Developing a concept for handling IT security with secured and trusted electronic connections
Volker Hockmann · Wolverhampton Intellectual Repository and E-Theses (University of Wolverhampton) · 2014
In this day and age, the Internet provides the biggest linkage of information, personal data and information, social contact facilities, entertainment and electronic repository for all things including software downloads and tools, online books and technical descriptions, music and movies -both legal and illegal [Clarke, 1994].With the increasing bandwidth in the last few years worldwide, it is possible to access the so-called "Triple-Play-Solutions" -Voice over IP, High-Speed-Internet and Video on Demand.More than 100 million subscribers have signed on across Asia, Europe, and the Americas in 2007, and growth is likely to continue steadily in all three.As broadband moves into the mainstream, it is reshaping the telecommunications, cable and Internet access industrie [Beardsley, Scott and Doman, Andrew, and EdinMC Kinsey, Pär, 2003].Cisco [Cisco, 2012], one of the biggest network companies, will expect more than 966 exabytes (nearly 1 zettabyte) per year or 80.5 exabytes per month in 2015 and the "Global IP traffic has increased eightfold over the past 5 years, and will increase fourfold over the next 5 years.Overall, IP traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32 percent from 2010 to 2015".More and more types of sensible data flow between different recipients.News from around the world are transferred within seconds from the one end to the other end of the world, and affect the financial market, stock exchange [Reuters, 2012] and also bring down whole governments.For instance, worldwide turmoil might ensue if a hacker broke into the web-server of an international newspaper or news channel like N-TV in Germany or BBC in England and displayed messages of a political revolution in Dubai or the death of the CEO from Microsoft or IBM.A very significant percentage of the population in developed and developing countries is using wired and wireless connections for reading e-mails, accessing news-groups or using Internet banking.All these services run on a web-server.Most web-servers run the Apache or the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS).All versions of both of these servers (Apache 1.3.x/2.x and IIS 3-7.5) [Netcraft, 2006] are particularly vulnerable against a variety of attacks [SANS, 2006].An attacker is, with little effort, in a position to break into many web-servers including the Internet Information Server, and Apache server, the most popular webservers [Netcraft, 2012].Ellison and Schneier [2000, p. 6] note that "Certificates must be used properly if you want security.Are these practices designed with solid security reasons, or are they just rituals or imitations of the behavior of someone else?Many such practices and even parts of Summary of Research Approach and MethodologyIT Security is a specific discipline in computer science with a special interest in information systems and informational structures.Furthermore, the domain "Information Systems" (IS) is multi-disciplinary as "contributions to the study of information systems come from the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering, from the behavioural sciences and linguistics" [Land, 1992, p. 6].Albuquerque and Simon stated that