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If you're concerned about Internet security then you are bound to have come across the terms VPN. A virtual private network (VPN) is a private data network that transmits data over the public telecommunication infrastructure.
Virtual private networks maintain privacy through the use of tunnelling protocols and security procedures. As enterprises move to replace their expensive dedicated Remote Access Services with VPN solutions. Emerging Virtual Private Network services offer customers a flexible way to interconnect Customer Premises Networks via high-speed links.
Many companies have facilities spread out across the country or around the world, and there is one thing that all of them need: A way to maintain fast, secure and reliable communications wherever their offices are.
Most of the value in VPNs lies in the potential for businesses to save money.
VPNs reduce costs by lessening the need for long-distance telephone charges for remote access and through offloading the support burden. VPN solutions will reduce infrastructure complexity and contribute to lower operation and maintenance costs.
The VPN has attracted the attention of many organizations looking to both expand their networking capabilities and reduce their costs.
A VPN utilizes a public network, such as the Internet, to transmit private data. The cost advantages of a virtual private network:
Decreases costs associated with traditional remote access solutions
Reduces infrastructure cost and complexity by leveraging a company's existing investment in the Internet
Eliminates access costs such as 800 numbers and long-distance charges White Paper
The key feature of a VPN, is to provide secure private network connections, built on top of publicly-accessible infrastructure, such as the Internet or the public telephone, it rely on its ability to use public networks like the Internet rather than rely on private leased lines, and to supply network connectivity over a possibly long physical distance. VPN is the best means to provide a good Quality of Service
A VPN supports at least three different modes of use:
* Remote access client connections
* LAN-to-LAN internetworking
* Controlled access within an intranet
VPN run on some kind of software and hardware whether it's a desktop computer, a Palm Pilot or some other commercial router. The most significant security threat in any VPN setup is the individual remote telecommuter making a VPN connection from home or an employee on the road with a laptop and the ability to connect to the corporate office via VPN. Even if a VPN securely transports IP packets across the Internet.
A VPN doesn't have to be across the Internet, it's just that there are so many perils in the Internet that it's an ideal medium to protect yourself and your company from dangerous intrusions. VPN is all about allowing some combination of computers and networks to communicate without a number of unpleasant security risks
VPN provider must support customers with the flexibility to choose their own control schemes and objectives customers can perform VP control operations according to their own requirements and control objectives. Cybergate provides product technology with Quality of Service, firewalls, anti-intrusion defences, and the ability to deploy multiple VPN tunnels between other products, 3rd parties, and workstations
The primary concern for VPNs will always be security. However, once VPN products are widely available, the focus will fall more and more on delivering quality of service and class of service over IP networks as part of a VPN. Security : how to assure the security of private data passing through a public channel. Most VPN solutions on the market today offer security for corporate communication needs.(A VPN isn't the answer to all security - you still risk that the computer or network at either end of a VPN could be compromised which means they must be protected by their own security which really just begins by such protections as a firewall technology). VPNs work hard to ensure their data remains secure, but even its security mechanisms can be breached. VPN typically employ some combination of encryption, digital certificates, strong user authentication and access control to provide security to the traffic they carry. They usually provide connectivity to many machines behind a gateway or firewall. Virtual private networks have generated their share of security concerns
VPNs offer considerable cost savings over traditional solutions. Find out how much you could save. VPNs cost considerably less than traditional leased line, Frame Relay or other services, because long-distance connections are replaced with local connections to an ISP's point of presence (POP), or local connections to a service provider or carrier network
Business well suited to the implementation of a VPN solution:
1. Business partner/supplier network
2. Branch office connection network
3. Remote access network
As an organization grows and more companies must be added to the network, the number of leased lines required increases dramatically VPNs that utilize the Internet avoid this problem by simply tapping into the geographically-distributed access already available
Secure, economical links with business partners and franchisees :
- Economical communications with remote offices
- Reduced costs for connecting to the growing number of telecommuters, mobile and remote workers
A VPN allows a private intranet to be securely extended across the Internet or other network service, facilitating secure e-commerce and extranet connections with business partners, suppliers and customers. VPNs can be found in the workplace but also in the home, where they allow employees to safely log into company networks. Telecommuters and those who travel often might find VPNs to be a more convenient way to stay "plugged in" to the corporate intranet
Your whole office can surf the World Wide Web, chat, do file transfers, and telecommute at the same time. VPN technology can also be used within an intranet to provide security or control access to sensitive information, systems or resources. "Tunnelling" is a technology that allows a network transport protocol to carry information for other protocols within its own packets, The packets are delivered unmodified to a remote device that has been set up to handle them.
