Types of Network Security

Network scanning is a scanning used to define vulnerabilities in a network. A scan can be used by security experts to shield the security of a network from an external attack. Hackers may use a scan to find vulnerabilities. Different types of scanning are as under,

Three–Way Handshake

TCP is connection-oriented, which indicates connection establishment is principal prior to data transmission between applications. This connection is possible using the process of the three-way handshake. The three-way handshake is applied for establishing the connection between protocols.

The three-way handshake procedure goes as follows:

• To launch a TCP link, the source sends a SYN packet to the destination (10.0.0.3:21).
• The destination, on getting the SYN packet, i.e., sent by the source, responds by referring a SYN/ACK packet back to the source.
• This ACK packet checks the arrival of the first SYN packet to the source.
• The source sends an ACK packet for the ACK/SYN packet sent by the receiver.
• This triggers an "OPEN" connection agreeing communication between the source and the destination, until any of them send a "FIN" packet or a "RST" packet to close the connection.

The TCP protocol keeps stateful connections for all connection-oriented protocols across
the Internet, and works the same as a normal telephone communication, in which one picks up a telephone receiver, hears a dial tone, and dials a number that generates ringing at the receiver end until a person picks up the receiver and tells, "Hello."

Stealth Scan(Half-Open Scan)

Stealth scan sends a single frame to a TCP port without any TCP handshaking or extra packet transfers. This is a scan type that leads a single frame with the expectation of a single response. The half-open scan partly opens a connection, but stops midway. This is also known as a SYN scan because it only directs the SYN packet. This stops the service from ever being reported of the incoming connection. The three-way handshake approach is also implemented by the stealth scan. The variation is that in the last stage, remote ports are recognized by examining the packets entering the interface and dismissing the connection before a new initialization was activated.

The process preludes the following:

• To start initialization, the client forward a single "SYN" packet to the destination server on the matching port.
• The server initiates the stealth scanning process, depending on the response sent.
• If the server forwards a "SYN/ACK" response packet, then the port is in "OPEN" state.
• If the response is advanced with an "RST" packet, then the port is in a "CLOSED" state.

NULL Scan

NULL scans direct TCP packets with all flags turned off. It is expected that closed ports will return a TCP RST. Packets received by open ports are rejected as invalid. It sets all flags of TCP headers, such as SYN, ACK, FIN, RST, URG and PSH, to NULL or unassigned. When any packets reach at the server, BSD networking code notifies the kernel to drop the incoming packet if a port is open, or sends an RST flag if a port is closed. This scan uses flags in the opposite fashion as the Xmas scan, but gives the similar output as FIN and Xmas tree scans. Many network codes of major operating systems can behave inversely in terms of responding to the packet, ex, Microsoft versus UNIX. This method does not helpful for Microsoft operating systems. Command line for null scanning with NMAP is " -sN"
Advantage:
It evades IDS and TCP three-way handshake.
Disadvantage:
It is helpful only for UNIX.

Network scanning scans networks for vulnerabilities in the security of that network. If there is a vulnerability with the safety of the network, it will give a report back to a hacker who may use this information to exploit that network bug to gain entry to the network or for other malicious actions.

Introduction to Project Management

What Is a Project?

A project is defined as a temporary attempt undertaken to make a unique product, service. The project achieves when its objectives are met or when the project has been terminated. The time taken to complete a particular project depends upon its size. It can be a large or small project. Software development companies define the project similarly except that the objectives are different and business oriented.

Project Attributes

The attributes of project includes a unique purpose for which the task is undertaken. To carry out a project different resources are required from different domain or areas.
Projects are temporary and they should have a sponsor or a primary customer. There is always an uncertainty attached with a project.

The project sponsor is the person who is responsible for providing the direction and funding for the project.

Project and Program Managers

Project managers work with the entire Project Team, Project Sponsors, and all the other people involved in a project to meet project goals and objectives whereas a Program is defined as group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually

What is Project Management?

Project management is the use of knowledge, skills, various tools and techniques to achieve goals and meet the requirements of the project. The triple constraints of project management are scope, time and cost.

The project stakeholders are part of project. They are the people involved and affected by the various activities carried out in the project. Stakeholders can be the project sponsor, project manager, project team, clients/customers, users and suppliers.

The key competencies required by project managers are described by the Knowledge areas.

The four core knowledge areas are scope, time, cost, and quality. They lead to some specific project objectives. The other four facilitating knowledge areas through which the project objectives are achieved are given as HR, communication, risk, and Procurement management.

