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Security is amongst the most widely discussed topics in today’s world of high speed networking. Security broadly deals with problems that affect millions of computer users around the world either through the spread of viruses, or information theft from personal computers and network servers. Security issues can encompass large quantities of detailed information which can overwhelm network administrators. Security systems are traditionally often layered in a top-down manner. Abstract models could enable administrators to focus upon relevant details whilst filtering out non-essential details. Such models could also be used in a top-down fashion thus permitting the control of complexity via recursive decomposition. There are currently many security models used in industry and for teaching students about network security. These models are not only restricted to confidentiality, authentication, data integrity, non-repudiation, and access control, but also take into account physical and human aspects that can effect security. A model based upon Finite State Machines (FSM) and called a state model is proposed as an aid to device level management.