TABLE OF CONTENTS Security vulnerabilities introduced by remote access
VPNs
OS VPN support
Are all your users physically located close to your network hardware (in the same building or on the same campus) all the time? Chances are, they re not. Many people work from home all or part of the week; many networks are designed for remote access by a variety of clients. Your salespeople in the field, personnel away from the office (for business or pleasure), users who pay you for network access all need to connect to your network and use it as if they were physically local to its resources.
Remote access of any kind whether it be through a dial-up connection or the Internet adds significant security problems. In this chapter we ll first look at how the various types of remote access present security problems. Then we ll discuss ways in which you can secure that access.
Whenever network traffic leaves your premises, it becomes much more vulnerable than it is on the local network because it presents opportunities for system crackers to intercept that traffic. The presence of remote access to your network also provides additional entry points for crackers to try.
Users establish remote access connections physically in one of two ways: They dial into the network using a modem or they connect over the Internet. Once connected, they can interact with the local network using remote control software, a browser interface, or remote control commands.
