Network Security Technologies

This chapter covers the following topics:

• The Difficulties of Secure Networking
• Security Technologies
• Emerging Security Technologies

Technology . . . is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.

C. P. Snow, New York Times, March 15, 1971

L0pht, making the theoretical practical since 1992.

L0pht Heavy Industries

Chapter 3 discussed secure networking threats. This chapter focuses on the broad technologies that can mitigate those threats. The technologies discussed here can be considered foundation technologies for network security and include firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), identity systems, and encryption.

This chapter follows the same format as Chapter 3. In each technology discussion, a table first summarizes several of the technology's key attributes. This isn't meant to be a detailed description of each technology. The focus is on discussing design trade-offs and implementation issues as opposed to giving a thorough overview of the technology.

NOTE

Standalone security technologies are only a piece of the puzzle. As I've hinted through the first three chapters, a multitude of features, management techniques, and design options affect security. The rest of the book discusses these techniques; in this chapter, I want to discuss the basic technologies in one place because we will refer to them throughout the book.