Securing The Network With Cisco Router

Proper configuration of routers is important as this will help to resist attacks and ensures the integrity and confidentiality of network traffic. This paper expands on the work of Mark Degner [Ref.1] on securing Cisco routers. In it [Ref.1], Deger discussed about securing Cisco routers from malicious attack through limiting access, securing the remote administration of routers using secure shell and the shutting down of unneeded services provided by the routers. He also went on to cover SYN/smurf attacks protection, performing ingress/egress filtering and logging. This paper expands upon that by discussing additional steps and security features available on a Cisco router for enhancing the security of anetwork. First, we will cover the securing of routing updates through neighbor router authentication [Ref.2] and route filtering. Next, we will discuss the topic of using IPSec to secure remote administration of Cisco routers. Following that, we will have an overview of reflexive access list and content-based application control. Then, we will touch on combating code red with network-based application recognition. We will end with a short discussion on performing integrity checking on routers. For each of the above discussions, a sample IOS configuration will be shown.