A Review On Network Security And Privacy

Diksha Gupta, International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer Applications (IJATCA)
Special Issue 1 (2), April - 2020, pp. 48-51
ISSN: 2395-3519
www.ijatca.com 48
International Journal of Advanced Trends in
Computer Applications
www.ijatca.com
A Review on Network Security and Privacy
1
Diksha Gupta, 2
Karnish Sharma, 3
Neeshu Sharma
1, 2,3
Computer Science Department,
Chandigarh University, Punjab
1
19bcs1557@gmail.com, 2
19bcs1544@gmail.com, 3
neeshusharma.cse@cumail.in
Abstract: In today’s world which is getting digitalized day by day and the data is increasing exponentially it
becomes very important to check for the data security and privacy. As with the increasing data, the threat to that
data is also increasing at the same rate. The data which is getting uploaded on the internet or any other network
needs to be safe for the sake of the company’s private data or for the people who are using that network. In this
paper the authors had discussed the various types of attacks, threats on the network from which the company or an
individual needs to be careful to protect the company from any malicious activity. This paper also explores the
various security measures to protect the data and offer proper security and privacy to it.
Keywords: Network security, virtual private network, network access control, firewall.
I. INTRODUCTION
Network security refers to a set of rules and
regulations that protects our data from getting leaked
and protects the confidentiality and accessibility of
computer networks by using both hardware and
software technologies.
Today’s fast-growing technology has made it very
important to protect our data thus creating the need for
data security and privacy. Talking about privacy it
refers to the usage of data by someone else i.e. the
method it is being used. Thus, to protect the
mishandling of data we need knowledge of both
network security and privacy. One of the ways by
which the data is protected includes cybersecurity
products such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
which at the same time does not compromise with the
security and privacy of data.
Network security starts with the authentication of
users like it asks for the username and password thus
allowing only the authentic user to enter the system. It
is often regarded as one-factor authentication. One
example of this one-factor authentication is ‘Firewall
Authentication’. There are two types of attacks on
networks one is Passive such as wiretapping and
encryption and another type of attack is Active attack
such as virus, eavesdropping, etc. types of protections
includes antivirus and anti-malware software,
application security, firewall authentication, application
security, firewall authentication, data loss prevention,
email security, mobile device security network
segmentation. Besides all this a user needs to be careful
every time while he is using the online networks and an
organization or business should change their online
protection settings from time to time to get protected
from the data leakage or data-stealing or from getting
hacked and losing important information of their
company.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The research in the field of network security and
privacy is accelerating very fast as never before due to
the increasing rate of data production and spams. The
authors [1] have done their work in the field of security
in wireless sensor networks using authentication and
security of the users.
The authors [2] had extended their work in the field
of medical sciences whereby using computing
technologies we can inspect the patients’ health using
devices like WBAN and the need for data privacy and
protection there. The major concerns were secure and
dependable distributed data storage, and fine-grained
distributed data access control.
The authors [3] had carried forward the authors [2]
work and done their work in identifying the physical
layer as the important layer from which the attackers
might get access in the system and can steal the data.
The protection of the physical layer becomes very
important for wireless networks as compared to wired
ones.
The basics of network security and privacy and the
areas which needed the work most and the various