To assist project manager, various Project management tools and techniques are used. Some specific tools and techniques include Project charter, Scope and Work Breakdown Structure, the Gantt charts, Network diagrams, Critical Path and chain scheduling. The knowledge are taking into cost are given as cost estimates and Earned Value Management (EVM).

As a part of Project management, Super tools have high use and potential for improving project success and achieve project goals such as Task scheduling software, Scope statements, various requirement analysis, and the report for the lessons learnt.

Tools, as suggested by some software development companies in India, which are extensively used and found to improve the importance of project includes the project progress reports, scheduled Kick-off meetings and Change requests.

The following points should be taken care for a successful project. They are given as:

• Support from Executives
• There should be continuous User involvement
• Experienced project manager
• Clearly defined Business objectives
• Minimized and focused scope
• Standard Software infrastructure
• Formal Methodologies
• Reliable cost and resource estimates
• Other criteria such as milestones, proper project planning, competent and reliable staff.

Most Important Skills and Competencies for Project Managers for a successful projects :

• People skills
• Leadership skill to guide and lead all the people working in the project.
• Listening skills to take better decisions to achieve project goals.
• Should be strong at building trust
• Verbal communication
• Managing and Building project teams
• Project manager should be an ideal decision taker to Conflict resolution, conflict management.
• They should have a Critical thinking to carry out effective and unique project.
• Project manager should have problem solving skills to manage the problems arising during the project development.

Handling Security Issues in SDLC

ASP.NET software companies in India must take special care while developing internal web applications that are accessed from outside with the help of world wide web. Moreover the increase in personally-owned mobile devices (e.g., watch gear, smartphones, tablets, and laptops) as well as the vast variety of vulnerable mobile apps results into a higher risk of revealing highly confidential and business-related information in the workplace. This is possible when such information is stored on personally-owned devices. Cyber-attacks often exploit such vulnerabilities inherent in applications and operating systems. Hence The software code must be developed following a secure coding guidelines and frequent updates and patches to software are necessary.

Security is unquestionably mandatory and no-one can overlook that. It may take longer and including security into SDLC may result into a more complicated practice.  Nevertheless, the alternatives are not that satisfactory as there are always hackers only too eager to disrupt into systems.

The consequences of not including security within the SDLC process can be catastrophic and could cause distressing concerns for companies' status and earnings. By safeguarding SDLC, unnecessary & un-planned costs can be evaded and security matters can be tackled as there is no need to wait for threats to emerge and then having to spend money in fitting current or probable matters that could have been dodged.

Software companies in India  use secure-SDLC that focuses on enforcing security into the Software Development Life Cycle. Every phase of SDLC will emphasize the enforcement of security – over and above the present set of events. Incorporating S-SDLC into an organization’s structure has many benefits that guarantees a secure product.

The focus of asp .net software companies in India, with respect to security domain, is on phases of SDLC such as design, implementation, delivery, operation, maintenance, and retirement. Information security and privacy experts must be involved in all phases of SDLC so that the overall effectiveness of security controls with respect to privacy concerns are taken care of.

The subsequent list recognizes key security guidelines at each stage in the development life cycle for asp .net software companies in India:

• System feasibility: Pinpoint security requirements, including governing requirements, in-house policies and standards that must be looked at.
• Software plans and requirements: Recognize the vulnerabilities, threats, and risks to software. Outline the desired level of protection. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis.
• Product design: Propose for the security criteria in product design (e.g., access controls or encryption).
• Detailed design: Determine business requirements and legal obligations within the design of security controls in a product or system.
• Coding: Develop the security-related software code, comments and citations.
• Integration product: Investigate security measures and make alterations.
• Implementation: Implement any additional safety dealings prior to go-live.
• Operations and maintenance: Observe the software and system for variations in security controls. Assess current controls against newly-discovered threats and vulnerabilities. Implement proper updates and patches, when essential. Certify the complete effectiveness of application and system security.
• Product retirement: Safeguard information that was used and warehoused (i.e., archived), relocated to another database or system, or sterilized (i.e., erased) from the system.

Thus asp .net software companies in India can identify, reduce, mitigate and eliminate various security threats and adverse impacts that could be present in each stage of SDLC. It ultimately results into reduction in overall cost, efforts and time of delivering the final product or service in IT industry.

