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FastTrack Training. "Network Basics". "Security basics". Eddie Martin December 2012

About a year ago, I noticed an interesting and fascinating series of lectures by Eddie Martin, which, thanks to its history and real-life examples, as well as its tremendous learning experience, is amazingly comprehensible and allows you to gain an understanding of quite complex technologies.



We continue the cycle of 27 articles based on his lectures:
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01/02: “Understanding the OSI Model” Part 1 / Part 2
03: "Understanding the Cisco Architecture"
04/05: “The Basics of Switching or Switches” Part 1 / Part 2
06: "Switches from Cisco"
07: "Area of ​​use of network switches, the value of Cisco switches"
08/09: "Basics of a Wireless LAN" Part 1 / Part 2
10: "Products in the field of wireless LAN"
11: The Value of Cisco Wireless LANs
12: Routing Basics
13: "The structure of routers, routing platforms from Cisco"
14: The Value of Cisco Routers
15/16: “The Basics of Data Centers” Part 1 / Part 2
17: "Equipment for data centers"
18: "The Value of Cisco in Data Centers"
19/20/21: "The Basics of Telephony" Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
22: "Cisco Collaboration Software"
23: The Value of Collaboration Products from Cisco
24: "The Basics of Security"
25: "Cisco Security Software"
26: "The Value of Cisco Security Products"
27: "Understanding Cisco Architectural Games (Review)"

And here are the twenty fourth of them.

FastTrack Training. "Network Basics". "Security basics". Eddie Martin December 2012


People can go to jail if the network is not secure. Security is one of the most important issues in a conversation with top management companies. The integrity of a large amount of information for customers today is of paramount importance.

In 2003, a survey was conducted on why people care about network security. In the first place was the concern for the indestructibility of the brand. This task is still important, and I think today this reason is both the first and the second most important. In third place, unfortunately, there was such a reason: “We want to ensure the security of the network, because we have to do it” Because clients could not protect their network until this requirement became a prerequisite.



Security is a very important condition, because any progress can stop if the user is at risk of losing their data or compromise their business.

There is a huge scope for providing security services. Because in one place one company can have a secure network, and another can try to hack it to make sure that the competitor has strong protection. It is so important that a lot of money is invested in this area.

Cisco certainly has protection. Customers do not want to build anything into the network except routers and switches, so Cisco has always released only secure equipment. However, the security conditions should vary depending on the nature of the hacker attacks.

Sometime at the beginning of our business, we called a customer and asked if his network was secure, and he replied: "Yes, of course, because I use your PIX firewall." And we said: "Then you are protected, everything is fine, thank you for being with us!" But times have changed, and security requirements have changed.

Where do you think the threats of network hacking come from? That's right, from anywhere, and more often they come from inside the network, rather than from the outside. The closest thing to security is IT. Cisco has a whole portfolio of network security solutions, and they are designed for use in several different situations.

Consider what access security is. It's like a locked door. To go inside, you need a login and password. Moreover, passwords must be periodically changed, and the password should not be the name of your child, and so on - there are rules that a secure password must comply with. Secure access means not only that you can connect to the network, but also that you can use network equipment.

We want to give customers the opportunity to bring their own device to work on the network, but we also want to ensure their security. We want guests to be able to enter our network, but so that it is safe for us.

To do this, we must provide a special level of access - guest access, and give a special username and password for the particular location of the user, that is, for the external client of the network. We must have not only the ability to do this, but also the ability to regulate and control such a process.

When I worked at Blue Cross & Blue Shield, we had a guy who served the mainframe, the main fault-tolerant server. He adhered to the rule not to enter the server with nothing but a cup of coffee, because everything else could threaten the security of the server. Security people are always against giving unrestricted access; they regulate access rights to protect us and our work.

We must ensure that our clients focus on this problem and do not say that they need to provide access to anyone in order to do their work, communicate, pay bills, and we do not give them that opportunity. We must adhere to a specific policy in this matter, because users do not adhere to a uniform security policy. We must teach them that security is part of the business process.

I can give many examples of customer attitudes towards security 3-5 years ago and now - it has seriously changed.

How fast is a security threat? It exists every second, every minute and every day.

We collect information and need to, if necessary, it spread very, very quickly.

