Could your company's network be a target of an outside attack or internal abuse? Can you be confident in this new, uncertain world that your organization is insulated from coordinated or random assaults against American capitalism? Do your employees respect the boundaries of your guidelines for Internet usage? Are you confident that they are not surfing the web for their own pleasure, bogging down your systems and perhaps leaving your company vulnerable to malicious web site operators?

September 11 has taught us that we can take nothing for granted, and that we cannot assume security. Reason is not the master of those who wish us harm, and no one knows what new ideas nefarious individuals will act upon next. What we can do, however, is prepare ourselves to the best of our abilities, rather than sit exposed and vulnerable.

External Threats
In a foretelling article published in the May/June 2001 issue of Foreign Affairs, author and CEO of United Press International James Adams predicted that America would soon be under attack. While Adams had no idea that airplanes and anthrax would be used against the United States, he cited cyberspace as a new international battlefield on which America is at great risk. “The information warfare being waged today involves computer sabotage by hackers acting on behalf of private interests or governments,” Smith pointed out. Attacking America through its technological vulnerabilities, Adams continues, is part of what the Pentagon has termed “asymmetrical warfare.”

Adams' article raises questions of Internet security in both the public and the private sectors. Recent experience validates those concerns. By attacking the World Trade Center, the terrorists hoped to beat down the financial bloodline of America. It is not inconceivable that, at the very least, terrorist cells, could try to cripple the American economy by unleashing coordinated attacks of virus proliferation and electronic sabotage upon the computer systems of American companies, both large and small. Securing your organization's networks could divert such attacks away from your business; having insufficient or no protection is an open invitation for disaster.

Internal Concerns
As commerce becomes increasingly mobile and globally connected, many companies are growing more reliant on the Internet for internal and external usage. Employees, partners, vendors and suppliers might connect to an organization's networks, while inside workers might be equipped with Internet capabilities at their desktops. For every Internet connection, there is an added layer of concern. More than ever, companies need to put systems into place that will secure the Internet between the home office and mobile employees or other associates as well as monitor the electronic activities of those on the inside.

Security Solutions via Firewalls and Virtual Private Networks
There is protection for those who need to secure their networks. Firewalls and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) help keep intruders out of your networks, while granting appropriate personnel access.

Firewalls are systems that allow security managers to enforce access and security policies between an organization's corporate network and outside users, and of course, abusers. In a nutshell, firewalls are the first and most important layer of enterprise network security that allow security managers to set the rules of who can and cannot gain entry to the company's internal resources, and the degree of privilege each user has in accessing the network.

VPNs act as a tunnel between sites and an organization's network. By providing data encryption and other security technologies, VPNs connect necessary remote sites and remote personnel to corporate information and system resources securely via the Internet. By encrypting the tunnel of information, your employees, vendors, suppliers or satellite locations will be able to safely access your network.

The Benefits of VPN
While security is crucial, VPNs offer other benefits as well. Need to connect from your office to another location? Rather than pay the enormous fees involved in connecting a through a private leased line say, from Philadelphia to South Jersey, why not do so through the Internet? For a fraction of the price, leveraging an existing or new Internet connection, a VPN can connect you with your associates, whether across the Delaware River or over the Atlantic Ocean. As the Internet matures, VPNs will become a major vehicle in transporting voice data for pennies on the phone bill dollar.

The Hacker Tracker
Having security in place is essential, but finding out if your systems are under attack is critical. Installing an intrusion detection system will help you determine if a malicious party is attempting to penetrate or had penetrated your network. By monitoring all traffic entering and leaving your network, an intrusion detection system detects known traffic patterns and takes corrective action. Some of these actions include the capabilities to actually dynamically rewrite rules in the firewall rules base to block and frustrate the attacker, fend off an attacker in realtime, record every keystroke of the attacker and alert your systems administrators by email or even by pager.

Robust Virus Protection
Never before in the history of technology has virus protection been so crucial. Terrorists are fully aware that if they can infect American computer systems, they can severely damage the U.S. economy. September 11 and beyond has proved that these madmen will stop at nothing. Part of American Homeland Security is defending our technological infrastructure. Protecting our networks from viruses is a key part in this defense.

By installing a Gateway Virus Protection system, your firewall can redirect file downloads and email attachments to an anti-virus server to detect any suspicious code. Unlike traditional host-based virus protection software, which scans the files that are already on the network, this solution prevents viruses from entering your internal network at the gateway. Although Gateway Virus Protection is not a replacement for traditional virus protection, it is the perfect supplement in providing optimal protection for your networks.

Employee Monitoring
Concerned about employee misusage of the Internet? You ought to be. The World Wide Web offers many distractions from sports scores to sexy swimsuits and more. These forms of electronic entertainment are costing American businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and loss of productivity as employees neglect their duties for want of amusement. Internet misuse can result in bogging down servers through large audio or video downloads, invite viruses from malicious web page operators, and of course, compromise the overall security of your networks. Moreover, offensive material displayed on an employee's monitor could result in an embarrassing and costly lawsuit.

There are a variety of solutions to help you maintain employee integrity where the Internet is concerned. Through bandwidth management, you can control the amount of information employees can download, making it impossible for them to acquire music or video files. You can also set limits and restrictions on each employee's or department's Internet capabilities.

Prefer to catch them in the act? CompuData offers solutions that will track employee Internet usage to include detailed reports such as top ten web pages visited.

Is Your Network Safe?
Let CompuData put your networks to the test. Through penetration/intrusion testing, CompuData can remotely scan your networks and test for vulnerabilities. If your network has holes, we'll find it. Let CompuData uncover your system's flaws before someone else does!

As the United States struggles with challenges that threaten Homeland and Internet security, each of us must do our part in protecting our resources. CompuData is committed to safeguarding the future of American businesses by securing organizations' networks from both internal and external attacks. CompuData offers a variety of solutions from leading vendors such as Check Point, NetScreen and Cisco.