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Legal steps you must take before outsourcing content creation

With the growth of the Internet and the need to create steady content, outsourcing has become incredibly common. In fact, [ CITATION Pat16 \l 1033 ] cites research that shows 79 percent of software development companies are embracing content marketing, while [ CITATION Sta14 \l 1033 ] reported that the global market size of outsourced services in 2014 was $104.6 billion dollars.

Being at the top in your market with content is crucial, as the value of great content drives leads and results in more sales. But before you jump to the abysmal of outsourcing content creation, there are a few things you’ll want to ponder, so that you can not only approach it the correct way but also protect you and your business from any negative effects down the road.

Recognize your content needs

In order to recruit great content creators you have to first delineate what type of content you need.

For instance, you could include:

• Weekly blog posts
• Social media updates
• Guest blogging
• Email marketing
• Pay-per-click ad copywriting

Finding the specific types of content needed may not appear to be a legal step. However, at the kickoff, these are extremely essential things to ponder, all of which will enable you to sketch both your job advertisement and various aspects of your binding agreement.

Assign copyright

The act of simply compensating someone does not automatically turn over copyright of that content to the end user. Unless you explicitly list the terms of use in your agreement, the content creator maintains ownership of that content. In this case, you only have an implicit license, therefore, you’ll need definite permission to re-purpose any of that content for other stuffs, such as turning a blog post into an e-book or social-media posts.

It’s also essential that you consider safeguarding against the indemnification for images or content that may be the property of others. At the end of the day, you will be accountable if the content published on your site or in your materials is found to break the copyright law.

For text-based copy, using a service such as Copyscape is standard practice. But with image attribution, this is particularly tough, since there’s no good way to test the copyright short of either buying the rights or waiting for an angry copyright act warning from the owner who feels intruded.

Be clever and understand copyright upfront so you can evade any negative consequences.

Explicitly sketch outsourcing requirements.

Be as specific as possible when delineating requirements so that freelancers know your expectations, including benchmarking and measuring triumph or disaster. You may also want to include a SLA that clearly outlines performance details, measurements and standards. 

Cogitate on legal liabilities in your content.

You may need to take further provisions if the content you’ll be outsourcing is subjected to any regulatory requirements. For example, if you’re publishing medical content or financial advice, you may need to include relevant disclaimers or ensure materials produced meet certain standards to protect yourself lawfully.

If the content you publish on your website is such that you could be held legally liable for, be sure your outsourced creators are able to meet any essential requirements.

Preparing in advance for closure.

Ideally, you’ll find in a freelancer a long-term association for your content creation needs. But since turnover is unavoidable, it’s far better to protect yourself from start. Your termination clause is immensely important, as it sets forth the conditions under which the customer may exit the outsourcing association.

The termination clause needs to state the common reasons that give rights to you and your software development company to exit the clause along with the rights of the contractor. It’s also advisable to include both party’s respective privileges upon termination with regards to ongoing privacy and protection here as well.

Put everything in the contract.

Now that you’ve enclosed all your legal bases, document them in a formal written contract that both you and your freelancers will agree on. In most cases, it’s advisable to consult with an actual lawyer to do this. However, you can get started by finding similar contract agreements to work from. 

Take out an insurance policy.

Last, but not the least -- and let’s keep it short and simple -- it’s definitely worth investing in an insurance policy when it comes to defending your legal rights as a content creator and purchaser. At the end of the day, you need to be prepared for any legal complications that could occur from the content you publish -- or, at the very least, be fully aware of who’s liable for anything that may happen.

Conclusion

Though the Internet has distorted the rules and lines of outsourcing somewhat, it’s advisable to stick to guidelines and follow the rules to protect yourself. If you have any doubts, consult a lawyer.

Bibliography

Robles, P. (2016). Patricio Robles. Patricio Robles. Patricio Robles.

Statistica. (2014). Statistica. Statistica.

Fitting enterprise systems into systems

Enterprise systems, developed by software companies in India, are used by large companies and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to reorganize and streamline their internal and external operations.

Enterprise systems are used to enable the seamless integration and exchange of information between the several departments within an organization. In order to accomplish this, strictly defined control mechanisms must be in place in the system, which protect the company's data and safeguard the company against unauthorized and unintentional uses of the system. This is perfect for total control; however, is only attainable to a certain degree. The outline of controls in the enterprise system may have unintended organizational consequences, due to organizational necessities. The introduction of an enterprise system increases power differentials, which help to increase control in the organization. This results in amplified rigidity, and a probable decrease in organizational flexibility and resilience. On the other hand, enterprise systems can also cause drift, resulting from the unforeseen consequences of these power differential, as well as from the role of insights of people in resolving a problem within the enterprise system. This decrease in control may serve in some situations as an enabler to organizational flexibility.

