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Network Security Solutions Solutions - Call PBM IT at (888) 233-6471Todays globally competitive business environment has small and medium-sized businesses focused on expanding their business and improving customer satisfaction while simultaneously controlling costs. Fortunately, the Internet and networked applications have leveled the playing field. Small and medium-sized businesses use their networks to extend their market reach and communicate with their customers and partners quickly and cost-effectively. But swift and agile e-business is a double-edged sword, access can also open up businesses to costly security breaches. It is more important than ever to have a reliable, secure, and available network. Cisco Security Manager (1) Facilitates the configuration and management of Cisco firewalls, VPNs, IPS sensors, and integrated security services, (2) Is ideal for controlling large or complex deployments of Cisco network and security devices, (3) Supports role-based access control and an approval framework for proposing and integrating changes, and (4) Delivers flexible device management options, including policy-based management and methods for deploying configuration changes. Cisco Secure Access Control System (1) Controls network access based on dynamic conditions and attributes through an easy-to-use management interface, (2) Meets evolving access requirements with rule-based policies for flexibility and manageability, (3) Simplifies management and increases compliance with integrated monitoring, reporting, and troubleshooting capabilities, and (4) Adopts an access policy that takes advantage of built-in integration capabilities and distributed deployment. In order to provide some level of separation between an organization's intranet and the Internet, firewalls have been employed. A firewall is simply a group of components that collectively form a barrier between two networks. A number of terms specific to firewalls and networking are used: (1) Bastion host. A general-purpose computer used to control access between the internal (private) network (intranet) and the Internet (or any other untrusted network). Typically, these are hosts running a flavor of the Unix operating system that has been customized in order to reduce its functionality to only what is necessary in order to support its functions. Many of the general-purpose features have been turned off, and in many cases, completely removed, in order to improve the security of the machine, (2) Router. A special purpose computer for connecting networks together. Routers also handle certain functions, such as routing , or managing the traffic on the networks they connect, (3) Access Control List (ACL). Many routers now have the ability to selectively perform their duties, based on a number of facts about a packet that comes to it. This includes things like origination address, destination address, destination service port, and so on. These can be employed to limit the sorts of packets that are allowed to come in and go out of a given network, (4) Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The DMZ is a critical part of a firewall: it is a network that is neither part of the untrusted network, nor part of the trusted network. But, this is a network that connects the untrusted to the trusted. The importance of a DMZ is tremendous: someone who breaks into your network from the Internet should have to get through several layers in order to successfully do so. Those layers are provided by various components within the DMZ, and (4) Proxy. This is the process of having one host act in behalf of another. A host that has the ability to fetch documents from the Internet might be configured as a proxy server , and host on the intranet might be configured to be proxy clients . In this situation, when a host on the intranet wishes to fetch the web page, for example, the browser will make a connection to the proxy server, and request the given URL. The proxy server will fetch the document, and return the result to the client. In this way, all hosts on the intranet are able to access resources on the Internet without having the ability to direct talk to the Internet. In recent years, security needs have intensified. Data communications and e-commerce are reshaping business practices and introducing new threats to corporate activity. National defense is also vulnerable as national infrastructure systems, for example transport and energy distribution, could be the target of terrorists or, in times of war, enemy nation states. On a less dramatic note, reasons why organisations need to devise effective network security strategies include the following: (1) Security breaches can be very expensive in terms of business disruption and the financial losses that may result, (2) Increasing volumes of sensitive information are transferred across the internet or intranets connected to it, (3) Networks that make use of internet links are becoming more popular because they are cheaper than dedicated leased lines. This, however, involves different users sharing internet links to transport their data, and (4) Directors of business organizations are increasingly required to provide effective information security. For an organization to achieve the level of security that is appropriate and at a cost that is acceptable, it must carry out a detailed risk assessment to determine the nature and extent of existing and potential threats. Countermeasures to the perceived threats must balance the degree of security to be achieved with their acceptability to system users and the value of the data systems to be protected. Through the Security Assessment and Risk Mitigation program, your organization receives access to Professional Services IP security experts who perform a router security assessment of your network. These consultants analyze network design and configuration for security exposures, and propose solutions appropriate for established security policies and procedures. Ensure that system and network administrators are trained and capable. Security testing must be performed by capable and trained staff. Often, individuals recruited for this task are already involved in system administration. While system administration is an increasingly complex task, the numbers of trained system administrators generally has not kept pace with the increase in computing systems. Competent system administration may be the most important security measure an organization can employ, and organizations should ensure they possess a sufficient number with the required skill level to perform system administration and security testing correctly. The standard one-time password dictionary from RFC 1760 helps maintain backwards compatibility with the various deployed systems, however, support for hexadecimal format passwords will also be mandatory to implement. The standard might specify pass phrase quality checks for the secret pass phrase. The standard will be specified so as to eliminate any possible conflict with the Bellcore trademark on the term S/Key. Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances also provide (1) Adaptable architecture for rapid and customized security services deployment, (2) Advanced intrusion prevention services that defend against a broad range of threats, and (3) Highly secure remote access and unified communications to enhance mobility, collaboration, and productivity. The configuration files tend to be hundreds of pages long, and full of confidential information such as passwords, and addresses. The solution here is to ask network administrators to provide output of a script or single command after removing confidential information. This way, the auditor doesn't need to read through a long printout, and can focus only on important information. |
