Secure communication refers to methods allowing people to transmit information with varied degrees of confidence that third parties will not be able to listen in. When two entities communicate and do not want a third party to listen in, they use secure communication.
What is Secure Communication?
Secure communication is premised on the need for authentication through encryption. Authentication identifies the source and destination as the desired individuals.
Encryption encodes communications at the source and decodes them at the destination, making it impossible for intruders to read any signals they may intercept.
Apart from spoken face-to-face communication with no potential eavesdropper, it is probably safe to say that no communication is guaranteed to be secure in this sense, despite practical obstacles such as legislation, resources, technical issues, and the sheer volume of communication serving to limit surveillance.
History of Secure Communication
In Madison Square Garden in 1898, Nikola Tesla showed a radio-controlled boat that permitted safe communication between the transmitter and receiver.
The Green Hornet was one of the most well-known encrypted communication systems. During WWII, Winston Churchill had to meet with Franklin D. Roosevelt to address critical issues. The calls were initially made using a voice scrambler, which was deemed to be safe.
When this was shown to be inaccurate, engineers began developing a whole new system, the Green Hornet or SIGSALY. Any unauthorized person listening in on the Green Hornet would only hear white noise, but authorized parties would hear the dialogue clearly.
The location of the Green Hornet was only known by the individuals who created it and Winston Churchill due to the need of secrecy. The Green Hornet was stored in a cupboard designated ‘Broom Cupboard’ to protect secrecy. A one-time pad was utilized by the Green Hornet.
Different types of security in Communication
Security may be divided into the following categories, with examples:
Hiding a communication’s content or nature
A rule that converts a piece of information (for example, a letter, word, phrase, or gesture) into another form or representation (one sign into another sign), not necessarily of the same type, is known as a code. In the field of communications and data processing, encoding is the process of converting data from a source into symbols that may be conveyed.
Decoding is the process of translating these code symbols into information that a receiver can understand. One purpose for coding is to make communication feasible in situations where speaking or writing is difficult or impossible.
For example, semaphore uses a signaler’s flag configuration or the arms of a semaphore tower to encode elements of a message, usually individual characters and digits. Another individual standing a long way away can decipher the flags and repeat the messages conveyed.
- Obfuscation
- Encryption
- Steganography
- Identifiable
Keeping the identities of the persons involved in a communication hidden
“Crowds” and other forms of anonymous grouping – When information originates from a “crowd,” it’s impossible to know who said what.
Unregistered telephones and Internet cafés are examples of anonymous communication technology.
Proxies that are anonymous
Routing techniques that are difficult to track – such as relays or unapproved third-party systems
Secure Communication and Data Processing Challenges in the Industrial Internet
| Challenge |
Enabler technology |
Solution direction |
| Ubiquitous connectivity |
5G |
Low-latency, ultrareliable, long-range sensor communication |
| Network virtualization |
SDN, NFV |
OpenFlow-based connectivity of industrial machinery under IP controller running in Virtual Machines. |
| Information intelligence |
Smart Spaces |
A semantic layer is introduced to share system semantic information by participants themselves. |
| Security requirements |
VPLS, Watermarking |
Secure VPN tunnels are established between LANs to encrypt the user data. Sensor data ownership. |
Keeping the fact that a conversation is taking place a secret
“Security via obscurity” — akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
Random traffic — generating a random data flow to make actual communication more difficult to identify and traffic analysis less trustworthy.
For example, if a communication is difficult to identify, it is unlikely to draw attention for the purpose of identifying participants, and the sheer fact that a communication occurred is frequently enough to establish an evidence link in legal proceedings.
Cases on the edge
Software designed to take advantage of security holes at endpoints is another area that pertains to secure communication. This software category includes trojan horses, keyloggers and other spyware.
These types of activities are typically addressed with common mainstream security methods such as antivirus software, firewalls, programs that detect or neutralize adware and spyware, and web filtering programs such as Proxomitron and Privoxy, which scan all web pages being read and identify and remove common nuisances contained.
Summary
The necessity for authentication through encryption underpins secure communication. Another aspect of secure communication is software intended to exploit security flaws at endpoints.
Tools for obtaining security
Encryption
Encryption is a means of making data difficult to read by an unauthorised person. Because encryption systems are designed to be exceedingly difficult to crack, many communication methods either utilise intentionally weaker encryption than is practicable, or incorporate backdoors.
Many encryption systems are also vulnerable to “man in the middle” attacks, in which a third party who can ‘see’ the construction of the secure connection is given access to the encryption method; this would apply.
Encryption can be implemented in a fashion that demands the usage of encryption, i.e. if encrypted communication is impossible, no transmission is delivered, or it can be implemented opportunistically.
With communications and coding techniques, physical layer encryption, an information-theoretic security methodology, assures that a wireless communication link is provably safe.
Steganography
Steganography, or “hidden writing,” is a method of concealing data among more harmless data. Thus, a watermark confirming ownership is encoded in the data of a photograph in such a manner that it is difficult to locate or erase unless you know how to look for it.
