Authentication Protocols
In contemporary world, networking is a word that is commonly understood as networking of computers. Such a network may be local area network (LAN), or wide area network (WAN). Wide area network gives users access to information on any remote computer, while local area network relates to other computers within same premises. However, people and organizations do store crucial data on their computers. They might want to give access to some information on their systems, or servers, but not all. Therefore some security norms are important because computers may be used to store very important information such as trade secrets, or other passwords. Passwords such as those used for bank transactions are highly susceptible to attacks by hackers who can then use them for their benefit. There are firewalls, and other software programs that are developed by various computer security systems providers. However, as of now, none of them offer comprehensive protection.
In this context, it is necessary to understand a bit about Internet and relevant protocols. Open Systems Interconnection is standardized format of giving access to Internet. But it is only a communication format; it does not define the format of data and many other protocols for communicating between computers. It however, mentions layers of communications such as application layer and transport layer, which too are not very clearly defined. In this scenario, many Network protocols have come up for efficient and secure communication across the Internet as well as local are networks.
Computer Network Protocols are therefore a set of accepted conventions and rules that let one computer communicate with another. Very common network protocols include Ethernet, ATM, and Local Talk. Within computers and networks, there is what is known as Network Authentication Protocol. The ID as well as the password of the computer, server, or person trying to access any information is established in these Network Authentication protocols. Application layer protocols give access to Internet network, while transport layer protocols are more specific, i.e., they give one host an access to another host.
A commonly used network protocol is the Password Authentication protocol. In this protocol, users have unique user identification. This ID is also accompanied by a password. This password is stored in an encrypted form. The combination of user ID, and password allows the user to sign in and access the information through some authenticating entities such as Internet Service Providers. Network protocol options include Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP), Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (MS-CHAP), Smart card etc.
The WPA serves as an upgrade and improvement over WEP. While WEP used a single key in order to check and authenticate data, WPA continually and randomly changes its keys. This makes determining the key much harder to do. The WPA encryption method provides a stronger encryption than WEP. Generally, WPA and WPA2 replace the first protocol WEP as the primary methods of network Authentication.
The WPA2 offers much stronger, government-grade encryption to a network as compared to an WPA. It is similar to WPA, WPA2 also offers 2 versions: WPA2-Personal for personal use and WPA2-Enterprise for corporate use. WPA2-Personal protects the network by requiring a password key or passkey for authentication. WPA2-Enterprise requires a user name to authenticate against a certificate on a server. Lastly, the Virtual Private Networks or VPN. This allows the networking of 1 computer to a network of PC or network of PC to another network. The concept of VPN relies on VPN tunneling between 2 endpoints. When 1 endpoint connects to another endpoint for example, a laptop connects to a work big network through VPN a tunnel is created between the pts that prevents eavesdropping or data interception. VPN offers much secure access to other networks from outside the networks, but is very challenging to set up and maintain.