Internet infrastructure security

Abstract

Summary form only given. The Internet has grown enormously over the last decade and has become ubiquitous. Most past research has focused on improving the performance and scalability of the Internet. The issue of securing the Internet has become a central issue due to a series of attacks that shut down some of the world's most high profile Web sites. Moreover, the growing concerns for cyber terrorism have made governments and researchers realize the importance of Internet security. Securing the Internet, as in any other field of computers, is based on the principle of confidentiality and integrity. This principle exists in every field, but the presence of packet sniffers, malicious routers, covert channels, eavesdroppers, denial-of-service (DoS) in the Internet makes this problem quite challenging. There has been a surge of Internet security research in the field of information assurance, which primarily focused on protecting the data using techniques such as authentication and encryption. However, information assurance assumes that the devices responsible for encrypting, forwarding and sending are trustworthy. Researchers are now questioning these assumptions, as instances have occurred where the network infrastructure (e.g., routers, servers) is compromised to the advantage of the malicious adversaries. Therefore, Internet infrastructure security is the need of the hour.