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threats in the IT sector are researched by the authors
[4].
Thus, from the above works and researches we had
reviewed are paper and conferred that this new
emerging field of computer science and the future
scopes.
III.WORKING OF NETWORK
SECURITY
There are many layers of network security. As a
company or organization can’t make it that where the
attackers might attack and steal their data [4]. Thus, the
organization should get ready at every level to protect
their data. The layers included for network security are:
3.1 Physical layer/physical network security
This layer is designed so that no unauthorized
personnel can access the routers, cables or cupboards
and so on physically. The protection at this layer can be
done using biometric authentication of the authorized
persons and using other such locks to prevent the
stealing of the company’s important data [2].
3.2 Technical layer/technical network security
This layer works in two ways- first by making sure
that no unauthorized personnel can access the data
which is stored on the network or which can be present
around the network and second is making sure that
there is no attack on the data using malicious activity
by the employees.
3.3 Administrative network security
This control level makes sure that how the
authentication of the employees should be done. It also
consists of security policies and processes that control
user behavior.
IV.ENSURING NETWORK
SECURITY AND PRIVACY
Since we had talked about the layers at which data is at
risk of getting stolen or getting corrupted. Now it’s
time to talk about the protection devices or software to
achieve network security and ensure privacy of data
[7].
4.1 Various steps include
 Securely monitoring and reporting
 Endpoint protection
 Email protection
 Internet content filtering
 Firewall monitoring and management
 Dual factor authentication
To achieve all this [1] — [5] we have got various
software and techniques as listed below.
4.2 Network access control:
To ensure that potential attackers cannot infiltrate
the network by joining their devices and control the
basic infrastructure of their company Network Access
Control can bet set at the basic granular level by
allowing access to most of the folders but restricting
the confidential folders and thus ensuring proper
privacy of data.
4.3 Antivirus and anti-malware sources:
These are the most basic software’s that are used to
prevent malicious software or virus to attack the system
and hack or steal the data. Some examples of antivirus
software are Norton antivirus, avast antivirus.
4.4 Firewall protection:
Firewall act as a barrier between the distrusted
external networks and allows only trusted
administrators to enter and have access to the data and
thus ensuring that no unauthorized personnel can enter
the network and do some activity that can risk the data
of company or organization [3].
4.5 Virtual Private Networks:
These networks create a connection to the network
from another endpoint or site. A most basic example of
these networks is that if an employee is working from
his home and connect to the company’s network using
VPN’s he/she can get encrypted data and can use that
only after authentication and can thus communicate
easily between these networks.
V. TIPS FOR PROTECTING YOUR
PRIVACY AND SECURITY
Besides the network security and privacy of a
company/organization it is also important that one
should also take care of his/her data at an individual
level to protect his/her network.
Below are the tips which we can take at our level:
 We should not share our important information
on social media since some hackers who are
watching you over and can risk your
information.
 We should shred the important information or
documents before recycling them in the trash.
 Always read the privacy policy of an app or
software before signing in to them since once
you share any information online it’s no longer
in your control.

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 Always guard your social security number and
avoid giving it to anyone instead uses other
forms of identification.
 Always use good antivirus software on your
system.
VI.TYPES OF ATTACKS
Network attacks refer to attacking a software or a
hardware that is on the network either by diverting the
route of the path from which the data is traveling or by
initiating some command to make the network activate
to get some sort of information. [7]. Based upon this
network attacks can be categorized into two types:
“Passive Attacks” are those attacks in which a network
intruder catches data traveling through network and
“Active Attacks” in which an intruder start commands
to disturb the networks normal operation or to conduct
a scan or something like this on the lateral movements
of the system to find and gain access to the important
data or information available through assets via the
network.
6.1 Passive Attacks
 Wiretapping
 Port scanner
 Idle scan
 Encryption
 Traffic Analysis
6.2 Active Attacks
 Virus
 Eavesdropping
 Data Modification
 Denial-of-service attack
 DNS spoofing
 Man in the middle
 ARP poisoning
 VLAN hopping
 Smurf attack
 Buffer overflow
 Heap overflow
 Format string attack
 SQL injection
 Phishing
 Cross-site scripting
 Cyber-attack
VII. THREATS TO THE NETWORK
Network security threats are classified into different
layers/types-
7.1 Physical theft:
By physical theft it means to access the hardware
such as routers, cables or cupboards etc. Some of the
physical theft examples include line monitoring or
buffer force attacks or theft etc.
7.2 Identification:
It refers to hack some software or some hardware
through some illegitimate means such as through
password crack or cheat passwords.
7.3 Program attacks:
It means that some type of malicious program enters
into the system by some means such as Trojan horse or
worms etc.
7.4 System Vulnerability:
This type of network threat includes compromising
with the system that is not using genuine software or
hardware in the system such as implementation code,
unsafe service etc.
7.5 Access control:
It includes allowing access to an illegitimate user to
enter into the system and preventing the legitimate
once in some cases such as denial of service attacks,
buffer overflows, brute force attacks, social
engineering, etc. [4]. The below picture indicates that
the majority of the people face (almost 45%) receiving
spam mails which could result in the virus into their
systems followed by phishing i.e. making a trap for the
people to steal their personal information (about 25%)
followed by malware receiving, account sent spam and
password stolen/ account hijacked.
Figure 1: Problem experienced on social networks.
VIII.THE FUTURE OF NETWORK
SECURITY
Today’s world is getting a technology addict it is
very important to think about network security. As in
the coming years’ technology would be in every place,
all the data would be digitalized and the threat to these
data would also increase with the increase in the scope
of network security as a carrier option [7]. As a security
engineer many people are working towards providing
more secure networks for companies as well as for
individuals to prevent data leakage and steal. For

