ITU-T x800 - What is that?

First, i will introduced for you what kind of ITU-T.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), originally founded as the International Telegraph Union, is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies.

The ITU coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards.

ITU also organizes worldwide and regional exhibitions and forums, such as ITU TELECOM WORLD, bringing together representatives of government and the telecommunications and ICT industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and technology.

The ITU is active in areas including broadband Internet, latest-generation wireless technologies, aeronautical and maritime navigation, radio astronomy, satellite-based meteorology, convergence in fixed-mobile phone, Internet access, data, voice, TV broadcasting, and next-generation networks.

ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its membership includes 193 Member States and around 700 Sector Members and Associates.

The CCITT (the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee) is a permanent organ of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). CCITT is responsible for studying technical, operating and tariff questions and issuing Recommendations on them with a view to standardizing telecommunications on a worldwide basis.

The Plenary Assembly of CCITT which meets every four years, establishes the topics for study and approves Recommendations prepared by its Study Groups. The approval of Recommendations by the members of CCITT between Plenary Assemblies is covered by the procedure laid down in CCITT Resolution No. 2 (Melbourne, 1988).

Recommendation X.800 was prepared by Study Group VII and was approved under the Resolution No. 2 procedure on the 22nd of March 1991.

So, x800 what is that?

x800 is a security architecture from ITU-T.

Security services for communications provides the services defined in ITU-T X.800 for authentication, access control, data confidentiality, data integrity, and non-repudiation that may be exercised in the course of any communications between systems, between customers and systems, and between internal users and systems. In addition, a set of pervasive security mechanisms are defined that are applicable to any communication (such as event detection, security audit trail management, and security recovery).

ITU-T X.800 “Security Architecture for OSI” defines a systematic way of defining and providing security requirements for us it provides a useful, if abstract, overview of concepts we will study.

Security services ITU-T X.800 :

• Authentication - assurance that communicating entity is the one claimed have both peer-entity & data origin authentication.
  Access Control - prevention of the unauthorized use of a resource.

• Data Confidentiality –protection of data from unauthorized disclosure.

• Data Integrity - assurance that data received is as sent by an authorized entity.

• Non-Repudiation - protection against denial by one of the parties in a communication.

• Availability – resource accessible/usable

 Security mechanism ITU-T X.800 :

• feature designed to detect, prevent, or recover from a security attack

• no single mechanism that will support all services required

• however one particular element underlies many of the security mechanisms in use: cryptographic techniques.

• hence our focus on this topic

Specific Security Mechanisms : encipherment, digital signatures, access controls, data integrity, authentication exchange, traffic padding, routing control, notarization.

Pervasive Security Mechanisms : trusted functionality, security labels, event detection, security audit trails, security recovery.

That's a simple explanation about ITU-T X.800
So, ITU-T X.800 is a recommendation system security architecture.
See you next time thread.