Introduction

Ask most networking professionals to create an analogy for routers and many would classify them as the traffic cops of your network infrastructure. This is because they guide and control the flow of network packets from source to destination. In our minds, we don t only think of routers as traffic cops because they are capable of so much more than simply directing traffic. We also think of routers as the sentinels patrolling and protecting your network s borders. Additionally, we think of them as the judges of your network because they can control the protocols used and thus define the laws of the land. To stretch this further, we often also consider them to be your ambassadors to the rest of the networking world by connecting your network to the Internet. As a matter of fact, in most organizations it wouldn t be difficult to think of core routers as the Presidents of the entire network, connected to everything and negotiating, facilitating communication, and keeping a watchful eye on the entire infrastructure. Routers have great capabilities, awesome strength, and are extremely important to your network. For these reasons, securing, maintaining, and properly configuring your network s routers is important to ensure that your network is as secure as it can be.

This chapter is designed to examine routing devices and their overall role in your network infrastructure. It is aimed at helping you understand why the security of your network s routers is one of the most important aspects in the overall security...