standard for 3D on the Web.

Finding Browser Extensions

• A good way to locate browser extensions is to visit a download site such as Tucows.

• Many download sites group plug-ins by the functions they perform, which makes it easy to view the available plug-ins for the type of files you want to use.

Commonly Used Browser Extensions

Summary

• There are different types of computer security threats and some countermeasures that you can take to prevent them.

• There are copyright issues related to the information you locate and use on the Internet.

• There are different categories of browser extensions that you might need as you use the Web.

• You should use the security information presented in this tutorial to create a safe environment in which to enjoy the Web’s many resources and games on your own computer.