Software companies in India recommend workforces to have decreased or increased authority, as an outcome of assignments of dissimilar authorization levels to carry out jobs in the system. Moreover, people with better knowledge of the system seem to attain authority as more people bank on their proficiency in order to carry out their tasks. Monitoring is another source of influence, where the person carrying out the monitoring is realized to control what the subordinate is performing in the system. Monitoring in this case depends on the accurate assignment of authorization levels to the correct individuals.Thus creation of authorization level shapes in the system, together with the monitoring abilities of the system and the making of proficiency by several actors, leading to the creation of power differentials. These power differentials then delivered to escalate the control in the company.

An enterprise system can be segregated, based on local contexts of communication, and reform them across time space. This is attained with the widespread nature of the enterprise system, which is configured in a central site. The segregation process then outcomes in increased control, produced by the significance of the configuration of the enterprise system, and the concentration of power in the hands of nominated individuals. As control increases, stiff mechanisms are put,by software companies in India, into place to create the organization more inelastic and robust. As such, the processes and procedures in the company are frozen, and firm rules apply regarding access to and manipulation of company information. Depending on the degree of this stiffness in rules (imposed by the enterprise system), the company may convertinto too unbending to respond efficiently to circumstances of change and pressure, and consequently becomingless resilient. Manipulation or soothing of those rules may, still, lead to more elasticity (with the price of fractional loss of control), and hence resilience can trulyrise.

On the other hand, an enterprise system can also be understood to integrate. This is accomplished with the scattered nature of enterprise systems, which can be installedwith the help of software companies in India, in many locations across time space. As anoutcome of the integration, there may be drift because of the influence of unintentional consequences of the system and the role of ethics of people in cracking a problem. This decline in control may serve to increase the resilience of the company, because the workforces operate the system for their individual use and are, therefore, able to react more to change when this happens. On the other hand, when the workforces fully follow the processes and procedures uttered by the system, then there is less or no drift, and the control structures enforced by the system are rebuilt. In this case resilience may actually decrease.

Thus fitting enterprise system into enterprise systems can produce higher rigidity into an organization at the same time it can also increase flexibility depending upon the organization necessities.Software companies in India can configure enterprise systems and its authorization levels as it is asked for.

Domain Based Security

Domain Based Security is being used more and more for the identification, analysis and documentation of security issues in enterprise communication & information systems projects particularly in the military domain and for the Asp.net software companies in india. The procedure incorporates numerous security related activities in the early stages of the systems lifecycle to support in the specification of high-level, technology independent security functionality solutions.

The article focuses on: 

• Ranking risks according to an correct value system 
• Modeling business connections in an extensible manner

The DBSy Model(Domain based security)

The DBSy approach uses simple models to characterize the requirements for security in an organization using two different but related viewpoints: the InfoSec Business Model signifies the security aspects of the business, while the InfoSec Infrastructure Model signifies the logical provision of strong boundaries that enforce separation. When combined, they create an InfoSec Architecture Model. This model forms the basis for showing a systematic and rigorous risk assessment.

The InfoSec business model defines security domains for Asp.net software company india and the networks between them. The model specifies the limits of what info can be processed and replaced between security domains to form the set of security requirements for the business. In particular, connections that are not explicitly demonstrated are not permitted and are required not to occur. A security domain is characterized by a set of information assets, which may be valued to the organization, as well as the people that work with the information and the applications and services that perform on their behalf. Connections between domains are categorized by the nature of the interaction that is required (such as interpersonal messages, or shared access to a database) and the sensitivity and integrity requirements of the information exchange. The model can also signify the kinds of physical environment from which a domain can be accessed.

The InfoSec infrastructure model defines computing infrastructure that are essential to be logically separatefor Asp.net software companies india , so that statistics cannot be replaced between them except at recognizable and manageable points of connection, referred to as causeways. An island is characterized by the strength of separation between it and any other islands and by the people who achieve its computing infrastructure.

An InfoSec architecture model combines the business and infrastructure views, by showing which security domains are reinforced by which islands of infrastructure. Where there are links between securities domains that are hosted on different islands, the connections must be reinforced by an appropriate causeway.

