Secure Services

Securing services is the process of encrypting information to prevent unauthorized access. Ga Tech administrators providing unit-level or enterprise wide services are highly encouraged to ensure that the application/service provides "end-to-end" encryption. The confidentiality and integrity of data should be protected by the application/service utilizing the normal security mechanism of the system enhanced with encryption tools. Security features and operational practices must be incorporated into the design specifications.

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Taxonomy
SSh
Secure POP
SSL
Secure IMAP
PGP
Kerberos

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Secure Shell (SSh)

SSh is a program that was designed to allow a user on one computer to securely access another computer through a network or internet connection. Due to the fact that the internet is plagued with many security issues, SSh was developed in part to sustain the risk of intercepted or stolen data. Hackers now have the ability to steal passwords and other data without a user knowing, however SSh, with its capacity to encrypt data before sending it prevents this from happening.

www.ssh.fi

Downloads

Windows    Secure CRT - by VanDyke. Putty - by Simon Tatham	Mac    Nifty Telnet by Jonas Waldén F-Secure by F-Secure
Unix    OpenSSh - by The OpenBSD Project.        -- alternate download --           -- more info --

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Secure Post Office Protocol (Secure POP)

There are three Internet-based protocols, POP(Post Office Protocol), IMAP(Intenet Message Access Protocol), DMSP(Distributed Mail System Protocol). POP is the oldest and most popular of these three protocols. POP enables users to go online for a short period of time and download all of their mail to their local machine.

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Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

This procedure for data transmission was developed by Netscape with the intentions of securing information transmitted over the internet. SSL fragments, encrypts and compresses messages to be transmitted. On the other end, it decompresses, decrypts, verifies and reassembles the transmitted data for use with other applications.

developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/security/sslin/contents.htm

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Secure Internet Message Access Protocol (Secure IMAP)

IMAP allows email users to read their mail without actually downloading it first. This means that the messages will still be on the server later if the user wants to read them from another computer. This is advantageous over POP because POP downloads messages first, thus removing the mail from the server making it impossible to read that mail unless you are on the computer that it has been downloaded to. One weakness of IMAP is that it transfers data and passwords over the network in cleartext. Secure IMAP overcomes this weakness by encrypting information, thus keeping it private.

www.imap.org

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Kerberos Authentication

Kerberos authentication services provide for:

• password encryption
• a secure method for password storage
• centralized management for password changes
• enforcement of a password expiration policy every 90 days
• automated account creation for new students and employees
• the first step toward a single sign-on solution