tailieunhanh - CompTIA Network+ Certification Study Guide part 46

CompTIA’s Network+ certification Study Guide part 46 is a globally-recognized, vendor neutral exam that has helped over 235,000 IT professionals reach further and higher in their careers. The 2009 Network+ exam (N10-004) is a major update with more focus on security and wireless aspects of networking. Our new study guide has been updated accordingly with focus on network, systems, and WAN security and complete coverage of today’s wireless networking standards. | 436 CHAPTER 9 Security Standards and Services party s hands it can be used to falsely authenticate and identify someone as a valid party forging false communications or using the user s access to gain permissions to the available resources. Original digital authentication systems shared a secret key across the network with the entity with which they wanted to authenticate. Applications such as Telnet and FTP are examples of programs that simply transmit the username and password in cleartext to the party they are authenticating. Another area of concern is POP3 e-mail which in its default state sends the complete username and password information in cleartext with no protection. The problem with this method of authentication is that anyone who monitors a network can possibly capture a secret key and use it to gain access to the services or to attempt to gain higher privileged access with your stolen authentication information. What methods can be used to provide a stronger defense As discussed previously sharing a handshake or secret key does not provide long lasting and secure communication or the secure exchange of authentication information. This has led to more secure methods of protection of authentication mechanisms. The following sections examine a number of methods that provide a better and more reliable authentication process. NOTES FROM THE FIELD . Cleartext Authentication Cleartext nonencrypted authentication is still widely used by many people who receive their e-mail through POP3. By default POP3 client applications send the username and password unprotected in cleartext from the e-mail client to the server. There are several ways of protecting e-mail account passwords including connection encryption. Encrypting connections between e-mail clients and servers is the only way of truly protecting your e-mail authentication password. This prevents anyone from capturing your password or any e-mail you transfer to your client. SSL is the general method used .