Currently, the dominant internetworking protocol is Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). Yet, each IPv4 address is limited to a thirty-two bit field length, which corresponds to a maximum of approximately four billion unique internetworking addresses. IPv6 is the next generation of IP messaging that uses a one-hundred-twenty-eight bit field length, resulting in an enormous increase of supportable unique addresses. In fact, the new allotment will permit every person on this planet to have over four billion internetworking addresses!

Potential IPv6 conversion issues are internetworking device computational and/or bandwidth overhead, which in turn can impact communication performance. End-users who are planning migration to IPv6 as well as designers and implementers of IPv6, must understand the technology in order to assess the risks associated with this paradigm shift and prepare effective and efficient responses.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part VI” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

The IPSec model is an architecture composed of standard rules for protecting IP traffic. IPSec is also a set of protocols utilized to secure IP packet exchanges that operate at the Internet Layer of the TCP/IP reference model. IPSec utilizes certificates and Public Keys to authenticate and validate the sender and receiver.

Tunnel and Transport are the two telecommunication modes supported by IPSec. IPSec standard rules can be incorporated into transport and tunnel mode encapsulation. As a distinctive feature, Tunnel mode provides two additional header records for sending messages, thus requiring more processing. In addition, Tunnel mode is usually implemented between two gateways or a gateway and server.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part V” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

IPSec network security capabilities

Internetwork security is integrated into the design of the IPv6 architecture, and the IPv6 ITEF specification mandates support for IPSec as a fundamental interoperability requirement.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part IV” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

Datagram transmission across multiple IP networks

Packet switching is commonly employed to optimize available channel capacity in digital networks, to minimize transmission latency in message delivery and to enhance processing reliability in addressing modes.

IPv6 packet-switched addressing encompasses three general categories for transport:

• Unicast – protocol fields act as an identifier for a single interface (within the ambit of the unicast address type). An IPv6 packet sent to a Unicast address is delivered to the interface identified by that address.
• Multicast – protocol fields act as an identifier for a set of interfaces that can belong to different nodes. An IPv6 packet delivered to a Multicast address is delivered to the interfaces specified by the ambit indicators.
• Anycast – protocol fields act as identifiers for a set of interfaces that can belong to the different nodes. An IPv6 packet destined for an Anycast address is delivered to one of the interfaces identified by the protocol fields defined administratively.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part III” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

As presented in the article A Few Fundamentals of Networking Electronically Encoded Data, data must be organized for transmission. Thus, the creation of usable telecommunication packets requires appending a unique header to the message destined to traverse the internetwork. Technically, in order to send messages utilizing IP addressing, a program must prepare IP datagrams through the encapsulation of received datum.

As a potential delivery option, packet switching is an electronically-based communications method for grouping all transmittable data into suitably-sized packets, without exceeding the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) allocation. To achieve this goal, packets are routed individually, sometimes resulting in different paths and out-of-order delivery; thus requiring accurate message reassembly.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part II” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

Internet Protocol (IP) addressing can provide a connectionless service for end systems to communicate across one or more networks. Within this context, during the original development of this communication addressing scheme, the designers assumed that computer networks would be unreliable.

The current Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) sponsored IP specification, IP version six ( IPv6), is an Internet Layer protocol — as defined by the four layer Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) model — for packet-switched internetworking that provides end-to-end datagram transmission across multiple IP networks, and mandates IP Security (IPSec) protocol suite support as a foundational interoperability requirement.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part I” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

Determination of the validity of an IT hardware action is something a redundancy check is unable to perform. However, in conjunction with redundancy checks, validity checks provide considerable certainty that hardware processing and transfer of datum will be complete, accurate and creditable.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

Boritz, Efrin J. IS Practitioners’ Views on Core Concepts of Information Integrity. Rev. ed. Ontario: University of Waterloo, 2004. 9

Gleim, Irvin N. CIA Examination Review. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Gainesville, FL: Accounting Publications, 1989. 284

Watne, Donald A. and Peter B. B. Turney. Auditing EDP Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984. 232-3

Post Notes: “IT Hardware Validity Checks – Part I” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “IT Hardware Validity Checks”.

Hardware size and accessibility make transportability an issue because of uncertainty that an installed configuration has appropriate controls. Small IT configurations have unique hardware characteristics that distinguish them from large IT configurations. Wherefore, operating systems for many small IT configurations are idiomatic because programs that run in interpreter mode are easy to modify without detection.

Nevertheless, objectives of control systems remain the same with small hardware configurations as they are with any other IT processing — prevent, detect, and correct errors, mistakes, or omissions. However, the differences in the small configuration’s IT environment typically is the accentuation placed on various controls and the availability of compensating or mitigating controls.

For small configurations, control emphasis changes in order to compensate, or mitigate, for some of the weaknesses inherent in the IT environment. Yet, the problem sometimes encountered in the area of hardware controls can be avoided by relying on infrastructure acquisition and development controls. Consequently, IT hardware should not be acquired or developed if they lack the necessary controls to ensure expected processing reliability and integrity.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

Gleim, Irvin N. CIA Examination Review. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Gainesville, FL: Accounting Publications, 1989. 284

Watne, Donald A. and Peter B. B. Turney. Auditing EDP Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984. 230-1, 490, 499

“View Part I of the IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks series here”

Post Notes: “IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks”.

Warning! Excessive external echo checking may be a hacker or cracker attempting a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Therefore, continuous echo check monitoring is required when the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo Request setting is turned on.

The control purpose of an IT hardware echo check is to ensure that commands sent to peripheral, or remote, equipment are obeyed and that datum are received correctly. In this activity, the computer checks to ensure that its directives are obeyed by requiring that contacted equipment return a signal verifying that the command has been received and complied with. For instance, the CPU transmits a command to the printer to commence processing, and the printer transmits a message back to the CPU that it has been activated as instructed.

The same echo check technique is utilized in data communications to ensure that data is received correctly. For example, data is retransmitted by the receiving computer back to the sending computer. The sending computer then compares the echo with the original data for possible transmission errors.

Video Link: http://youtu.be/HEjPop-aK_w

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

Gleim, Irvin N. CIA Examination Review. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Gainesville, FL: Accounting Publications, 1989. 284

Watne, Donald A. and Peter B. B. Turney. Auditing EDP Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984. 230-1, 490, 499

“View Part I of the IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks series here”

Post Notes: “IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks – Part III” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks”.

Duplicate operations are commonly utilized in the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) of a central processing unit (CPU). In addition, a dual operation is sometimes utilized in the ALU of the CPU. Calculations are carried out twice either by the same circuitry or by duplicate circuitry. The results of the two calculations are then compared to ascertain correctness in processing.

Video Link: What is a checksum?

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

Gleim, Irvin N. CIA Examination Review. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Gainesville, FL: Accounting Publications, 1989. 284

Watne, Donald A. and Peter B. B. Turney. Auditing EDP Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984. 230-1, 490, 499

“View Part I of the IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks series here”

Post Notes: “IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks – Part II” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “IT Hardware Duplicity and Echo Checks”.