Introduction to Information Security

Information security is to prevent hardware, software, and system data on information networks from being damaged, modified, or disclosed accidentally or maliciously, and to ensure continuous, reliable, and normal system running as well as uninterrupted information services.

In a word, information security comprises confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

For routers, information security is to ensure that:

Information that a router stores, processes, and transmits is not disclosed to unauthorized entities.
Information is not tampered with or discarded during processing and transmission.
Services are always available and meet carrier-class quality of service (QoS) requirements.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality means that network information is not disclosed to unauthorized users, entities, or processes. That is, the use of information is restricted to authorized users. Besides reliability and availability, confidentiality is an important means for ensuring network information security.

For routers, confidentiality means:

Unauthorized access to configuration data is forbidden.
Data is protected against malicious interception which may breach users' communication privacy.
The system is accessible only to authorized users.

Integration

Integrity means that information cannot be modified without prior authorization. That is, network information is free from corruption or loss caused by accidental or malicious deletion, modification, falsification, disorder, relocation, or insertion when it is being stored or transmitted by routers.

Availability

Availability means that the given functions of a product can be executed under the specified conditions and at the specified time or time period when the required external resources are ensured. Availability comprehensively reflects the reliability, maintainability, and warranty of a product.

In the information security field, especially the network security field, router availability means that service systems will not be overloaded, break down, or malfunction due to external attack traffic to avoid unavailable services.