VPN, promoted primarily by firewall and router vendors, initially stalled in the face of security and logistical incompatibilities. VPNs have also grown in popularity for their ability to support remote access service
Effective threat assessment and risk analysis enables companies to identify, prioritise and manage the security threats to their business information to avoid many problems, maximizing security and increasing the likelihood of achieving business objectives. Information Security Specialists will conduct an extensive review of your business to define, identify and isolate your company's sensitive information. They shall then identify and categorize the specific security threats to your sensitive information and the risks associated with those threats. They will then recommend simple and effective methods to mitigate or manage those threats.
Threat Assessment and Risk Analyses Services can help your business quantify the specific security threats to your company's information technology system and operations enabling you to minimize and manage it to an acceptable level and serve to determine appropriate budget allocations.
Security must be integrated throughout your system's design to be effective. Security architects can design, install and maintain security controls, which will enhance the security of your enterprise's.
We will install, verify and maintain with our unique total follow-up program, any or all of your desired architectural security features. All our solutions are threat driven and we only employ state-of-the-art and fully bench-tested products within their design. Flexibility is assured and all our solutions will be designed to counter the specific threat to your system, applicable to you budget and perform to your exact operational requirements.
If you use Internet for exchanging messages, files, music pieces etc, you have no guarantee of privacy. Somebody may be looking into your work or stealing your ideas. A competitor may be prying on business confidential matters. The only way to protect yourself is by making sure that only the addressee can obtain access to transmitted files - encryption is your best protection. Internet is a fantastic media for sending all kinds of information between parties - make sure it continues to work for you and not against you - that is why you need encryption.
Encryption is the process of scrambling information by applying a mathematical function in such a way that it is extremely difficult for anyone other than an intended recipient to retrieve the original information. Central to this process is a mathematical value, called a key, which is used by the function to scramble the information in a unique and complex way.
Cryptography is science that use the mathematics to encrypt and decrypt data. This science let you keep your files and documents safe even on insecure networks like the Internet. The cryptography can be weak and strong. The best is of course the strong one. Even when you use all the computers in the world and they're doing billion operations in second you'll just need BILLIONS of years to decrypt strong encryption.
Strong corporate and user security policies are a proven cost-effective method of ensuring the integrity of your business assets and information. Sound security practices significantly reduce the likelihood of incidents and safeguard your business reputation and mission.
Simple, sound and efficient security policies, standards and procedures are the first and most effective line of defence in securing your information technology infrastructure. They believes that good system security starts with the user. Unfortunately, the source of more than 70% of system security problems today is internal. Seven out of ten people prosecuted for computer crime are current or former employees of the company attacked.
Information Security Professionals will review your business operations and systems and write clear, concise and effective corporate and user security policies to ensure your business mission. Strong user policies detailing system access rights, privileges and responsibilities are a proven deterrent to corporate security problems and can also form the basis for prosecution in the event of a problem
Well-designed and strategically implemented technical security architectural countermeasures are essential to establishing and maintaining the security integrity of your company's information infrastructure. By implementing fundamental and effective control and accountability features, you will significantly minimise the security risk to your system
Your Web server uses essentially the same encryption process to secure communication links with users. After establishing a secure link, a special session key is used by both your Web server and the user's Web browser to both encrypt and decrypt information
When you have simple .txt file that you can read this is called "plain text". But when you use encryption and encrypt the file it will become unreadable by the time you don't enter the password. This text is called cipher text. The process of converting a cipher text into plain text is called decryption
Encryption scrambles your message, so that unauthorized users cannot read it
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