In the case of communication, the concealment of critical information (such as a phone number) in seemingly benign data. One advantage of steganography is plausible deniability; that is, unless the data can be proven to be present, it is possible to deny that the file contains the data.
Networks based on identity
Because the internet is fundamentally anonymous, unwanted or malevolent activity is conceivable. True identity-based networks replace the capacity to stay anonymous and are intrinsically more trustworthy since the sender and recipient’s identities are known.
Networks that are anonymous
Anonymous networking has recently been utilised to safeguard communications. In theory, a large number of users using the same system can have communications routed through them in such a way that it is very difficult to determine what the whole message is, who sent it, and where it is ultimately originating from or going to. Crowds, Tor, I2P, Mixminion, and other anonymous P2P networks are examples.
Devices for anonymous communication
In principle, an unfamiliar gadget would go unnoticed because there are so many other devices in operation. This is not entirely true in practice, due to the availability of systems like Carnivore and Echelon, which can monitor conversations across whole networks, as well as the fact that the far end can still be watched as previously. Payphones, Internet cafes, and other such services are examples.
Methods for “breaking” security
Bugging
The clandestine placement of monitoring and/or transmission devices within the communication equipment or in the affected premises.
Computer safety
Any computer security is restricted by the several ways it might be hacked — hacking, keystroke logging, and banning.
Summary
Secure communication is a significant problem in all wireless communications, but it is especially critical in body area networks, particularly in medical applications, since it has the ability to improve a user’s physical well-being. WBAN security systems are concerned with these issues
Systems that provide just limited security
Cellphones are easily obtained, but they may also be tracked and “tapped.” Because the phone and SIM card broadcast their International Mobile Subscriber Identity , there is no (or very minimal) encryption, and the phones are traceable – frequently even when powered off – (IMSI).
Some smartphones (Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android) detect and retain users’ location information, allowing users’ travels to be traced back months or years by studying the phone.
The US government has access to cellphone monitoring technology, which are generally used for law enforcement.
Landlines
Because analogue landlines are not encrypted, they can be readily tapped. Such tapping necessitates physical access to the line, which may be accomplished from a variety of locations, including the phone location, distribution stations, cabinets, and the exchange itself.
Tapping a landline in this manner allows an attacker to make calls that appear to come from the tapped line.
Internet anonymity
Using a third party system of any type (payphone, Internet café) is frequently extremely safe; but, if that system is used to reach known places (a known email account or third party), it may be tapped at the far end, or noted, and whatever security gain acquired will be lost. Some governments also require Internet café users to register.
Another widespread sort of security is anonymous proxies, which allow one to access the internet through a third party (typically in a foreign country) and make tracking difficult. It’s worth noting that there’s rarely any guarantee that the plaintext isn’t tapable, or that the proxy doesn’t store its own records of users or full conversations.
Programs that provide greater security
Secure instant messaging - End-to-end encryption with forward secrecy is used by certain instant messaging clients to protect all instant messages sent to other users of the same program. Some instant messaging programms additionally provide encrypted file transfers and group messaging.
VoIP - Some VoIP clients encrypt conversations using ZRTP and SRTP.
Secure email - Some email networks are designed to offer encrypted and/or anonymous communication. They authenticate and encrypt on the user’s computer to prevent plain text transmission and to conceal the sender and receiver. Mixminion and I2P-Bote give more anonymity by utilising an anode network.
Summary
Secure communications are essential in many sensor network operations, particularly military-related ones. Several obstacles stand in the way of this goal.
Frequently Asked Questions
People usually ask many Questions about Secure Communication. A few of them are discussed below
1. What is the most secure method of communication?
Often, the most private method to connect with individuals is in person, without the use of computers or phones. Because this isn’t always achievable, using end-to-end encryption is the next best option.
2. What exactly are the four components of secure communication?
Protection, Detection, Verification, and Reaction are the four components of a successful security system.
3. What is the significance of secure communication?
It is an essential component of successful communication, efficient administration, and a well-organized infrastructure. Communication clarifies discussions, allows for easy information transfers, and assures that everyone on a team is working toward the same objective.
4. How many different forms of communication security exist?
Each of the three forms of security is significant, and depending on the situation, any of them might be crucial.
5. What exactly is networking in the context of cyber security?
Network security safeguards your network and data against breaches, invasions, and other attacks. Access control, virus and antivirus software, application security, network analytics, network-related security types (endpoint, online, wireless), firewalls, VPN encryption, and other components are all part of network security.
Conclusion
The goal of secure communications is to allow the legitimate destination node to successfully retrieve the source information while keeping eavesdroppers (wire-tappers) as unaware of it as feasible.
Because of the broadcast nature of wireless transmissions and the rising prevalence of wireless sensors in military and homeland security applications, privacy and security considerations have become more significant in the design of tactical wireless networks in recent years.
Secure communication enables you to achieve safety for your devices and eliminate vulnerability with the latest CVE support. You can be assured to obtain reliable communication between devices through authentication and be safe through data and communication encryption. Moreover, you can secure the evidence of surveillance images through alteration detection, verification and key protection.
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