Week 9 continued from IPsec into security at the transport layer, specifically SSL. Unsurprisingly, given that SSL uses public key cryptology is used at least in the initial stages of all SSL connection, distribution and authentication of public keys was the first issue raised. The use of certificate authorities providing signed keys is the current solution. Similarly to IPsec, authentication, integrity and confidentiality are the goals of SSL.
With such a wide number of computers using SSL, there needs to be provisioning for different cypher suits which is included in the SSL handshake:
There was also some discussion over the definition of sockets, my interpretation is that they are basically application layer ports. A better explination can be found here: http://pro-programmers.blogspot.com/2009/02/socket-vs-port.html
Work also began on the second assignment, development of firewalls using iptables.