Network Security | Jevon Wooden ISSC341: Introduction to NetworkingProfessor Belkacem KraimecheAmerican Military University7/13/2012 | |

What is network security? According to Cisco,
Network security refers to any activities designed to protect your network. Specifically, these activities protect the usability, reliability, integrity, and safety of your network and data. Effective network security targets a variety of threats and stops them from entering or spreading on your network. (What is network security?, para. 2)
This essay will discuss how network security works, threats against network security, the importance of network security being properly designed, monitored, and tested, and the future trends of network security and global implications.
In order to understand the definition of network security, an analysis of what threatens your network and the countermeasures to stop them needs to be obtained. It also needs to be understood that no network is 100% “hackerproof”. Your job is to make things difficult by designing a network that is hardened and ready for cyber warfare. Before going too far into the design and hardening aspect, let us discuss threats that wage war upon your network. The first type to be considered are insider threats which can range anywhere from an untrained user downloading media off the Internet that have viruses, to a disgruntled employee looking to corrupt or steal confidential information to sell it. Internal threats pose as a significant risk because the user already has the privileges needed to access the network. Kenneth Knapp (2009) mentioned that
According to a 2007 E-crime survey that showed reported economic and operational damage caused by insiders was comparable to that of external attacks (CSO, 2007). About 30% of respondents indicated that their greatest cyber security threat was from current and former