In Part I, I provided some background information on the OSI layer, some of the protocols and on security. In Part II, I’ll be discussing the different network security protocols: IPsec, TLS/SSL and SSH.
As an IT security professional, one of the areas where I gained a significant amount of knowledge and experience in is network security. Working for a telecommunications company, it’s pretty much a given that if you are working in security, you are dealing with network security protocols such as IPsec, SSL/TLS and SSH. I started off primarily working with IPsec and eventually was exposed to TLS and finally, SSH. One of the real issues that I first encountered was differentiating between these network security protocols. It took me time to be able to understand and explain the following:
“What is the difference between these network security protocols?”
“Which one shall I use?”
From my previous post – Is your computer secure– I indicated that novice users should never click on links. In this post, I will help you identify bad links and give you tips on when to click on a link.
When receiving a curious link, most users enter a split personality mode like Smeagol in Lord of the Rings. Your alter ego says click on it, while your heart says don’t. Unfortunately, sometimes the alter ego prevails, we click and we get infected or Phished. Let’s decompose a link so that you can make educated decisions on whether to click or not.