Essay on OSI Security

The ISO drafted OSI reference model, consisting of seven layers, provides a architecture for networking which is more sublime and less vulnerable to the attacks that so often make a network obsolete. Consisting of a layered architecture, it provides seven layers, namely, Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation and Application. With each layer encompassing the respective operation that its name has implied, OSI model provides for error free data communication by providing sets of protocols at each layer [Larmouth,1997].
But as suggested by real-life examples no model is completely secure and each time we connect to a network we are a potential prey for the attackers. Citing such attacks each layer has been provided with its own security mechanism as per defined in OSI Security Architecture [Larmouth,1997], which has proposed security features corresponding to the each layer of the OSI reference model. The types of security at each layer is as follows,

Physical Layer: Providing the point of origin of a packet and physical (i.e. hardware) means of communication, it provides hardware that secures the packet as well as provides a signature for data encryption.

Data Link Layer: With the security ensuring availability and reliability, provided by MAC filtering for ARP spoofing and packet sniffing which tend to create unreliable information.?

Network Layer: Acquiring the need for privacy and confidentiality, at the Network Layer, the OSI model gives cryptographic algorithms to facilitate data encryption, while also filtering for IP spoofing.

Transport Layer: By providing data integrity and reliability the reassembly of the fragmented packets is ensured. Accomplished by error checking and performed by software firewalls or security protocols, which accompany the OSI stack at either ends of the communication lines.

Session Layer: Some to referred to as the port layer, the session layer didn’t have much of security responsibilities....................

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