Cisco has an organization of intellectual security SIO. She monitors all threats to network security, hacking attempts, viruses and examines information about the threats that come from our customers and our units. It publishes any information about new threats on the network so that all members of the network know about it. It places data about the vulnerability of the programs we use, new viruses and other dangerous things.



And if we are attacked by intruders, we will report this to SIO and it will repel the attack. If there is a new threat to the application that you are using, for example SIP, then the security service will immediately “push” it out of the network and send it to your IPS, a network intrusion prevention system that will block suspicious data.

If you remember, on Wednesday we talked about the session level when we set up its work and its associated devices. So, when SIO detects a threat at this level, it drops it into IPS. That is, I protect myself from the troubles occurring within the network. This is the service that we must provide to the client so that he can protect himself at any level of interaction with the network.

What does this mean? That we are more and more delving into cloud technologies. This is the area where we accumulate information and from where we distribute it throughout the network through our products. Therefore, we need to constantly interact with SIO in order to be aware of new threats and vulnerabilities for our devices. Cisco describes all of this and distributes this information to everyone.
So the first thing we need to do for a new client is the implementation of the 802.IX protocol. This protocol defines the main components and algorithms used in Ethernet / IEEE 802.3 networks for restricting unauthorized subscriber connection to network devices using an authentication procedure. It contains a list of subscribers and devices that can be allowed into the network. It supports security certificates on your phone and indicates which clients are safe to work with and which are not. This protocol provides authentication of devices and people.

We call this the administrative control of the NAC network. However, if we pay attention to your PC, we will see that most of the vulnerabilities are in your own head. We will see that you do not use antivirus or do not update it, that you use applications without security patches.



So, to prevent this from happening, Cisco does it for you by using the 802.IX protocol. It will not allow the application to start if it threatens the security of the network. Some customers associated with the trade, said that Cisco again complicates things. However, two years later, they looked at our authentication system and realized that we were right. It is enough to have a login and password to protect the network and your business from a lot of trouble. We gave customers the ability to safely use the devices and applications they want to use. And if at first people waved our demands, now they agree to fulfill them.

So, the basis of security is primarily access control. The switch is NAC and ACS - server access control. Authentication data - our login and password are sent to ACS. NAC then decides whether to give us a certain level of access. We combined the NAC / ACS functions in the ISE - Identity Services Engine. Depending on the size of your network and what you want to do, it can be placed in one “box” or maybe six.

This solution is used to manage identification and access control processes. Thanks to it, clients in real time can receive contextual information from networks, from users and devices, which are necessary for making proactive decisions on providing access based on a single access policy.

This platform also provides guest access. For example, you report your guest's e-mail and say that you want to give him access to such network resources for such and such a time. You give it authentication in the guest network. This way you can really control access. If I can open the door, then I get into the network. If I have the key, I open the door.

ISE gives you the ability to customize guest access options, such as visiting time, create a guest profile, etc. Customers are reluctant to do this because they think: “How do I set up this large matrix? How to classify all your employees and create a table of access levels? Probably, I will need an Oracle database for managing access rights for this. ” And so on. This is really a problem for us, we must ensure that the client stops thinking about it and convincing him that he must do this if he wants to realize the full potential of his organization. But they really resist such innovations.

The PIX firewall is no longer in use; we now have a Cisco ASA product, the Adaptive Security Appliance. It provides multitasking service. First of all, these are firewall features. The new version of the firewall provides bandwidth of 40 Gbps, it is a very powerful protector. The second thing that ASA provides is VPN. All ASA devices have the ability to create a VPN. 2000 users can be connected to such a network. The third component is IPS support, that is, the ASA contains an unauthorized access protection module.



This is a three-in-one solution, combined in one box. Another feature that ASA has is content filtering Content Filtering. You can filter the Internet content used by your employees. The rules by which this device operates can be changed as needed. This is what provides the path to the Internet.

Suppose a user drawn on the right wants to go to an Internet page. Can I limit it to this? Our user can log in not only to the Cisco network, but also to any third-party Internet resource. Let's look at the reason why a client may want to restrict your access. The first is labor productivity, you should not be distracted at work on extraneous things. This is followed by responsibility, because you can catch the virus by visiting third-party sites.

I have a friend - a professional programmer. He knows all about it, he can fix everything, cure you of viruses. So, he told me that he caught a virus with a porn ad. And when I asked how it had managed him, he replied that this infection had come to him from the site of one bank.

