Source mc mcse Certification Resources

• Physical Security – physical security is just as it sounds, locks on the doors, cameras everywhere, and so forth. Depending on the depth of security needed there may be additional layers of security such as an access badge that operates a door that is additionally checked by a guard. You might have a dual door entrance such as a “man trap” where the first door you badge opens and you walk through it and it must completely close before the next door a few feet in front of you becomes operational to bade through.

• Restricting Local and Remote Access – A lot of local access restriction will come from physical security measures but you can also set systems to not allow local login at the console except for certain specific account names in the domain or certain specific account names in the local accounts database. With respect to remote access you can also mange the same principle of least privilege by only allowing remote access to just the individuals that absolutely need it as part of their role responsibly and by denying everyone else. Those that are allowed the access should then still need to provide at least a username and password in order to authenticate to the remote system.

• Secure Shell (SSH) – Application Layer protocol in the Internet Protocol Suite that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices and was designed as a replacement for Telnet and other insecure remote shells, which send information including account name information and passwords in clear text.

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) – Application Layer protocol in the Internet Protocol Suite that functions on port 443 by default and uses the standard Hypertext Transfer Protocol with the SSL/TLS protocol to provide encryption and secure identification of the server which allows the server / client communications to be secured. An everyday example of this would be anytime you purchase something online and the shopping website takes you from the regular store front pages defined as https:// and redirects you to their secured servers at https://

• Simple Network Management Protocol version 3 (SNMPv3) – Application Layer protocol in the Internet Protocol Suite that is used mostly in network management systems to monitor network attached devices. Version 3 provides important security features that the prior versions did not including message integrity that ensures packets were not altered, authentication that verifies that the inbound data is from an expected source system as well as encryption for the traffic stream itself.

• Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) – sometimes called SSH file transfer protocol is a network protocol that provides secured, encrypted file transfer capability over TCP port 22 by default.

• Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) – Application Layer protocol in the Internet Protocol Suite that leverages the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol using TCP port 22 by default to copy files from system to system on the same network or across different networks.

• Telnet – Application Layer protocol in the Internet Protocol Suite that was traditionally used to connect dumb terminals to mainframe systems. Today it is sometimes used to connect to headless network equipment such as switches and routers by using a command window. It is a client server protocol that runs on port 23 by default, and does not encrypt any data sent over the connection.

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) – Application Layer protocol in the Internet Protocol Suite that is the standard protocol in use on the World Wide Web. Operating on port 80 by default, internet clients contact a web server and request pages back from that server to their web browsers which render the returned content from the connection call.

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) – Application Layer protocol in the Internet Protocol Suite that uses port 20 for data connections and listens on port 21. Often FTP is set up for anonymous access for the putting and getting of files. Even when user name identification is required and password authentication is request to systems using FTP it is done via clear text.

• Remote Shell (RSH) – a command line program which can execute shell commands as another user and on another computer across a computer network. All of the commands that are sent are done in clear text and any authentication is also sent over the wire unencrypted. Secure Shell (SSH) is the secure replacement for this utility.

• Remote Copy Protocol (RCP) – a Unix based command line utility that is used to copy data from one system to another. The utility sends unencrypted information over the network including any applicable account and password information. It has been replaced by Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) which is sometimes called SSH file transfer protocol.

• Simple Network Management Protocol versions 1 or 2 (SNMP) – Application Layer protocol in the Internet Protocol Suite that is used for system management and configuration. Version 1 was originally introduced in the late 80s and does not have really any applicable security features available. Authentication is performed using the “community string”, which is effectively nothing more than a password and that was transmitted in clear text. Version 2 did offer some improvements in performance, security, and confidentiality but it did this through a “party-based” security system that was considered overly complex and it was not widely accepted as a result.

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