Connect. Communicate. Collaborate

The Security Model of GÉANT2: A Co-operative Approach

Christoph Graf, SWITCH

TNC’07, Lyngby, 22 May 2007

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateOverview

• The project GÉANT2• The goal: securing GÉANT2• Environment and stakeholders• The approach to security• Where we stand• Outlook• Summary

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate

Some figures:

• ...

• Project partners include 30 of Europe’s national research and education networks (NRENs), DANTE and TERENA

• Connects 34 European countries and serves over 3500 research and education establishments across Europe

• Over 30 million users

• ...

The Project GÉANT2

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateThe Goal: Security

• Make the GÉANT2 community a secure community...

... as secure as needed!

• Who is the „GÉANT2 community“?

Its users!

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GÉANT2 Topology

November 2006

The view from above...

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate... but where are the users?

GÉANT2

30+ million users

Org. unit Org. unit

3500+ R&E establishments R&E OrgR&E Org R&E Org

30 NRENs(maybe regional nets)

NRENNREN

GÉANT2national/jurisdictionboundaries

organisationalboundaries

different affiliationtypes

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... and where are the security stakeholders?

Dante, Terena,Project policy bodies

System administrators Org. unit Org. unit

Site security teams R&E OrgR&E Org R&E Org

NREN CERTsNRENNREN

GÉANT2GÉANT2securityactivity scope

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateHow important is security?

• Security is not for free• It makes things more complicated

• But why do some care more than others?

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs

Physiological

Safety

Love/Belonging

Status (esteem)

Actualisation

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow

Physical: GÉANT2network

Security: CERTs

Community:Trust, Policies

Humans: NRENs:

Star NREN

?

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateThe Approach

time

GÉANT2 securitycompliance level

Reachingcompliance level

Improve leadingedge teams

secu

rity

capa

bilit

ies

No CERT

Leading edge team

RecognisedCERT

Proactivemonitoring

Basic CERT

Partner’ssecurity team

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateWhere we stand...

• Improve leading edge teams: because new threats are looming– “The Toolset” and its elements:

• FlowMon probe: appliance turning network traffic into NetFlow data

• Nfsen: NetFlow visualisation and analysis tool– The purpose:

• Working horse for many CERT teams• Framework to put leading edge concepts and algorithms to test

• Reaching compliance level: because of the rule of the weakest link– Operate a CERT! – Largely using existing initiatives and services: TRANSITS, TI, TF-

CSIRT

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateOutlook

• Improve leading edge teams– FlowMon probe: from pre-production to product– Nfsen: improve sustainability, networking the

developers, build a development platform– Trial new ideas for anomaly detection– Training material and delivery

• Reaching compliance level– Organise mentoring work between experts and newly

created CERTs

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateSummary

• The GÉANT2 trust network is covering– 30 NRENs in 34 countries, DANTE and TERENA– over 3500 R&E establishments, over 30 million users

• It follows existing structures: from NRENs to users• It integrates existing initiatives: TI, TF-CSIRT

• A co-operative approach to overcome national and organisational boundaries for a common goal: secure our increasingly critical networking infrastructure