PROJECT ON

XTUML

DEVELOPED BY:

NAME: STUDENT NUMBER:

OLEBILE DITSHWEU S103012902797

REGISTRATION:

S103012902984

BATCH CODE: NB9UK

COORDINATOR: MS BAME

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OBJECTIVES

The following are the objectives behind this project;

Define XTUML

Discuss the use of XTUML

List and explain different components of XTUML

Outline characteristics of XTUML

Identify benefits of XTUML

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SYNOPSIS

The idea behind this project is to investigate about Executable and Translatable UML

(XTUML) with much focus on the components of XTUML further extending to benefits that

are being provided by XTUML. The report will cover up characteristics of XTUML and how

XTUML is applied in day to day business across programming platforms in different

organisations.

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

The project on Executable and Translatable UML introduces the readers and mostly those

who are interested much in programming to an understanding of XTUML theoretically

without excluding the practical aspect behind. Focus has been turned much on uses of

XTUML, components of XTUML and characteristic of XTUML. The author has extended

the report by further explaining the benefits behind XTUML usage. Different readers who are

going to use this report at any point have been considered therefore the author opted to use

the simplest language understood by all. The project has been subdivided into different topics

for clear understanding with flow of topics.

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2.0 BACKGROUND STUDY

2.1 What is Executable and Translatable UML?

According to Mellor (2003) Executable and Translatable UML is deemed as a group of the

unified modelling language given with rules for execution.

Executable and Translatable UML (XTUML) allows the creation of comprehensive

specifications of application necessities that can be implemented on virtual machine, this

unified modelling language is supported by numerous tools and can be used to produce

highly efficient code for a variety of real time and embedded distributed platforms. Leon

(2008)

2.3 History of XTUML

Firewall security has been introduced to protect computer networks in the late 1980’s the

point being to protect private networks for companies by having to secure gateway servers to

the internet or any other external network. One of the oldest type of firewalls include packet

filters which functions by inspecting the packets being transferred between computers on a

network, this firewalls are deemed stateless meaning that they don’t pay attention to the state

of the connection between computers . Packet filters examines information in the packet

which might include the IP address and port numbers. Packet filter firewalls functions

between the network and hardware layers of the OSI model. Glynn (2006)

3.0 TYPES OF FIREWALLS

According to Hilal (2012), there are many types of firewalls companies and individuals

employ to protect their computers and the entire network from unnecessary internet traffic.

Firewall allows outside world to interact with local network assets therefore creating a threat

to the company. The following are types of firewall;

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Personal Firewalls- This type of firewall has been developed to guard a single

internet connected host from unauthorised access. Personal or desktop firewall as it is

commonly known operate in the background at the link layer in protecting the

integrity of the system from intruders by controlling internet connection coming in

and going out from a node. This firewall can even go into an extent of alerting the

administrator about the attempted intrusion. (Hilal 2012)

Network Firewalls- protects computer network of either an organisation or a

company from intruders, this firewall can be categorised as software firewall and also

hardware firewall or even an integration of both categories. Network firewall can be

used to limit outsiders from accessing the internal network. (Avolio (2001)

Packet Filtering Firewalls – this type of firewall is being used to analyse network

traffic at the transport layer by monitoring each packet coming in and going out of the

company’s network by either allowing or rejecting the packet depending on the

defined rules. (Avolio 2001)

Stateful Inspection Firewalls – this firewalls keeps tracks of the connection status

depending on either the connection is in an initiation, data transfer, or a termination

state. Stateful firewall operates at the network, transport and session layers. (Hilal

2012)

Circuit Gateway Firewalls- are firewalls that functions at the session layer of the

OSI model by sustaining connections between two hosts that are sanctioned to be

secure. This firewall assumes that two hosts that have been authenticated trust each

other and can be permitted to communicate without having to monitor the kind of

communication between two hosts. According to Avolio (2001), Circuit Gateway

Firewalls protects the internal and external networks by making sure that there is

restriction of TCP/IP kernel handshaking activities.

