Network Security Solutions: Obstacles in IT transformation?
IT synonyms transformation and it is imperative that enterprises treat transformation as a continuous process. But, a significant obstacle to all of this transformation and differentiation is the absence of sufficiently capable network security solutions.
Growth in Network Traffic and Threats
One of the major changes impacting the effectiveness of network security solutions is the growing volume and sophistication of network traffic, which subsequently reduces operational efficiency. The rising speed of business is practically dictating an increased pace of development and deployment of new applications to support both back office and customer-facing processes.
In past, we were concerned about file level viruses and worms that have been overshadowed by an array of new contenders, which include spyware, spear phishing, key logging Trojans, root kits and targeted attacks. Even more troubling is the trend of threats migrating up the stack to take advantage of much harder to protect application-layer weaknesses.
Network Security Infrastructure
The challenges outlined reveal the minimum set of requirements for an appropriate network security solution for an enterprise’s most rigorous use cases. Specifically, a solution must fully address the following set of essential criteria.
Security: It must provide protection for not only at the network layer, but at the application layer and for individual elements of data as well. Firewall technology is simply not sufficient.
Scalability: System capacity must be readily scalable from relatively modest traffic rates of a few Gbps to an aggregate throughput of greater than 100 Gbps.
Latency: Solutions must be architect to minimize the amount they introduce and should also incorporate capabilities to prioritize the processing of designated, time-sensitive traffic streams.
Unified management: Administration of the solution’s various capabilities should not require the use of multiple management tools or consoles.
Reliability, adaptability and compatibility: The solution must fulfill the expectations and supports for a wide range of networking technologies such as NAT, address assignment, VLANs, and security zones.
Cost effectiveness: It should be designed to reduce infrastructure complexity and total cost of ownership relative to available alternatives.
Conventional Approaches
At present, various types of network security products used by most enterprises address the requirements identified above to some extent, but they typically have significant limitations as well.
Best-of-breed appliances: Here, security and other objectives can generally be achieved, but not without substantial cost.
Blade systems: As such, these systems deliver a measure of consolidation and reduced complexity but, they fail to address the need for lower latency.
Unified threat management (UTM) appliances: Numerous units will be needed to support many use cases, leading to increment in cost and complexity. Having a fixed form factor also limits the adaptability of such products.
Next-Generation Architecture
Now the enterprises requires a network security solution that architected to maximize attainment of the requirements, which are based on a combination of the traditional chassis and UTM approaches that would certainly be a logical foundation from which to build. Indeed, a very attractive option would be a chassis-based design that features interface flexibility, ideally in the form of modular cards/blades, a high speed, non-blocking switching fabric and redundant hardware components and support for high availability configurations.
The Benefits of a Next-Generation Network Security Solution
• Enhances responsiveness and competitiveness
• Lowers IT cost of ownership
• Facilitates current and future growth
• Reduces risk
• Helps achieve compliance
Conclusion
The bottom line is that a next-generation network security solution enables enterprise IT not only to support but accelerate the transformation, innovation and differentiation required to sustain growth of the business while still containing costs. New applications and the infrastructure that supports them can easily be scaled without the usual delays and capital expenditures required for new hardware installations.
In: Security · Tagged with: Obama, white
on February 14, 2006 at 4:47 pm
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It isn't a bad career. However The two classes you listed are not enough really. In addition, I'd take computer security classes and consider Novel, Microsoft and Cisco certification as well. Ideally, you should have a college degree in computer security.
on February 14, 2006 at 4:54 pm
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The package isn’t in the Ubuntu repository unfortunately..
on February 14, 2006 at 5:21 pm
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Btw, what’s the common use for this? I’m using arpspoofing techniques, but it’s frustrating, I’m trying to understand how it works better. I can forward packets from one IP to me, but how do you do a whole subnet?
on February 14, 2006 at 5:51 pm
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It's totally obvious when a "consultant " walks in and has no real experience in their field, and I personally won't hire a consultant that doesn't have a reference list of similar projects completed.
You really need some real-world experience first: get a job in the IT field, after five years you could probably wrangle your way into network security, get at least five years in network security, and then you'll be in a viable position to try this.
As an aside: if you're thinking about consulting but don't know if what you want to do is possible, how to do it, if you have a market, or who that market is… that should tell you something important.
on February 15, 2006 at 7:56 pm
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Probably the most widely-recognised security-related courses are given by the SANS institute (http://www.sans.org/). They are not for beginners, though: you'll need a solid grounding in network and operating system configuration and deployment.
Be prepared for disappointment if you try to get a job armed solely with qualifications. Experience is everything in this industry.
on February 16, 2006 at 10:42 am
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Small packets can slip through a firewall, where there are rules for sting comparisons.
i.e. you have a rule to block packets containing the string worm.exe
but the message is so split up/fragmented, worm is in one packet, .exe is in an other, therefore it doesen’t match the rule set and allowed by the firewall.