Risk Assessment Method

The DBSy method uses a rational risk framework for linking the risks to which information assets are exposed.Assets are collected together as a focus of interest, and the risk assessment process for C#.net software companies in india is applied to each focus of interest in turn.

The key factors defining the risk to a particular focus of interest are:

• Business Impacts confidentiality, integrity or availability of the focus of interest.
• Sets of people who might demand to impose damage (threat sources) and their motivation for doing so.
• People with different opportunities to impose damage (threat actors) and their capability to do damage, who may also be threat sources or could be influenced by others.
• The means by which each threat performer might cause damage (causes of compromise).

Conclusion

Domain Based Security", abbreviated to "DBSy", is a model-based approach to help examine information security risks in a business context and provide a clear and direct mapping between the risks and the security controls desired to manage them.

References

• http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262276/1/BAE_paper1.pdf
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Based_Security

Access Control Domain

Access control Domain encompasses :

• Discretionary, Mandatory, and Non-Discretionary models 
• Identification methods, Authentication methods
• Accountability, monitoring, and auditing practices 
• Intrusion detection systems/Intrusion Prevention Systems 
• Likely threats to access control practices and technologies 
• A Framework that dictates how Subjects access Objects

The types of Access Control are :

• DAC
• MAC
• RBAC 

Discretionary Access Control – DAC

A system that uses discretionary access control (DAC) allows the holder of the resource to specify which subjects can access specific resources. This model is called discretionary as the control of access is based on the discretion of the owner.

For example, a manager for a definite department in the Custom software development company might be made the holder of the files and resources within his/her domain.

The most common application of DAC is through ACLs, which are spoken and fixed by the owners and enforced by the operating system.

• DAC permits the privileges i.e. granting and revoking of access control to be left to the discretion of the individual users
• It is highly flexible 
• Not appropriate for –
  -- High assurance systems, e.g. a military system 
  -- Many complex commercial security requirements 
• It is Identity-based 

Mandatory Access Control –MAC

In a mandatory access control (MAC) model, users and data owners do not have asmuch liberty to determine who can access files. The operating system makes the final conclusion and can outweigh the users’ wishes.

This model is much more structured and strict and is based on a security label system. Users are provided a security clearance (secret, top secret, confidential, and undefined), and data is classified in the same way. The clearance and grouped data is stored in the security labels, which are bound to the specific subjects and objects.

A given IT infrastructure in software development company can implement MAC systems in many places and at different levels. OS uses MAC to guard files and directories.

Database management systems apply MAC to regulate access to tables and views. Best commercially available application systems apply MAC, often independent of the operating systems and/or DBMSs on which they are installed.

OS constrains the ability of a subject or initiator to access or perform some operation on the object. Subject is usually a process thread and objects are constructs like files, tcp/udp ports, shared memory segments etc.

Whenever Subject tries to access Object, an authorization rule enforced by the operating system kernel inspects the security attributes and chooses whether access can take place.

Information classification is necessary, label-based

• Well suited to the requirements of government and industry organizations that process classified and sensitive information 
• Such environments usually require the ability to control actions of individuals beyond just an individual's capability to access information permitting to how that information is labeled based on its sensitivity 

RBAC 

• In RBAC model, a role is well-defined in terms of the tasks and operations that the role will need to carry out, whereas a DAC sketches which subjects can access what objects. 
• RBAC uses a centrally administrated set of controls to determine how subjects and objects act together. This type of model allows access to resources to be based on the role the user holds within the company example Software Development Company. 
• A role can be thought of as a set of transactions that a user or set of users can perform within the context of an organization i.e. a collection of permissions.
• A transaction can be thought of as a transformation procedure plus a set of associated data items 
• Roles are group oriented; created for job functions 
• Roles are plotted on the principle of least privilege 
• Role-based access control policy bases access control decisions on the functions a user is permitted to perform within an organization 
• RBAC provides a means of naming and describing many-to-many relationships between individuals and rights 
• A user has access to an object based on the assigned role. 
• Roles are defined based on job functions. 
• Permissions are defined based on job authority and responsibilities within a job function. 
• Operations on an object are invocated based on the permissions. 
• The object is concerned with the user’s role and not the user. 

Conclusion: 

Thus, the Custom Software Development Company should carry out structured ways for Access Control and assigning roles to the employees based on the privileges. This leads to secure access and intact security in the company or a firm which restrict the entities from using unauthorised information.