Security properties such as confidentiality and authenticity may be considered in terms of the flow of messages within a network. To the extent that this characterisation is justified, the use of a process algebra such as Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) seems appropriate to describe and analyse them. This paper explores ways in which security properties may be described as CSP specifications, how security mechanisms may be captured, and how particular protocols designed to provide these properties may be analysed within the CSP framework. The paper is concerned with the theoretical basis for such analysis. A sketch verification of a simple example is carried out as an illustration.