Secure Network Architecture Design

 Secure Network Architecture Design

Network Components

Routers

These crucial gadgets are used to transfer data between networks. Routers employ IP addresses to determine where data should go. Two routers can connect an internal network to the Internet, separate it, or link it to external networks and services.

Firewalls

Based on an organization’s security policy, firewalls regulate incoming and outgoing traffic to prevent unauthorized access. They protect networks from illegal access, attacks, and other risks. Two firewalls show that layered security may use external and internal firewalls to safeguard critical network areas.

Switches

Devices in the same network segment can only be connected using switches. These devices can forward data packets via the recipient’s MAC address, speeding up the process. Four switches indicate that they are spread across departments or business units to manage connectivity and network traffic.

Intrusion Detection System

An IDS analyzes all computer system traffic during a specific period. It can detect system threats and brute-force password attempts. Traffic signatures and trends are examined by this technology to detect abnormalities and improve security.

Intrusion Prevention System

The real-time threat prevention capability distinguishes an IPS from an IDS. It alerts administrators, discards malicious packets, and blocks suspicious traffic in the event of a possible threat.

A Proxy Server

Proxy servers bridge users and the Internet, improving security and performance. It is responsible for caching content, controlling internet access, and hiding internal network IP addresses. They filter information, enforce internet restrictions in an enterprise, and cache frequently accessed resources to save bandwidth.

Email Server

This is a network computer that sends, stores and receives messages. Along with inbound email traffic, it oversees outgoing email transfers between businesses to enforce anti-virus screening, spam filtering, and recipient routing.

DHCP Server

A DHCP server dynamically distributes IP addresses and other network setup parameters to devices on the network, making it easy to integrate new devices and efficiently use the IP address space. This makes managing big networks with many devices easier, including connectivity without human configuration.

Demilitarized Zone

An untrusted external network and a trusted internal network are separated by DMZ. Web servers, email servers, and others must be accessible from the outside while keeping the inside network safe. DMZ increases security by isolating and controlling access.

Network Segmentation

Network segmentation by departments or functions creates smaller, more manageable segments. This arrangement improves security and performance by restricting breaches to one section and decreasing traffic. Segmentation offers security policy customization, better data access, and network resource management in five departments with at least 25 customers.

System Air Gap

This system is physically separated from other networks, including the Internet, to protect sensitive data. Since attackers cannot directly access air-gapped systems, it prevents cyber threats. Critical systems where breaches or cyberattacks are unacceptable are common applications.

Intellectual Tools Selection

The construction of secure networks will involve Wireshark, OpenVPN, and Nessus. This is based on worldwide user popularity, network analysis, encryption, and vulnerability scanning. They make a foundation for network security. To ensure complete security in our secure network, we will install Wireshark, OpenVPN, and Nessus. Layered security is essential as their combination allows different cyber threats to be responded to.

Wireshark is also a protocol analyzer that captures computer network traffic while it’s browsed interactively, making this program vital to our design since it allows watching desktop traffic, hence observing real-time network behavior, identifying any suspicion in activity at a glance, or even examining problems.

OpenVPN, which is an open-source VPN software, provides point-to-point or site-to-site connections that are very safe. We depend on OpenVPN for secure communication in our network design. The data traveling through the network is encrypted to maintain its confidentiality. Using OpenVPN, we can establish secure tunnels for remote access, safeguarding against unlawful data eavesdropping or third-party intercepts.

As a vulnerability scanner, Nessus scans the whole network looking out for potential vulnerabilities that attackers can take advantage of (Aleroud et al., 2014). This supplements real-time monitoring provided by Wireshark and encryption functions performed by OpenVPN, thus providing a more proactive approach toward security. Therefore, regular scans using Nessus help identify and fix vulnerabilities, reducing attack surface while enhancing defense mechanisms within the network.

Secure Network Components and Interactions

Wireshark monitors network traffic to identify anomalies and potential breaches of security. With this real-time analysis, any issues can be identified immediately so that responses to threats can be made quickly. OpenVPN uses encryption to protect data transmission such that even if the data packets are captured, they cannot be decrypted by unauthorized entities” (Iqbal & Riadi, 2019). This is important because it prevents sensitive information from being accessed and losing privacy. Accordingly, Nessus conducts regular vulnerability scans, thereby providing insights into potential weaknesses and recommendations to mitigate them. Consequently, this ensures that known vulnerabilities do not weaken the network. Putting all three of these, Wireshark, OpenVPN, and Nessus, together in a secure network design guarantees a complete approach in terms of real-time monitoring, encryption, and vulnerability scanning, respectively (Alexander et al., 2008). For the confidentiality of the network, its integrity and availability are protected using layers upon layers of security.

Every piece of a secure network works in unison to ensure that data remains confidential, intact, and available. Firewalls, IDSs, encryption protocols, access controls, and network monitoring tools are some of the security tools. Firewalls thwart unwanted network connection attempts in the first instance. They check incoming as well as outgoing traffic against rules or policies, either allowing or disallowing it. Hardware or software firewalls act like filters that sit on a boundary between external networks as well as internal ones, blocking traffic from one side to another (Singh & Patterh, 2017).

Intrusion detection systems identify any suspicious action or pattern in the traffic for possible security violations within an organization’s environment. They differ from applying firewalls that examine packets of data for the determination of real-time anomalies and attack signatures governing access control. The IDS can be designed inline or out-of-band based on network design and security requirements.

