Requirements for Security in Home Environments

Currently more and more users have more than one computer, communication equipment and peripheral facilities at home. These equipments can compose a small network via networking technologies such as Ethernet, phone-line, wireless or power-line for communicating each other and sharing resources. This network can connect to outside world through phone-line, cable modem or wireless technology. Especially, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and cable modem have brought home high-speed connections to Internet. Along with each of these services comes a static IP address that never changes and allows user to host their own web sites and administer their own server. However, constant connectivity to the information super-highway makes home environments easily suffering from attacks and being hacked. Further more, special features of home environment make it more vulnerable compared to other private networks. So specifying suitable requirements and policies for home networking security is critical in home networking environments. This paper analyzes the possible threats to personal home network, evaluates the risks caused by these threats, and specifies the security requirements derived from the threat analysis for home environment