Users fight back by breaking the boundaries
Paul G. Simmonds · Network Security · 2005
The corporate Intranet today is getting more like Swiss cheese - with countless ‘gaps’. Border firewalls governed by managed service contracts may not only be failing to secure the business, but could be inhibiting it. Today connections are made to numerous sources such as third-parties, partners, suppliers and support organisations, not to mention VPN connections to corporate mobile devices of different kinds. Worms, phishing attacks, viruses, Spyware and others get inside the organization with relative ease, via the essential corporate tools of email and Web. “The reality is that your border is functioning as a Quality of Service perimeter, but little more,” says Paul Simmonds, ICI's security chief. But what if there were no borders and companies could have direct business-to-business, server to server links with major partners, delivering true just-in-time working? What if vendors, suppliers and maintenance organizations could simply connect to that server they are supposed to be managing, rather than have to come on site? If you step back and look at your corporate Intranet, with its hardened perimeter, you will probably be in for a nasty shock. That once simple, secure boundary resembles a piece of Swiss cheese.