Encryption algorithms secure data privacy and integrity over networks. It prevents unauthorized access to networked information. Security HTTPS encrypts the web; IPsec secures IP layer communications within networks, while SSL/TLS secures it across the Internet. Thus, data goes through the process of encryption before it is transferred, making it invisible to other people who don’t have permission to see it. The encrypted data can be decrypted only by those who have the necessary decryption keys.

Network monitoring tools like Wireshark provide visibility into network traffic, performance, and security events. These tools collect data from different sources like routers, switches, and servers, helping troubleshoot incidents, discover anomalies, analyze logs, and detect attacks, among others. Network monitoring tools may include packet sniffers, log management systems, and security incident event management (SIEM) software. A secure network design is therefore accomplished by combining several components, resulting in multiple layers of security against cyber threats and unauthorized entry. Firewalls manage traffic flow, IDS detect irregularities, encryption protocols encrypt data transfer, access controls limit user resource access and permissions, and network monitoring tools show system activity.

+———————————-+

|       Perimeter Security         |

|     (Firewall, IDS/IPS, etc.)    |

+————-+——————–+

|

|

|

+———+———-+

|  Internal Segmentation |

|   (VLANs, Subnetting)   |

+————+———-+

|

|

|

+—————————–+———————–+

|        Endpoint Protection Solutions              |

|   (Antivirus, Host-based IDS/IPS, EDR, Nessus)            |

+—————————–+———————–+

|

|

|

+—————-+———————+

|  Encryption and Access Control       |

| (Data Encryption, Access Control, OpenVPN)    |

+—————-+———————+

|

|

|

+—————–+———————+

|  Security Monitoring and Incident    |

|           Response                    |

|  (SIEM, Security Operations Center, Wireshark )   |

+————————————–+

Security Threats and Effects in Advanced Networks

Cybersecurity has become more complex in the era of 5G Networks, Cloud Computing, and IoT. Cybercrimes have also increased as a result of attempts to stay up with the digital transition. These threats may have grave effects. They could result in lost client trust, financial losses, data breaches, network disruptions, and even legal action. Therefore, it is crucial to implement strong network security measures. This progress has many benefits, but it also exposes new risks. IoT devices often lack security, thus becoming vulnerable to hacking and compromising an organization’s network. This increases risk owing to mass IoT adoption, resulting in hundreds or thousands of hacker entry points (Urbina et al., 2018). Furthermore, 5G networks will enhance new applications and services due to faster connectivity time as well as reduced latency. The fact that 5G infrastructure is very susceptible because of its intricacy makes it a close open gate for hackers. They improve vulnerabilities while at the same time maintaining agility and effectiveness.

Cloud computing has transformed commercial data storage and processing by giving scalable possibilities. Nonetheless, cloud services follow a shared responsibility paradigm; hence, they are not fully responsible for client compromises or attacks. This can result in unauthorized access to sensitive information if cloud environment access restrictions are not put in place (Sharma & Rawat, 2014)

Security techniques need to be reassessed for this technology to fit into network designs. Traditional perimeter-based models are outdated. In this case, trust but verify with everyone accessing network resources being required to authenticate; thus, the zero-trust approach is recommended by some experts. Subsequently, organizations should monitor and assess vulnerabilities and use AI plus machine learning technologies as modern security strategies against growing complex cyber threats like spoofing, ransomware, and advanced and persistent threats (APTs). Notably, while working with sophisticated networks and protocols, security needs to be proactive and thorough; since these emerging technologies have risks, companies must adopt best practice principles to safeguard their networks within this dynamic environment.

References

Aleroud, A., Karabatis, G., Sharma, P., & He, P. (2014). Context and semantics for detection of cyber attacks. International Journal of Information and Computer Security 7, 6(1), 63-92.

Alexander, D. S., Arbaugh, W. A., Keromytis, A. D., & Smith, J. M. (2008). A secure active network environment architecture: Realization in SwitchWare. IEEE Network, 12(3), 37-45.

Iqbal, M., & Riadi, I. (2019). Analysis of security virtual private network (VPN) using OpenVPN. International Journal of Cyber-Security and Digital Forensics, 8(1), 58-65.

Sharma, R. K., & Rawat, D. B. (2014). Advances on security threats and countermeasures for cognitive radio networks: A survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 17(2), 1023-1043.

Singh, M., & Patterh, M. S. (2017). Security functional components for building a secure network computing environment. Information Systems Security, 16(6), 332-343.

Urbina, M., Moreira, N., Rodriguez, M., Acosta, T., Lázaro, J., & Astarloa, A. (2018). Secure protocol and IP core for configuration of networking hardware IPs in the smart grid. Energies, 11(3), 510.

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Cybersecurity professionals must be able to reduce the vulnerability of an organization’s network by designing a secure network.
Design a corporate infrastructure diagram in Visio or another network mapping tool (this deliverable must be readable by your professor; Cisco Packet Tracer is not acceptable). Your network diagram must include a minimum of 2 routers, 2 firewalls, 4 switches, 1 IDS, 1 IPS, a proxy server, an email server, a DHCP server, a DMZ, and finally, 5 separate departments utilizing network segmentation with a minimum of 25 clients per department. You must also include an air-gapped system for your R&D department to utilize.

Select 2-3 intellectual tools (e.g., Suricata, pfSense, Snort, etc.) and demonstrate how they work together to create a framework. Make sure to include them in your secure network design. Do not use Suricata, pfSense, or Snort.
In 500 words, systematically explain all the secure network design components and how they interact with each other. Make sure to use a variety of visuals to support your explanation.
In 300 words, comprehensively describe and discuss the security issues and implications of advanced and novel networks and protocols (to include both current and new network technologies).