CST311 - Week 8

 

CST311 – Intro to Computer Networks 

This is the last week of this essential and informative course. I have learned a lot from the network from the provided materials and labs. Under the operational security topic, we reviewed the firewall function, VLANs, IPsec VPN tunnels, wireless security, and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). Organizations implement firewalls to control the inbound and outbound network traffic, restricting access to services by local security policies. We reviewed three types of firewalls: traditional packet filters, stateful packet filters, and application gateways.

Intrusion detection systems are great for deep packet inspection and analyzing traffic for suspicious activities. An IDS usually limits the traffic analysis to alert only, and an IPS or intrusion prevention system drops packets by taken action. The IDS sensors use packet inspection by comparing inbound and outbound packets to a significant amount of security signatures. This may challenge the IDS's performance. To distribute the workload, organizations may elect to deploy multiple IDS within the same network.

That is the end of a great learning experience. The labs for this course are real-world scenarios, and they definitely cover the fundamental aspects of a typical work environment.