Introduction and Brief Background of the Topic
Network security is a broad term. It encompasses a wide range of protective measures that include incorporating protection, detection, and reaction capabilities which are aimed at protecting and defending information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation (CNSS Instruction No. 4009, 2010). The concept of network security has become crucial as computer networks were introduced into private and corporate use.
The main concerns of security are maintaining the functionality of the network environment, securing privacy and providing the integrity of confidential information. The threat to the points mentioned can emerge due to network malfunction or a deliberate disruptive effort. The latter is the most common cause and primary concern of security specialists. They differ widely but are most often grouped into two distinct categories – active and passive. Active is defined as a direct attempt to obtain or disrupt information by altering it and include such methods as distributed denial of service, phishing and DNS spoofing. Passive attacks are activities that capture the data without altering it, like port scanning.
As network technologies evolve, so do security systems, to provide up-to-date measures of protection. These include both hardware and software solutions which need to be timely maintained and updated to keep up with both changing environments and improvements made by the attackers.
Recently, several major reasons have contributed to reorganizing the basic principles of network security. Firstly, mobile devices capable of network connection gradually rise in popularity among the general public, which requires making security measures easily accessible and maintained by a consumer with no IT training. Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet PCs, comprise the majority of such devices, providing for another serious issue. Mobile devices network connectivity is entirely wireless, with open public networks becoming more popular each year. Wireless networks differ significantly from traditional wired hierarchical ones. Finally, the cloud-based services have since their introduction been embraced by both corporate and private sector and has become a fairly widespread phenomenon.
All of the networks mentioned above differ from traditional ones, moving away from declining client-server structure and shifting towards more up-to-date machine-to-machine data traffic. Such changes open new possibilities for both system malfunction and deliberate disruptive attempts. New security solutions are constantly being implemented, such as the introduction of software-defined networking and wireless equipment capable of implementing wireless security features. There is, however, still much to be done. The recent history of security breaches show that traditional means of security, like password-based access, remain insufficient in terms of reliability while simultaneously becoming outdated in terms of changing hardware trends (Everett, 2016). Some researchers go as far as propose radically new dynamic environment capable of self-improvement and self-education (Zhou et al., 2015).
Research Question
The main purpose of this research is to find new effective ways of securing the mobile devices networks intended for personal use. Such networks have already integrated firmly into our daily lives and are encountered on a daily basis. Besides, the majority of software provides the best performance and reliability when being online, thus encouraging constant network connection. However, the inadequate protection of the device may lead to financial problems. But of even greater concern is an issue of privacy. The amount of personal information stored in and transferred through phones and tablet PCs is already sufficient to raise concerns and continues to grow. Therefore, outlining and developing the most promising branches of mobile networks should be one of our top priorities.
References
CNSS Instruction No. 4009. (2010). Web.
Everett, C. (2016). Are passwords finally dying?. Network Security, 2016(2), 10-14.
Zhou, H., Wu, C., Jiang, M., Zhou, B., Gao, W., Pan, T., & Huang, M. (2015). Evolving defense mechanism for future network security. IEEE Communications Magazine, 53(4), 45-51.