Ask the Expert

Security risks of firewalls and VPNs

What are the key security risks and considerations to adopt firewall/VPN technology?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

Some key security risks and standards that should be considered while adopting a firewall/VPN are:
  • Single point of failure
  • Loose security policies
  • support protection
  • Limitation of technology
  • False sense of security
  • Weak encryption
  • Latency risks
Risks are threats to your objectives. A proper risk analysis should be done before making any technology decision. A risk analysis should address:
  • What is at risk?
  • What is its value?
  • What are the threats?
  • What is the probability of occurrence?
Some firewall/VPN standards to consider:
  • Open architecture
  • Packet filteration
  • Default to denial
  • Auditing capabilities
  • Access control
  • Logging capabilities
  • Intrusion detection
  • Extended user authentication
  • Secured subnets
  • Strong encryption
  • Network management systems
  • Secure back-up
  • Stateful inspection
  • Real-time traffic monitoring & alerting system
  • Device management
  • Secure tunneling

This was first published in August 2005

Join the conversationComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.
    Back to top