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network and data privacy one should always use
encrypted data for information transfer which is
provided by many apps and in the future it is expected
that all the data would be encrypted and it would only
be available to the authorized users. Some
advancements that can come into the market keeping in
view the network security and privacy include there
will be software that will have inbuilt security modules
with each endpoint/server being firewalled by default
and no more DMZ would be required. Also, with the
increase in cloud services the firewall rule sets would
be automatically, created based on the provisioning of
cloud instances.
IX.CONCLUSION
In conclusion we can say that while using
technology one should be careful what he/she is
sharing online. Since any information once shared
carelessly online or over a distrusted network can get
you in danger and can leak your valuable personal
information. In today’s world when most of our data is
getting digitalized one should know the importance of
network security. For a company it becomes very
important to seriously look at the network security. As
any carelessness used in network security and data
privacy can lead to a very high cost for the company to
pay. Some protective measures which the company
must take include firewall authentication, biometrics
for the physical access of important hardware, so that
only authorized personnel could get access to the data.
The IT security department of the company should
prepare a very strict model of network security so that
it becomes difficult for the hackers to enter either
through passive or active ways of hacking the system
and can interrupt the network. At the end network
security and data privacy should be taken seriously by
every individual and every company. No information
should be shared online without proper knowledge.
References
[1]. L.Devi, S.P.Shantharajah, “A Survey on Authentication
and security maintenance in wireless sensor network”, Vol.4
Issue.5, pp 53-70, May-2015
[2]. M. Li, W. Lou, and K. Ren, "Data security and privacy
in wireless body area networks," in IEEE Wireless
Communications, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 51-58, February 2010
[3]. K. Zeng, K. Govindan, and P. Mohapatra, "Non-
cryptographic authentication and identification in wireless
networks [Security and Privacy in Emerging Wireless
Networks]," in IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 17,
no. 5, pp. 56-62, October 2010
[4]. SattarovaFeruza Y. and Prof. Tao-hoon Kim, “IT
Security Review: Privacy, Protection, Access Control,
Assurance and System Security,” International Journal of
Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.
17-32 April 2007
[5]. Arpna Dhingra, S Mittal, H Kaur, A Singh “A Review
on Techniques of Spam Classification in Twitter,”
International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer
Applications (IJATCA) Volume 1, Number 5, May 2015, pp.
57-59 ISSN: 2395-3519
[6]. Adrian Perrig, John Stankovic, David Wagner,
“Security in wireless sensor networks,” Volume 47, Number
6, pp 53-57, 2004
[7]. Shailja Pandey, ” Modern Network Security: Issues
And Challenges”, Vol. 3, Uttar Pradesh Technical
University, 2011
Author Profile
Diksha Gupta is a student pursuing bachelor of engineering
in computer science from Chandigarh University, Punjab
from the year 2019-2023.

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