3.0 CHARACTERISTICS OF FIREWALLS

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4. 1Firewall Strength

Firewalls allow the implementation of audits and alarms that provides the ability to

monitor security related events.

Firewalls provide a single block point that prevents unauthorised users away from

protected network

Firewalls can be used in implementing Virtual Private Network by the use of the

tunnel mode capabilities

Firewalls encapsulate security as administrators can be able to control and manage

multiple firewalls in a centralized location avoiding a situation the access control list

has to be maintained on a number of separate internal servers which are not using the

same systems of operation. The ability of the firewall to be administered centrally

allows administrators to be able to view the network and also deny or allow required

services efficiently in a faster way.

The above strength of firewalls has been denoted by Shinder (2008).

4.2 Firewall Weakness

Firewalls cannot stop internal user of the company’s network from accessing websites

with malicious program

Firewalls cannot protect against attacks that does not go through the firewall but

instead the firewall may restrict every access from the internet but not protecting

equipment from dial in access to your workstation system

Firewall cannot go into an extent of protecting the internal network of the company if

the security policy is too sloppy.

Firewalls do not encrypt any data or document that is confidential, additional tools

might be need to do the encryption of all confidential data going out of the internal

network

Firewalls cannot stop hackers from masquerading as an employee as hackers have

many ways to obtain the company’s employee use ids and passwords.

The above firewall weaknesses are denoted by Zwicky (2000).

5.0 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIREWALLS AND VPN’s

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Firewall and VPN’s can be used both to strength the security of network resource and data

packets transmission from the internal network to public network and also from public

network to internal network due to their different functions. (Avolio 2001)

Following are few differences that have been identified between Firewalls and VPN’s;

Firewall prevents connections to the network ports of your workstation that a

malicious program may try to connect to in order steal information, to infect

computers connected to the network and also mess up with the entire internal network

while VPN’s encrypts data that is transmitted over internal network connection from

the internet, VPN also ensure that an IP address is hidden from hackers or intruders.

Firewalls have been designed in such a way that they are positioned in a strategic

location on the network to block certain types of traffic whereas VPN’s open secure

channels of communications and VPN’s communicate through firewall. (Avolio

2001)

6.0 CONCLUSION

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Despite the growth of Information Technology in different areas such as security of networks

and software and many expertise in software development and security analysis, many

products that strengths the security of large companies and personal internal networks from

the outside world have been developed to defend systems against hackers. In spite of this,

firewalls still play a major role in protecting both personal network and internal network of

large companies as there has been protocol enforcement, activity logging, IPS capabilities as

well as VPN’s modification to modern firewalls to tighten up the security of internal

networks by enhancing the firewall functionality closing the gap of technological growth

which affects the security of every network. Firewall is still the foundation on which a

security approaches is built in every company’s internal network. Looking on to cloud

computing, virtualised systems and even mobile systems there are firewalls protecting your

system unobtrusively.

7.0 REFERENCES

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Avolio, F. (2001), Firewalls, VPNs, and Remote Offices: [Online]. Available from:

http://www.avolio.com/columns/fwvpns+remote.html (Accessed 25/01/2014)

Ferguson, B. (2005), Network +Fast Pass. USA: Sybex, Pty (Ltd).

Glynn, F. (2013), Firewall Security (The History of Firewall Security): [Online]. Available

from: http://www.veracode.com/security/firewall-security (Accessed 25/01/2014)

Hilal, Y. (2012), Internet Firewalls (Types Of Firewalls): [Online]. Available from:

http://yasserhilal.blogspot.com/2012/10/2circuit-level-gateways-firewall.html (Accessed

25/01/2014)

Rowlands, C. (2007), Breaching the Firewall (A network technology project) [Online].

Available from: http://acw1-nt.wikidot.com/types-of-firewalls (Accessed 28/01/2014)

Shinder, T. (2008), The Best Damn Firewall Book Period. 2nd ed. USA: Syngress, Inc.

Zwicky, E. (2000), Building Internet Firewalls. 2nd ed. USA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.

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