We can't just control other people like that. It is like trying to persuade them to drive at a speed of 45 miles per hour, and they will still drive at a speed of 60, even though it is against the law. But we can prohibit it forcibly by blocking access to certain sites. We have a WEB-security module that checks websites for threats. We may allow you to visit your Facebook page during business hours, but first we will check it. This decision, WEB Sec, came to us from a company called Ironport, which we acquired. Therefore, the ASA is really a very good "box".

If you do not want to support this solution, it is possible to locate Ironport in the cloud using a cloud-based security solution. You can make it so that you spend all your time on the Internet working in the Cloud, but this Cloud also has rules that you must follow. That is, you choose your policy of working with the client, providing security in one way or another.

If we put SIO on our cloudy Internet, we can also filter out content, checking its vulnerability, exposure to attacks, and so on. We have many different possibilities. And we have to implement them, because clients are not able to do this on their own, for them it is too difficult.

Email security is also very important. And this will help Cisco Ironport - perhaps the best security solution the company has ever developed. I'll draw a mail server with a green marker and Ironport IP under it. Before you get to this server, you go through IP and the sent mail passes through it as well. Suppose someone from the external Internet sends a letter.



First of all, “Ironport” checks where this letter came from and classifies it on a scale from -10 to +10 in accordance with the SIO classification. And if this letter receives a rating of "- 4", it will never get into our mail server. If the letter receives a rating of "+2", its contacts are checked. If they are not known to SIO, the letter is also blocked. Next, check the attachment, which is contained in the letter. If this is an executive file with the extension .exe, you will not receive this letter. Even if the sender changes the file extension from .exe to .jpg, it still does not deceive our Ironport and SIO, they will perfectly understand that the attachment is neither a picture, but a program. Because they classify any attachment.
And again, you can place this solution within the network or outside the network in the cloud service. You can even place your mail server within the network, and receive mail through the Cloud. This is a hybrid version of the postal service using 2 different technologies. You can both send and receive mail in this way.

Regarding IPS, I will say that we can study all new problems and update the network in accordance with new security requirements. Suppose your new SIP application contains a vulnerability, and we know how important these applications are for the business process. So, within a few minutes in our network, you can find a solution that protects it from threats.
Many customers are simply overwhelmed by the security capabilities of Cisco. Particularly amazing is the ability to use cloud services. If the user is hosted within the network, he can receive security updates from SIO at any time.

I showed you the SIO Internet page - this is our division, Cisco office. Ironport checks 40% of all mail that comes to us via the Internet. He sees all the security problems that arise every day and is constantly expanding his capabilities to counteract threats.

In branch networks, we have the same capabilities as in the headquarters network. There is a firewall in the router that is connected to the branch. And it also interacts with WEB SEC. If we need to block all external Internet traffic, we quickly set up filters and block it.

If some external user is looking for contact with us - this is the little man on the right - and in this case we are talking about working together, and contacting us from our home, we send him through cloud I and through ASA to our man at headquarters to the apartment. And all the Internet traffic that comes to us from the outside, subject to the same rules as domestic traffic.
Who should we discuss security issues with which client representative? With an officer or security officer? Of course not! Consider that this is just a guy who stands at the door and checks everyone at the entrance. CIO, director of IT technologies? Perhaps, but with him you need to discuss very different issues.

That's right, you need to talk with the CEO! It is the chief executive who determines the company's strategy, and not the guy with the badge and gun.



Therefore, we say that security issues are very important for the top management of the company that manages the entire business. Only these people have the right to say "yes" or "no" to our proposal. You need to tell them how important a security policy is, how BYOD (“bring your own device to work”) can change their lives for the better, how you can send security applications to the Cloud and how we do it. Cloud technologies are extremely expanding business opportunities. And I think customers will agree that this is a great decision.

And if you are good at your business, you will have no difficulty explaining this to the client in simple language. Everything we do sounds difficult for the client. For example, 19 device authentication steps. Therefore, it is not necessary to explain such subtleties to the client. He needs to be told how our solutions will help in organizing the network, and how they will ensure the safe development of the business.



Continued:

FastTrack Training. "Network Basics". "Cisco Software Products for Security." Eddie Martin December 2012

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